DETROIT, Ore. -- Our El Nino winter may spell summer trouble for some Northwest reservoirs.
Water levels are way down and some worry it could be too late for mother nature to catch up.
Detroit Lake, a hot-spot for summer tourism, is feeling the impacts of the unusually dry season. Which is why the pitter- patter of rain drops is music to Dane Loveberg's ears.
"I love it... this is what we need," said Loveberg. Loveberg is manager of Kane's Marina. "The marina needs water... it's everything we need to have a business," he said.
The concern right now is that the reservoir's water is low. The docks are grounded. The boat ramps are high and dry.
Every winter the US Army Corps of Engineers does lower the lake level for flood control. But Corps officials say the lake starts filling up in February and should be higher by now.
“Overall our system is about 28 % of full and that's significantly down from where we should be this time of year," said Matt Rabe, spokesman for the US Army Corps of Engineers.
According to Rabe, Detroit Lake is about 24 ft below normal. Officials say the unusually dry winter is to blame.
"Rainfall's only been about 75% of normal this year," said Rabe. The lake gets only about 10% of its water from snow-pack, the rest comes from rain.
For a town than depends on tourism on the lake, businesses are hoping this summer won’t be a repeat of 2001. "That was a bad year definitely," said Pamela Hills, owner of Lake Detroit Market. Also an El Nino year, the reservoir was 48 ft below normal, twice as low at it is now.
"It would be difficult to go through another year of no water," said Hills. But both the experts and the residents don’t see that happening again. "Every year there's a lot of rumors that fly... but we're fine up here... we see it come up every year," said Loveberg.
