Western Slope water managers are scrambling to soften the blow from the effects of one of the worst snow-drought years on record.
The Glenwood Springs-based Colorado River Water Conservation District staff is proposing a series of drought-mitigation actions to reduce impacts to water users within its 15-county region. According to a staff memo, the River District has several pools of water in Western Slope reservoirs – Wolford and Ruedi – that may help mitigate some of the worst consequences of the drought for its constituents. Staff is asking the board to impose rules around how that limited supply can be used.
This year now ranks among the worst in recorded history for snowpack and projected streamflows, creating uncertainty for those who depend on the Colorado River and its tributaries. Record-high temperatures in March fueled a month-early peak to snowpack and some experts believe rivers have already peaked for the year in some locations.
“At this point in the water year, there is no escaping the reality that we are facing one of driest – if not the driest – years on record,” the River District memo reads.
District staff is asking its board to freeze all new water marketing contracts, which are usually doled out first come, first served, while staff figures out the best use of the limited available water supply.
Staff also wants to direct those local water providers that would benefit from the River District’s supply to limit outdoor watering to once a week for lawns and ornamental applications; and to allow either a committee or the general manager of the River District to commit up to $450,000 for leasing water.
They are also asking the board to sign off on a system of prioritizing water use sectors: municipal and domestic needs over agriculture and industrial needs, and agricultural and industrial needs over in-channel uses of water, such as for recreation, the environment and endangered fish.
River District officials declined to comment on the proposed drought mitigation actions. The board is set to consider the actions at its regular quarterly meeting on April 21.
HUP won’t fill
A pool in Green Mountain Reservoir that many water users depend on will not fill this year, creating far-reaching impacts. Known as the Historic Users Pool, this 66,000-acre-foot block of water is reserved for those Western Slope entities that were using water before the Colorado-Big Thompson project came online in the 1940s and began diverting flows from the Colorado River’s headwaters to the Front Range.
According to U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials, the HUP may only store between 15,000 acre-feet and 50,000 acre-feet this year, depending on which modeling projection is used.
“There is a lot of variability that we’re seeing here,” said Marc Baldo, who works for Reclamation and helps manage the HUP. “Our minimum probable is showing some serious shortages in the basin.”
Baldo said the last time the HUP had a shortage – of 20,000 acre-feet – was in the drought year of 2002.
HUP water is released mainly to satisfy farmers and ranchers in the Grand Valley, whose group of senior water rights, which make up the Cameo call, are the commanding force on the river. When Cameo places a call for its water, it can force junior users all the way up to the headwaters to shut off.
The HUP also protects other water users, known as HUP beneficiaries, because without the releases from Green Mountain, Cameo would place more frequent calls, forcing these users to cut back.
“[The HUP not filling] has very significant impacts to producers in the Grand Valley and may result in those entities placing a call on the HUP beneficiaries, which has never occurred in the history of the HUP and may cause widespread disruption to the agricultural and domestic water users who are used to relying upon the HUP for protection,” the River District memo reads.
A shortage of the HUP pool means the endangered fish program in the chronically water-starved section of the Colorado River near Grand Junction known as the 15-mile reach will also take shortages. It could also result in a reduced water supply for the Silt Water Conservancy District and others who hold contracts for water in Green Mountain Reservoir, according to the River District memo.
Luke Gingerich is an engineer with JUB Engineers and a consultant with the Grand Valley Water Users Association and Orchard Mesa Irrigation District. He said Grand Valley irrigators are still figuring out how a reduced HUP will affect them.
“Normally, the HUP water is kind of our mid-to-late-season supplemental supply,” he said. “And if we don’t have that this year, it makes operations very difficult. We are anticipating some operational decisions this year that we have not had to make before.”
The River District is exploring using water from Wolford Mountain Reservoir to make up for the HUP shortage, but that reservoir, on Muddy Creek upstream of Kremmling, is also not expected to fill this year. Reclamation officials say the spring runoff forecast for Ruedi Reservoir on the Fryingpan River is 25% of average and that it won’t fill this year.
“This is going to be a long year,” said Colorado River expert and former River District General Manager Eric Kuhn. “The irrigation demands started in March and it’s going to last through October. If the HUP is half full, there’s going to be some significant problems on the West Slope that we’re going to have to address.”
