Flows out of New Melones River into the Stanislaus River will start ramping up today until they almost triple to 1,375 cubic feet per second (cfs) by Saturday.
Currently the river flow at Ripon is 430 cfs or the equivalent volume of 430 basketballs passing a specific point in one second.
Meanwhile, South San Joaquin Irrigation District board Wednesday voted to extend the irrigation season until Oct. 20.
“Growers are encouraged to work with their division managers to schedule one final irrigation before the water season comes to an end,” SSJID General Manager Peter Rietkerk said. “This has been a very hot summer, and the board scheduled the end of season about a week later than in the past two years to assure that growers can get adequate moisture in the root zone before the end of the season.  This also promotes continued recharge of the local groundwater aquifer by extending the period of time that we deliver surface water to our service area.”
As SSJID is preparing to wrap up another irrigation season, Mother Nature was getting a head start on replenishing reservoirs for spring water deliveries.
Snow closed Sonora Pass (Highway 108) near the crest of the Stanislaus River watershed and Highway 120 over Tioga Pass in Yosemite National Park Tuesday evening. Both reopened Thursday afternoon.
Snow had already accumulated in spots above 10,000 feet from an earlier snow storm two weeks ago.
New Melones Reservoir as of Wednesday had 2.023,455 acre feet or water or 84 percent of its 2.4 million acre foot capacity. It is at 154 percent of normal for Oct. 5.
Inflows into New Melones as of Oct. 5 were exceeding outflows. Inflow was at 975 cfs and outflow was at 607 cfs. It will ramp up to 1,350 cfs shortly before midnight for the fall fish pulse flows, peak at 1,375 cfs Saturday drop down to 525 cfs on Oct. 21 and then start ramping back up to 1,300 cfs by Oct. 29. The flow will drop back down to 600 cfs by Nov. 4.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com