News article: Why the sandbar is so big

97031 · Since 22 May 2008 145 Posts Hood River Stoked **CGKA Member**

Doesn't exactly answer the question, but it's the best I could come up with on short notice. Printed in the March 24 Hood River News.

By ADAM LAPIERRE
News staff writer
If you have glanced at the Columbia River in the last couple of weeks, you may have noticed something different, and if you’ve seen the sandbar in the same time frame, you’d have to be half asleep not to notice the change.
A distinct white line on the rocks up and down the shore is a couple of feet above the current water level, and the sandbar is big enough at the moment that beachgoers can, for the first time ever, walk to it from the Event Site without getting wet.
In other words, the Columbia River looks unusually low right now.
The Reservoir Control Center is the agency in charge of regulating water and flow levels for the Bonneville Pool, which is the body of water between Bonneville and The Dalles dams. According to Steven Barton, Chief of the RCS, although the water level is slightly lower than normal right now, it is still within the normal operating range.
“At Bonneville Dam, the water level today is 72.9 feet,” Barton said on Thursday. “The normal operating range is 71.5 feet to 76.5 feet, so the level is on the low side of the range.”
Barton explained that, to aid construction work at The Dalles Dam, water levels were elevated for most of the winter, and to aid construction work in early April at Bonneville Dam, water levels will be lowered. He also explained that the drier-than-normal winter and the low snowpack will only have a minor affect on water levels in the Bonneville Pool.
“It’s safe to say that the elevation in the Bonneville Pool won’t change much from what you see under normal conditions,” Barton said. “Of course, higher discharge from local rivers translates to slightly higher water levels, but the elevation of the pool is ultimately controlled by the dams.
“If we end up conserving water, you could see levels this summer similar to what you see right now.”
Although several rivers — including the Windy River, the Little White Salmon, the White Salmon, the Klickitat and the Hood River, feed into the Bonneville Pool, lower-than-average flow levels in the spring will only have minor affects on the overall level of the pool, which should remain within the normal operating range throughout the year.
For early-season windsurfers and kiteboarders, the expected low flow of the Hood River and the White Salmon this spring will have a small affect on the area surrounding the sandbar because rivers flowing into the Columbia do have a local affect on water levels near their confluences.
After lowering the river about another foot in the first week of April, the RCS will raise levels again to aid in annual fish passage. After that, things will likely look a lot more normal until summer conditions determine what flow and water levels are necessary.