San Roque Dam to release water to Agno river 6 p.m. Monday

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan-–The San Roque Dam in San Manuel town in Pangasinan will start spilling water into the Agno River at 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19, an official of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) said.

Valeriano Barro, Napocor flood operations manager, said one of the dam’s six spillway gates will be opened at 0.5 meter high.

“This is just a preemptive release,” said Barro by telephone.

At noon Monday, the dam’s water elevation was 278.56 meters above sea level (masl), just 1.44 meters below its critical level of 280 masl. The dam has a maximum level of 290 masl.

Barro said water has been flowing into the dam at a rate of 970 cubic meters per second (cms). One cubic meter per second is equivalent to 1,000 liters or five drums of water.

Aside from runoff water from the Cordillera mountains, water flowing into the dam also comes from the Binga Dam in the river’s upstream.

On Monday noon, Binga had one spillway gate open at a meter high.

Water released by the San Roque Dam flows to the the Agno River’s downstream, which traverses 19 towns and cities before draining to the Lingayen Gulf.