The original dam at Mountain Lake was
built by
Robert Moran when he owned the surrounding land. In 1921 he donated the
land to the state for the purpose of creating a state park for all of
us to enjoy. The park is known today as Moran Park.
The ownership of the dam became an issue when improvements were needed in 1990. The end result was an agreement that the state of Washington would own the dam and fund the improvements. A utility license was recorded allowing the operation of the valves and cleaning of the intake by Olga Water Users and Doe Bay Water Users Association. This 40 year license agreement acknowledges the most senior water right, now owned by Rosario, and clearly states that nothing should interfere with their right, or enhance any one else's.
The parks maintain the stop logs to control the level of Mountain Lake. The idea is to keep the level of the lake a bit lower in the winter during the heavy rains, then raise the level of the spillway with stoplogs near the end of the rainy season. This way damage from erosion is reduced in the winter, storage for the dry season is maximized, and people and the wildlife get to enjoy the pristine water in Mountain Lake.
Here are the water levels of Mountain Lake from 1992 through 1995: Please note that the dam did not overflow during these 4 years, except in 1993.
We thank the employees at Moran State Park for providing this data as part of the Mountain Lake Management and Operations Agreement.
Click on the image for a larger view of the wide chart, or for one specific year: 1992 1993 1994 1995
Read the chart carefully, the horizontal lines are at 5" steps in the water level, the vertical lines vary, and are not months.
The 93/94 season shows the sustainable discharge rate without depleating the lake level would be aboug 500 acre ft/yr.
This was not a drought season. It would be very interesting have access to past 100 years of Olga rainfall data provided to NOAA by the Willis family.
Please review the calculations to derive this. The calculations are based on the raw data used to create the charts above,
which are included as links in the calculation sheet.
The last data point on this graph showing a 1.6 ft rise in 6 days does not look correct, the date was overwritten in the staff gage record.
Please let me know if there are any other records available! A new data logger has been installed at the dam as part of the watershed study,
and the state parks are also taking manual readings.
To estimate the rate the water level of Mountain Lake will drop for a given discharge rate load this Excel spread sheet (no macros)
Here is the past century's annual rainfall:
Click on the drawing for a larger image.
These images were scanned from pages in OWU's Mountain Lake Dam manual which contains the license agreement, the parks operating manual and several the water level information. Some day I would like to scan pictures of the old dam and the construction of the new dam.
The ownership of the dam became an issue when improvements were needed in 1990. The end result was an agreement that the state of Washington would own the dam and fund the improvements. A utility license was recorded allowing the operation of the valves and cleaning of the intake by Olga Water Users and Doe Bay Water Users Association. This 40 year license agreement acknowledges the most senior water right, now owned by Rosario, and clearly states that nothing should interfere with their right, or enhance any one else's.
The parks maintain the stop logs to control the level of Mountain Lake. The idea is to keep the level of the lake a bit lower in the winter during the heavy rains, then raise the level of the spillway with stoplogs near the end of the rainy season. This way damage from erosion is reduced in the winter, storage for the dry season is maximized, and people and the wildlife get to enjoy the pristine water in Mountain Lake.
Here are the water levels of Mountain Lake from 1992 through 1995: Please note that the dam did not overflow during these 4 years, except in 1993.
We thank the employees at Moran State Park for providing this data as part of the Mountain Lake Management and Operations Agreement.
Click on the image for a larger view of the wide chart, or for one specific year: 1992 1993 1994 1995
Read the chart carefully, the horizontal lines are at 5" steps in the water level, the vertical lines vary, and are not months.
The 93/94 season shows the sustainable discharge rate without depleating the lake level would be aboug 500 acre ft/yr.
This was not a drought season. It would be very interesting have access to past 100 years of Olga rainfall data provided to NOAA by the Willis family.
Please review the calculations to derive this. The calculations are based on the raw data used to create the charts above,
which are included as links in the calculation sheet.
The last data point on this graph showing a 1.6 ft rise in 6 days does not look correct, the date was overwritten in the staff gage record.
Please let me know if there are any other records available! A new data logger has been installed at the dam as part of the watershed study,
and the state parks are also taking manual readings.
To estimate the rate the water level of Mountain Lake will drop for a given discharge rate load this Excel spread sheet (no macros)
Here is the past century's annual rainfall:
Click on the drawing for a larger image.
These images were scanned from pages in OWU's Mountain Lake Dam manual which contains the license agreement, the parks operating manual and several the water level information. Some day I would like to scan pictures of the old dam and the construction of the new dam.