The Jalisco State Water Commission (CEA) wants the National Water Commision (Conagua) to force upstream dams in the Lerma-Chapala water basin to abide by signed accords and release water flow to Lake Chapala once they have reached their allotted limit.
The Laguna de Yiriria in Guanajuato has exceeded its limit of 188 million cubic meters (m3), but Conagua is allowing it to store up to 220 million m3 to feed downstream users later in the season. Two other upstream dams: Tepetitlan in Mexico State and Tepuxtepec in Michoacan are both at about 80 percent of their limit, but any water they may later send downstream will be captured by the huge Solis Dam in Guanajuato, which is only at 33 percent of its limit.
Most of the other six dams in that basin presently only average about 40 percent of their limit. Rains over the last week were sending some 33.3 m3 per second through the basin to Chapala. Another 14.3 m3 per second was entering the lake from the Rio Zula.As of Tuesday the lake hae risen 27 centimeters (cm), more than the 24 cm in all of last year’s wet season. But Conagua spokesman in Jalisco Eugenio Garcia Barajas says it is doubtful that the lake will recover the 1.45 meters of water lost last dry season before the rains stop in October. Last October the lake was at 65 percent of its capacity. So far this year it is at 50.9 percent (4.02 billion m3)— a difference of 1.11 meters.
While Guanajuato retains much of its water in the Solis Dam, a lot of that liquid comes from the municipalities of Salamanca, La Piedad and other cities on the Lerma River than do not treat their water (as is the case with Guadalajara presently), according to Fernando Cordova Canela, an expert at the Universidad de Guadalajara. He suggests that Lake Chapala is lucky not to have that water flowing into it.