Steady low reservoir releases increase downstream primary and aquatic invertebrate (bugs) production. These releases also reduce hydropeaking value, raise costs for hydropower customers, and reduce funds to maintain infrastructure and repay loans. This study quantifies the win-lose tradeoff between hydropeaking value and days per month of steady low releases at Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona. We estimate win-lose tradeoffs for monthly release volumes of 0.72 to 0.94 million acre-feet from March to October 2018 and 0 to 31 days. Conservative estimates indicate that steady low releases on eight weekend days per summer month in 2018 reduced monthly hydropeaking value by $0.7 to $1.1 million. We used results to design a financial instrument that gives ecosystem managers a budget to choose days of steady low releases and pay hydropower producers for lost value. One option to reduce costs is shifting days of steady low releases in July or August to spring/fall months. Next steps include discussing the proposed instrument with more U.S. Federal agencies, conducting more flow experiments, and monitoring how timing and more steady low flow days per month affect bug production. Managers may extend to other experimental releases that mobilize sediment, build sand bars, or disadvantage non-native fish.

his resource contains the following items:
+ README.md - Markdown file with documentation for this resource including directions to reproduce figures, tables, and results in the manuscript.

The README.md also describes the contents of the other folders Documents, EnergyPrices and SupportingData, Results_2014Pricing, Results_2024Pricing, Validation. These folders contain the data, models, and code.

Within the Documents folder, find the files with the latest versions of the manuscript, supplemental, and cover letter submitted to the Journal of Hydroinfomatics in July 2026.

+ Rind and Rosenberg_July2026_Revised.docx -- Word document with manuscript for the work.
+ Rind and Rosenberg_Supplementary_July2026_Revised.docx - Word document with supplemental for the work.
+ Rosenberg-BugsPayForSteadyFlows-AprilAMP.pptx - Power point presentation with overview of work presented at April 12/13, 2023 meeting of the Technical Work Group (TWG) of Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program (GCD-AMP).
+ KeyFeedbackFromTechnicalWorkGroup-April12-2023.docx - Key feedback from presentation to GCD-AMP Technical Work Group on April 12, 2023.