No, you’re not seeing things. Yes, there is water again in the PTMA and even in Unionville. Last Monday, the upper Farmington River, its reservoirs, and watershed in southern MA got deluged, with some areas receiving inches of rain. Now that the Colebrook Reservoir is at 100% capacity, the Army Corps of Engineers has instructed the MDC to dump water and reduce the level. That’s why the gauge looks like this:
While this is better than the paltry 60cfs MDC was releasing, it’s a perfect illustration of how poorly this resource is managed. Instead of dumping 340 extra cfs of water en masse, why couldn’t the flows have been set to 150cfs for weeks? Better yet, how about the historical median flow? You know what’s going to happen next: the flows will go back to a trickle, and we’ll have the Farmington Rock Garden River. Again. There is no word on when those flows will be cut, but it is surely coming. So get out and enjoy the water while you can.
I’m still waiting to get you some better information on how this will all shake out, and what can be done about it. There are forces at work for better stewardship of the river. Stay tuned.
currentseams.com 
Thanks Steve, MDC actions hard to explain.
Rob, hopefully we’ll have some answers later this month.
Thank you
Sent from my iPad
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You’re welcome, David. 🙂
Just moved to the Hudson Valley a couple months back and been hitting the Farmington every weekend since we moved. Love these updates, thank you Steve.
Just saw the flows went to over 1000cfs today, and combined with the Still River still way up from the rain, I bet the river is really rolling now. I was out yesterday in People’s Forest and since I don’t know the river that well yet, it was tough fishing/wading in higher water.
Hi Jason, welcome to the area and thanks for following. I give honest updates on all the water I fish, good or bad. The Farmington flow has been in a state of flux for a year now for various political and capitalistic issues. What’s happening right now is clearly directed by one of the dam stakeholders, the Army Corps of Engineers, directing the MDC to release surplus inflow and reservoir excess due to the recent heavy rains. The one upside is that at these heights, fish and wildlife have plenty of cool water to deal with the heatwave!