Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Low reservoir levels have caused the closure of the Wolf Run Marina effective Thursday and have also exposed launches at Forest Service recreation sites.

Allegheny Reservoir levels, currently four feet below normal, are bringing an early end to significant elements of the summer boating season.

Wolf Run Marina said in a Facebook post that the marina would close Thursday while federal officials with the Allegheny National Forest have said that some of their boat launches are fully exposed.

And that’s in spite of the fact that precipitation levels are not far from normal.

According to the National Weather Service, Warren County is just .1 inches of precipitation off by year-to-date averages.

However, the National Drought Mitigation Center identifies much of the southern part of Warren County as “abnormally dry.”

And data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the reservoir level via the Kinzua Dam, indicate the reservoir is below typical summer pool.

“The water level at the Kinzua Dam and Allegheny Reservoir is currently, 1,321.5 (feet above sea level) which is four feet below the normal 1,325.5 level,” Megan Gottlieb, the Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District water management unit lead explained.

“While the National Weather Service’s data doesn’t indicate we are far off from usual precipitation levels,” she added, “several other factors affect lake levels, such as runoff into a reservoir.”

Gottlieb explained that reservoirs require “an adequate amount of water continuously flowing into it to maintain normal lake levels.

“Even with thunderstorms,” she added, “rainfall absorbed into the ground does not always result as runoff into the reservoir. The inflow amount has been lower than the outflow amount at Kinzua Dam for the majority of the summer, resulting in a lower pool level.”

The reservoir also isn’t the Corps of Engineers first priority when it comes to allocating the water that is available.

Downstream municipal water systems and pollution abatement take precedent, according to a Kinzua Dam Facebook post. The outflow levels, according to the Corps, also protect mussels along the entire river.

“The reservoir’s discharge amount is set so we can maintain a downstream water level in Natrona,” Gottlieb said.

Natrona is located about 25 miles above Pittsburgh.

“If we receive a large amount of runoff into the reservoir, we will store that in order to return to summer pool to the best of our ability,” Gottlieb added, “but the reservoir is operated with the intent to maintain those water levels in Natrona.”