Releases Resume but Guadalupe’s Lazy
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Releases from Canyon Lake into the Guadalupe River quickly resumed to normal after U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed routine inspections on Thursday — but they’re still at a trickle for tubers.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson Clay Church said an extra day was needed to finish inspections of Canyon Dam and associated flood-control structural components. To perform the conduit and floodgate inspections, Guadalupe River flow was cut off at 8 a.m. on Wednesday.
Guadalupe’s at 1/6th Normal Rate
All’s well isn’t ending well for tubers, though.
According to Tubing the Guadalupe Facebook page, flows on the Guadalupe River may be back up to 53.4 cfs, but that’s still one-sixth of the long-term average flow for this time of year.
After the reduction in releases out of Canyon yesterday, the flows on the Guadalupe above New Braunfels are back up to 53.4 cfs — but that rate is 1/6 of the long term average flow for this time of year and is expected to remain the same over the weekend.
“If you go tubing on the Guadalupe there will be some places where you have to walk the tube,” the page warned. “Contact the Tube Haus, Mountain Breeze, KL Ranch, Lazy L&L, 2nd Crossing Camp, Rockin R, or Jerry’s to get information about whether you will have to walk and how long the float should take. Their contact info is on our website. Good luck, and don’t forget that the flows on the Comal and San Marcos are fine for tubing.”
Back to the Inspection…
Church said the conduits inspected are located near the outlet works tower, halfway down along the dam. Water from these conduits flows into a spilling basin area before moving downstream, into the Guadalupe River.
“Unfortunately, here we are in the middle of June, having to shut down the flows there,” he said. “But one day basically out of the year to do a good, thorough inspection is what’s going to happen tomorrow.”
Church says engineers physically walked into the conduits, wearing hard hats and armed with flashlights.
“They’ll do a pretty thorough inspection.”
USACE is responsible for the lake and water being discharged from the lake. GBRA is responsible for a separate conduit area by the powerhouse.
