Yuba-Feather FIRO Work Continues

YUBA-FEATHER FORECAST INFORMED RESERVOIR OPERATIONS (FIRO) WORK CONTINUES

Alan Haynes

Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations, known as FIRO, is a reservoir operations strategy that better informs decisions to retain or release water by integrating additional flexibility in operation policies and rules with enhanced monitoring and improved weather and water forecasts (American Meteorological Society; 2020). Efforts to integrate hydrologic forecasts into reservoir operations for the Yuba and Feather watersheds continue through a formal FIRO project. The Yuba-Feather FIRO Steering Committee is co-led by John Leahigh, Water Operations Executive Manager, CA State Water Project and John James, Director of Resource Planning, Yuba Water Agency. The Steering Committee also has members from the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the Center for Western Water and Weather Extremes (CW3E) and NOAA, including Alan Haynes, the Hydrologist in Charge at the California Nevada River Forecast Center. At a recent technical workshop in Sacramento, the group discussed findings from a Preliminary Viability Study (PVA), and brainstormed how to integrate climate change and improving forecast skill with time into the Final Viability Assessment (FVA), which is expected to be complete by the end of 2023. The FVA is being constructed in a way to support developing new Water Control Manuals (WCMs) for both Lake Oroville in the Feather watershed and New Bullards Bar in the Yuba watershed. The USACE is funded to develop these new WCMs, which will also factor in a second spillway at New Bullards Bar, known as the Atmospheric River Control Spillway. This spillway is expected to significantly reduce flood risk and enhance public safety for 100,000 residents in Yuba and Sutter counties by giving operators more flexibility in drawing down the reservoir ahead of large storms. The spillway construction is scheduled to start in 2024/2025 and cost $240 million with the implementation of FIRO also beginning in 2024/2025.

The Yuba and Feather River watersheds lie approximately 60 mi. north of Sacramento, CA.

The Yuba-Feather FIRO group meets for a one-day technical workshop in the fall of 2022.

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