While not as dry as other Western Slope reservoirs, the largest cup of water in the Montrose area, the Blue Mesa Reservoir, still has a lot of thirst.
Blue Mesa is about 345,000 acres and 42 percent full, based on May data that predicts the reservoir will be just over 50 percent full – “not very well,” as Bureau of Reclamation hydrologist Erik puts it Knight, put it.
“We’re lower than any point in 2020. In 2018, we ended up under 250,000 acres. We don’t plan on going that deep yet, but we’re going in that direction, that’s for sure, ”Knight said on Friday.
“The reservoir is pretty low. Runoff didn’t really shift into gear, although I think this is starting now, ”he added.
Although the Uncompahgre River is a bit livelier and swells with some snowmelt, drought continues to affect Montrose County and the west side of the state.
Conditions in the county range from extreme drought to exceptional periods of drought – the two worst levels, according to the US Drought Monitor.
So far, the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association, which looks after around 3,500 shareholders, has been able to fulfill its contracts to 70%. The association’s storage account at Taylor Park Reservoir, which along with Blue Mesa and other reservoirs is part of the BuRec-managed Aspinall Unit, is full, said Steve Anderson, manager of UVWUA. (Taylor itself is not expected to be 100% full, but UVWUA believes it will get the full amount it is entitled to from the reservoir.)
“I expect our account at Taylor to be replenished,” added Anderson. “We are currently storing secondary fill water in Taylor and I expect to end the season with a full reservoir in Taylor. It means a lot to us, but that’s 100,000 acres and we need 600,000 acres to get this project through. But that’s a good start. “
The storage account at Ridgway Reservoir is nearly full, Anderson also said – just over 300 acres of feet were used of 21,000 acres of association water.
“We are in good shape there. The streams have finally started running. The Uncompahgre in Ridgway is also up and running, so that’s a good thing. We’re in pretty good shape considering this is the second year of the drought we’ve been in, ”said Anderson.
But, he added, that’s not the case everywhere: “We don’t have to look very far to find people in worse shape.”
The water picture for the Grand Mesa and North Fork is worse than for Montrose, he said, and also pointed south to the Dolores River.
The McPhee Reservoir that feeds the river is well below par, and the Cortez Journal reported Wednesday that irrigation equipment with contracts for its water is expecting between 5% and 10% of their normal fulfillment.
“The Dolores is just awful,” said Anderson. Only one-sixth of the water normally supplied by McPhee comes to users, he said. “That’s pretty sad. We are fortunate that we are not in such dire straits. “
In the entire region, the Upper Colorado River Basin (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming), whose reservoir is Lake Powell, is in a heightened state of alarm.
Lake Mead is the warehouse for the states of California, Nevada and Arizona in the Lower Basin.
Under the 1922 Colorado River Compact, states have specific responsibilities and legal obligations in each basin to share river water.
As part of a drought contingency plan approved in 2019, Lower Basin states agreed to make certain cuts if Mead falls to certain levels. The upper basin agreed to an approach that draws water from the Blue Mesa, Navajo and Flaming Gorge reservoirs, among others, as dictated by drought conditions.
Powell’s levels are within a whisker or two and are too low to sustain hydropower production. If Powell falls below 3,490 feet, that’s the danger zone, Anderson said in January. Powell was due to end the water year at 3,543 feet on May 14, according to the Bureau of Reclamation, though the agency also noted “significant uncertainties” at the time.
“Lake Powell is cause for concern. We’re getting into the area where we’re not far from producing electricity, ”said Anderson on Friday.
Flaming Gorge currently has enough storage space to save Powell in a dire emergency as it could free 2 million acres of feet, Anderson said.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that, but if it does, we have one final method to improve it,” he said.
“Lake Powell is on its way to that magical number that worries us all,” said Marc Catlin Rep., Who sits on the Colorado River District board of directors. “It depends on how much water we let out. If we do what we’ve agreed we’ll be running out. It comes to the critical point. “
Under the contract, the upper basin is required to release 75 million acres on a 10-year moving average, equivalent to 7.5 million acres per year. The upper basin has cleared about 9 million acres of feet, Catlin said.
“We’re using this reservoir (Powell) as an insurance policy and it looks like it’s quickly approaching that number that we’re going to have problems with. It won’t initiate a call, but it will bring into play all the precautions we have taken, ”he said.
Back home, the Aspinall unit also has drought contingency plans that are deployed as needed to maintain base flows and meet regulatory decision-making requirements.
In dry years, the flow targets are dropped, which helps keep Blue Mesa and the other reservoirs in the unit from running dry, Knight said.
“You’d have to have a really dry year again next year, something even worse than this year, to get close to a problem,” he said. “It will only be a low reservoir that everyone will see.”
Downstream flows are also low, but there is still enough for at least some degree of recovery and things are not expected to run completely dry, Knight said as well.
That the Aspinall unit reservoirs are holding on doesn’t mean there aren’t local concerns, and it doesn’t mean the situation can’t change.
Anderson said a good season for the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association depends on a good season in draining the Uncompahgre River.
“We are close to the Uncompahgre this year. It’s about three quarters of the median, ”he said.
While there is a chance that contract performance may need to be cut again from 70%, Anderson believes the UVWUA can stay at 70% – although there can be no guarantees.
Katharhynn Heidelberg is the assistant editor and senior writer for the Montrose Daily Press. Follow her on Twitter, @kathMDP.
Katharhynn Heidelberg is the assistant editor and senior writer for the Montrose Daily Press. Follow her on Twitter, @kathMDP.
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