Water Update

Water Update

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By John Orr

MINUTE 323

Several tributaries of the Colorado River get their start in the crags of the Central Colorado mountains. Storied rivers: Blue, Eagle, Roaring Fork and the powerhouse Gunnison. They’ve all faced the footstep of humankind. The mines dotting the slopes, hay fields, ranching, orchards and cornfields bear witness and are now part of the allure of the high country. Folks cast a line, shoot rapids and enjoy the scenery of those waterways.

On September 27, 2017, the International Boundary and Water Commission, United States and Mexico inked Minute 323, the amendment to the 1944 United States-Mexico Treaty for Utilization of Water covering operations on the Colorado, Rio Grande and Tijuana rivers. (The Rio Grande is another of Central Colorado’s contributions to the Western U.S. economy.)

An important part of Minute 323 are environmental flows for the Colorado River Delta. Most everyone knows the river doesn’t reach the sea any longer. Environmental streamflow was initiated under Minute 319 signed by then Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar.

In March 2016 a diverse group of conservationists, biologists, irrigators and government officials effected a release of 100,000 acre-feet of water from Morelos Dam into the dry Colorado River Delta. There was a line of vehicles racing point to point along the river to witness the river’s front. At San Luis Rio Colorado, most of the residents went down to the river to celebrate the return of the river although many had no memory of running water in the sandy channel.

There was a great deal of success from channeling some of the streamflow to restoration sites in the Delta. Within weeks, new growth sprouted – cottonwoods and willows. Much of the diverted water served to replenish groundwater supplies. Wildlife immediately started using the habitat.

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Water Update

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by John Orr Preston Frank Kaess Moves on to Greener Pastures Mr. Kaess passed on Nov. 6, 2013 in La Junta. Born in Rocky Ford, Kaess never ranged far from the Arkansas River and its tributaries, and in particular, Salida, where he graduated from high school in 1948 and married his wife, Patricia, in 1950. …

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Water Update

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Snowpack and Drought

“Spring is an incredibly important time of year for Colorado’s water supplies,” observed State Climatologist Nolan Doesken in a March 18 press release from Colorado State University. He was commenting on the dryness of the soil and forests across Colorado while watching the smoke from a rare wintertime forest fire west of Fort Collins. He also expressed hope that early March moisture was the harbinger of a wet spring.

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Water Update

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by John Orr 

Drought and Trout

Back in May, Front Range cities were falling all over themselves telling their customers that there would be no watering restrictions over the summer turf season, despite the fact that a meager snowpack – rivaling the drought year of 2002 – was melting out weeks early.

When the Upper Colorado River, South Platte and Arkansas River basins dried up and melted out during May, Stage 1 restrictions – usually voluntary – suddenly became the name of the game up and down the populated side of Colorado. But with record high temperatures consumption was through the roof, as much as 20% above 2011 for the year in some of the cities around Denver. Mandatory water restrictions are now on the horizon in areas worried about the Water Year 2013 snowpack.

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Water Update

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by John Orr

The National Ski Areas Association Sues the Forest Service

Colorado Supreme Court Justice Greg Hobbs was speaking over in Breckenridge a couple of years back and told the group in attendance that “the water ditch is the basis of society.” Colorado law grew from those simple agricultural roots: put the water to beneficial use first and you get the right to divert the same amount in subsequent water years. Another early beneficial use developed around mining operations.

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Water Update

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 by John Orr

Colorado River Basin: Colorado College State of the Rockies Project

“For some reason we’re starting this in October,” quips Will Stauffer-Norris, standing in cold weather gear and snowshoes, down valley from the headwaters of the Green River. He made the statement in the first video chronicling his journey – along with fellow traveler Zak Podmore – from Source to Sea. They’re heading down the Green River to the confluence with the Colorado River and then down the Colorado to the delta, where the river used to meet to the Pacific Ocean, as recently as the 1990s.

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Water Update

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 by John Orr

Summitville Clean Up

It’s been nearly 20 years since the Environmental Protection Agency started cleanup efforts at the Summitville Mine. Runoff from the former open pit gold mine and its cyanide leach field was blamed for killing all aquatic life in the Alamosa River.

In early September the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment held a dedication ceremony for a new water treatment plant at the site. CPDHE executive director Chris Urbina told those assembled, “This project provided more than a 100 construction jobs in this area, and significantly improved water quality, restoring fish and aquatic life to the Alamosa River and Terrace Reservoir,” according to The Pueblo Chieftain.

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Water Update

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 by John Orr

New hydroelectric generation plant online near Creede

Humphreys family member Ruth Brown flipped the switch on the family’s new $1.3 million 310 kilowatt hydroelectric generation station on July 15. The new plant utilizes an existing 90 foot tall concrete arch dam and reservoir that Brown’s great grandfather built in 1923 below the confluence of Goose and Roaring Fork creeks for recreation and power for the ranch. The new plant should generate enough power for over 200 homes.

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Water Update

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by John Orr

La Niña, snowpack and runoff

The picture can change quickly when you’re watching the Colorado snowpack. On March 26 snowpack as a percent of average was declining in the Arkansas basin and San Luis Valley but by the end April things had improved considerably.

The winter was dominated by La Niña. Cool water in the eastern Pacific Ocean off South America often sets up very wet conditions in the northern Rockies and a drying out across the southern Rockies. That’s pretty much what happened this year.

Up until the gangbuster snowmakers of April the eastern San Juans, Sangre de Cristos and Wet Mountains all had below average snowpack.

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Water Update by John Orr

Denzel Goodwin

The Upper Arkansas Valley said goodbye to cowboy, rancher and visionary Denzel Goodwin in February just before his 87th birthday. Goodwin (along with attorney Ken Baker) led the petition drive in the late 1970s that established the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District. Goodwin led the organization for 25 years and also served on the board of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District for 16 years. He helped found the Fremont County Water Users association in 1956. He also served as a Fremont County commissioner and on the Cotopaxi school and fire district boards.

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Water Update

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by John Orr

Coloradans elect John Hickenlooper

What fun it was watching the election season last year. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper won the chance to deal with Colorado’s fiscal vise grip – TABOR, Amendment 23 and the Gallagher Amendment. The three constitutional amendments essentially tie the hands of the legislature and governor when they try to deal with funding allocation.

TABOR – the Taxpayer Bill of Rights – mandates that all tax increases be approved by the voters, which of course seldom happens. It also limits the growth in the distribution of revenues to a fixed percentage each year with the mandate that excess revenues be returned to taxpayers.

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Water Update

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by John Orr

Forecasting water year 2011

November 1 is the usual start of the water year here in Colorado, although some – including the the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – say it starts on October 1. That said, by the time December rolls around the new water year has started, irrigation is mostly off, except for livestock and some farmers that like to ice their meadows heading into the winter.

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Water Update

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by John Orr

Runoff

Most of Colorado’s water users – municipal, agricultural, recreational and industrial – depend on annual snowmelt for their supplies. So it’s no wonder that many across Colorado watch the snowpack closely through the beginning of the water year and then anxiously anticipate the runoff. Will it come off too fast to be stored or will there be enough to fill? Will there be flooding? Will the holes and rapids along the whitewater sections be navigable?

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Water Update

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by John Orr

Taylor River rafting rift comes full circle

The epic saga, termed “row vs. wade” by some opponents, ended up with a deal for this season between Wilder on the Taylor fishing reserve owners Jackson-Shaw and the owners of the two rafting operations, Three Rivers Outfitting and Scenic River Tours.

Hours of operation will be limited for the outfitters, generally during the middle of the day. A portage will be allowed around a bridge on the fishing reserve as a nod to safety during high water. The outfitters promise to police their operations strictly so as not to jeopardize their permits from the U.S. Forest Service or the agreement with Jackson-Shaw.

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Water Update – October 2009

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by John Orr

It’s been a good water year so far

Streamflow in the Arkansas River kept most everyone happy this summer. The runoff came early and high flows were bolstered by a cool and wet beginning to the season and plenty of transmountain water. The above average boating season lasted well into August.

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Water Update – August 2009

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by John Orr

Nestlé Waters Chaffee County Project

As we go to press the Chaffee County Commissioners have yet to issue or deny Nestlé Waters a permit to build their pipeline, pumphouse and loading facilities to truck water from the Hagen Spring out of basin to Denver. The company bottles spring water under the brand name Arrowhead and has a facility for doing so down in the flatlands. The plan is to run tanker trucks over Trout Creek Pass, across South Park, over Kenosha Pass down U.S. 285 to the Denver Metro area.

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Water Update – June 2009

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by John Orr

Gunnison River flow regime through Black Canyon

Last year, conservationists, irrigators, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, the state of Colorado, along with many other groups and municipalities, sat down and hammered out an agreement to manage flows in the Gunnison River through the Black Canyon. The agreement was the outcome of a 2006 lawsuit by environmental groups to overturn a 2003 back room deal between the Department of Interior and the state of Colorado. The original deal called for minimum flows in the national park of 300 cfs with no consideration for larger flows or shoulder flows to help maintain riparian health or for restoration. As a result of the lawsuit federal Judge Clarence Brimmer threw out the agreement terming it, “nonsensical.”

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