The Big Thompson River by our house has been running 3 to 4 feet higher than normal since August 1. I found a website for white water enthusiasts - kayakers and rafters - called Mountain Buzz where they monitor the river levels. It was there that I found our river is controlled by the Bureau of Reclamation as part of an intricate system of tunnels, canals, and reservoirs with small hydroelectric plants scattered around the area.

The electricity is a nice sideline because the main use of the water is to irrigate farms on the plains. It is stored in reservoirs, then carried to the fields by ditches. What the crops don't take up flows back into the rivers and is carried eastward toward the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico.

The current high water is because one of the power plants 'went trippy' and they took it off line. They expected to have it back online yesterday, but now are saying tonight at midnight tonight it will started again and our river level will go down overnight. One of the kayakers on the blog asked whether it could be arranged for the power plant to go trippy one weekend a month in the fall.

Normal:



Today: