Can deployment of the Collison Floating Evaporation Pan (CFEP) to monitor evaporation loss rates from Reclamation reservoirs improve our understanding of the available water supplies in Reclamation projects? Lake Powell evaporates around 500,000 acre-feet of water annually, based on research conducted in the early 1980’s using a mass-transfer analyses and comparisons to Class A evaporation plans. The results of these older studies were used to establish coefficients that are still in use today and are in need of validation and/or refinement. This study aims to provide Reclamation a tool that can be used to refine pan coefficients and/or an alternative method for estimating reservoir evaporation rates.
