Visitors will get another chance to see abundant water flowing over Shoshone Falls starting this week as water released from upstream reservoirs makes its way down the Snake River.

Flows over the falls on Monday were around 300 cubic feet per second (cfs). By Wednesday afternoon, they should be up to 2,300 cfs and remain around that level for the next 30 days or so. That’s less than what visitors saw during the spring —when flows topped 10,000 cfs — but enough for a spectacular display.

The additional water is from flow augmentation, which occurs annually when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation sends water stored in reservoirs on the Upper Snake downstream to help young salmon and steelhead migrate through the lower Snake and Columbia rivers to the Pacific Ocean.

The additional federal water for flow augmentation reached Milner Dam east of Twin Falls Tuesday morning and will increase on Wednesday to the targeted volume.

Some water is used for hydroelectric generation at Idaho Power’s Shoshone Falls Power Plant, which has a capacity of 14,729 kilowatts – enough to power more than 11,000 homes. (Idaho Power does not control the timing or the amount of federal flow augmentation releases.)

Brad Bowlin
Communications Specialist
bbowlin@idahopower.com
208-388-2803