Red Mountain Ditch irrigates about 380 acres of grass pasture on Red Mountain and in the exclusive Starwood neighborhood with Hunter Creek water rights that date to 1889.
Category: Water
Reporting on water and rivers in the Roaring Fork and upper Colorado river basins.
Opinions differ on timeline as Crystal River Wild & Scenic efforts move ahead
Since the Crystal flows through Gunnison County and the town of Marble, advocates say getting those residents and elected representatives on board will be key to moving the effort forward.
Crystal River rancher, Water Trust again try to boost flows
The goal of the program is to use voluntary, market-based approaches to encourage agricultural water users — who often own the biggest and most senior water rights — to put water back into Colorado’s rivers during critical times.
Recent drop in Lake Powell’s storage shows how much space sediment is taking up
Updated Bureau of Reclamation data downgraded the reservoir’s volume of water stored by 443,000 acre-feet, based on a recent sedimentation study.
State officials looking for engagement on updated water plan
The plan says Colorado will continue the slow but steady transformation of moving water from agriculture — by far the largest water user — to cities, with nearly 14,000 acres of irrigated land expected to be urbanized, one-third of that in the Grand Valley.
Race is on for Colorado River basin states to conserve before feds take action
The actions taken in the 2022 Drought Response Operations Plan will add about 1 million acre-feet, or 16 feet of elevation, to Lake Powell. But these actions are not enough.
Declining levels at Lake Powell increase risk to humpback chub downstream
The problem from which all others stem, including the changing fish communities, and the reason Powell is so low in the first place is the climate-change-driven supply-demand imbalance, Schmidt said.
Early peak runoff for Western Slope rivers
For several locations — the Roaring Fork at Glenwood, the Crystal, the San Miguel and the Colorado at Cameo — the peak came so early that it was outside the window of what’s considered normal.
Pitkin County agrees to fund ditch piping project
But to complete the final 3,600 feet, the ditch company is turning to public sources of money because they say the project will have the public benefit of keeping between 0.5 and 1 additional cubic feet per second of water in Hunter Creek.
Marble quarry must build bridge, culvert and improve stream for Clean Water Act violation
The mining company said the Army Corps required them to choose compensatory mitigation that was “in-kind” to the impacts on Yule Creek and as close as possible to the affected area.