Monitoring Reports

During periods of drought, the Cooperative Water Supply Operations on the Potomac (CO-OP) helps manage the Washington metropolitan area water supply system by coordinating withdrawals from the Potomac River and off-river reservoirs and recommending releases from upstream reservoirs when forecasted flow in the river is not sufficient to meet expected needs. These needs include water demands and an environmental flow-by of 100 million gallons per day (MGD) on the Potomac River at Little Falls dam near Washington, D.C.

2022 WMA Drought Exercise-Day 3: Morning Potomac flow and demand update (Thursday, 2022-11-17)

Submitted by hmoltz on Thu, 11/17/2022 - 14:38

This is the final day of the three-day 2022 WMA Drought Exercise. Simulated Potomac River flows at Little Falls have fallen to 104 MGD. Forecasts for today indicate that SIMULATED flows are expected to rise. We requested a SIMULATED Jennings Randolph water supply release this morning of approximately 30 MGD with a Luke target of 297 cfs. Little Seneca continues to make a SIMULATED water supply release to augment flows at Little Falls.

2022 WMA Drought Exercise-Day 2: Afternoon Potomac flow and demand update (Wednesday, 2022-11-16)

Submitted by snummer on Wed, 11/16/2022 - 18:19

No additional operational changes are requested for this afternoon. SIMULATED flows at Little Falls are staying above 150 MGD. 

During yesterday’s practice call, the DCTC recommended entering the SIMULATED Drought Warning Stage of the MWCOG Drought Awareness Response Plan. This discussion occurred because the SIMULATED combined water supply storage in Jennings Randolph and Little Seneca fell below 60%.

Best regards, 
ICPRB CO-OP Drought Team

2022 WMA Drought Exercise-Day 2: Morning Potomac flow and demand update (Wednesday, 2022-11-16)

Submitted by snummer on Wed, 11/16/2022 - 14:18

Welcome to Day 2 of the 2022 WMA Drought Exercise. Simulated Potomac River flows are continuing to fall. We have asked WSSC Water to make a simulated reduction of their Potomac River withdrawals by 7 MGD to help maintain the Little Falls flow-by today. In addition, we have requested a simulated 141-MGD Little Seneca Reservoir release to help maintain the flow-by tomorrow. We estimate that 40 cfs of flow at Point of Rocks yesterday is due to a simulated past water supply release from Jennings Randolph Reservoir as noted in the simulated Loudoun Water drought operations protocol below. 

2022 WMA Drought Exercise - Day 1: Afternoon Potomac flow and demand update (Tuesday, 2022-11-15)

Submitted by admin1 on Tue, 11/15/2022 - 18:24

Following this morning's operations request by ICPRB CO-OP, WSSC Water initiated a SIMULATED water supply release from the Little Seneca Reservoir at 9:30 AM. This reservoir is located in the Black Hill Regional Park. 

In talking with Fairfax Water distribution staff this morning, we learned that the maximum possible SIMULATED load shift today from the Potomac to the Occoquan is 5 MGD due to ACTUAL installation work at the Griffith plant. 

2022 WMA Drought Exercise - Day 1: Morning Potomac flow and demand update (Tuesday, 2022-11-15)

Submitted by admin1 on Tue, 11/15/2022 - 14:26

Welcome to the first day of the 2022 WMA Drought Exercise. The simulation day is Thursday, August 25, 2022, and the basin conditions have reached the threshold of the "Warning" stage of the MWCOG drought regional plan. An actual practice Drought Coordination Technical Committee (DCTC) MS Teams meeting is scheduled for today (Tuesday, November 15, 2022) from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM, in response to simulated combined storage in Jennings Randolph and Little Seneca reservoirs dropping to 9.9 billion gallons (BG), or 60 percent of the combined capacity.

DISCONTINUATION of Daily Potomac flow and demand updates (Friday, 2022-11-11)

Submitted by admin1 on Fri, 11/11/2022 - 14:10

Today we are ending daily flow and demand updates due to the arrival of rainfall from tropical storm Nicole. According to the Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center, an inch of rain has already fallen in the southern portion of the basin with more on the way, and 1 to 2 inches are expected throughout the basin upstream of the Little Falls gage over the next 24 hours.

Daily Potomac flow and demand update (Wednesday, 2022-11-09)

Submitted by admin1 on Wed, 11/09/2022 - 13:58

Potomac River flow has remained relatively steady over the past week. According to National Weather Service forecasts, we can expect about 2 inches of rain during the next three days, mainly on Friday, as the remnants of tropical storm Nicole pass over the basin.

Recent basin-wide average precipitation (above Little Falls):
(based on CO-OP's Low Flow Forecast System analysis of Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center (MARFC) gridded multisensor precipitation estimates)

Daily Potomac flow and demand update (Tuesday, 2022-11-08)

Submitted by admin1 on Tue, 11/08/2022 - 13:08

There was no precipitation in the Potomac basin yesterday and none is forecast for the next three days. However, it looks like relief is on the way - there is a good chance of heavy rain late this week from subtropical storm Nicole.

Recent basin-wide average precipitation (above Little Falls):
(based on CO-OP's Low Flow Forecast System analysis of Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center (MARFC) gridded multisensor precipitation estimates)