Colorado River in good shape this year

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By BOB BERWYN
summit daily news
May 8, 2008

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Long-term issues won’t go away after one wet winter, water expert say.

Summit County, CO Colorado
SUMMIT COUNTY — The Colorado River Basin is in good shape this year. Runoff will fill all reservoirs in the upper basin in the next few months.

Green Mountain Reservoir should fill by mid-July and hold steady through the summer recreation months, said the Bureau of Reclamation’s Ron Thomasson, outlining summer water operations during Wednesday’s state of the river meeting in Frisco.

Dillon Reservoir will also fill. In fact, Denver Water is facing a potential problem of very high inflows during peak runoff.

Combined, the Blue River, the Snake River and Tenmile Creek could pour as much as 3,000 cubic feet per second into the reservoir during peak runoff, although odds are the peak flows will stay a bit lower than that, at around 2,200 cfs, according to resource engineer Bob Steger.

Even at that rate, Denver Water will be challenged to maintain a balance between maintaining water for boating levels in Dillon Reservoir, meeting downstream demand and trying to limit flooding downstream of the reservoir, Steger said.

To make room for the runoff, Denver Water started dropping the level of the reservoir earlier than usual. The Roberts Tunnel, which diverts water from the West Slope to the South Platte drainage, was just turned on a few days ago, and Denver Water is currently letting about 500 cfs flow out of the reservoir and into the Lower Blue.

In any case, the plentiful runoff promises a good rafting and kayaking season downstream of the reservoir.

Conservation
Trying to address West Slope concerns about increase diversions to the Front Range, Denver Water’s Melissa Elliott described the utility’s aggressive conservation efforts, aimed at cutting total water use in the service area by 22 percent by 2016.

Right now, Denver Water customers use 211 gallons per person, per day. If Denver Water meets its goal, that number would drop to 165 gallons per person, per day, she said.

Denver Water board member George Beardsley said there are discussions about a wide-ranging effort to to fund protection for the Colorado River watershed by charging customers a fee that would help with forest health projects. The talks are at an early stage, and Beardsley said Denver Water would only consider the fees if other major water providers on the Front Range join in the effort.

Global look
Colorado River Water Conservation District manager Eric Kuhn took a global look at water issues by explaining how climate change could shift the water supply picture and set the stage for increasing conflicts about the resource. By some predictions, warming temperatures could increase precipitation in areas that already are wet, and exacerbate dry conditions in other parts of the world, he said.

A long-term drought in Australia is part of the reason for a current world-wide wheat shortage, explaining that Australian farmer, major suppliers of wheat, haven’t been able to deliver a harvest in recent years.

The West Coast city of Perth wants to cap per capita, per day use at 40 gallons, and is close to the target, Kuhn said, indirectly challenging all Colorado water users to be better stewards.

Elliot acknowledged the challenge and said that, once Denver Water eliminates waste — the easy savings — it will take mandatory measures like replacing appliances to save more water.

Questions?
Some audience members asked about overall state growth, and limits to Denver Water’s service area. Other citizens wanted to know how Colorado river water will be split between the upstream mountain states and headwaters, and southwestern desert, where the Colorado’s waters inevitably flow.

All good questions, the panelists replied.

“We can’t grow out, but we can grow up,” Elliot said.

Kuhn put the size of the Colorado River watershed iin context, comparing it to the mid-sized Mohawk River in New York, but explaining that a much larger and widespread area relies on the same-sized Colorado.

He said discussions about how much water the Colorado River system can actually deliver have intensified recently as potential demand from energy production becomes more of a reality.

The answer is unclear, but the growing demand for West Slope water means the resource has to be used more efficiently.

In response to a question from the audience, Kuhn said the idea of a Green Mountain to Dillon Reservoir pumpback is still being explored. In conjunction with a new reservoir somewhere else in the Upper Colorado Basin (Wolcott has been identified as the primary choice), a pipeline between the two reservoirs could make more water available to the West Slope, he said.

The annual State of the River meeting included a short tribute to water commissioner Scott Hummer, who couldn’t attend.

Hummer’s tireless efforts to promote water education included early backing of the State of the River conference, which has become a key forum for water managers, engineers and citizens each year.

The conference was co-sponsored by the Colorado River Watershed Conservation District and the Blue River Watershed Group.



http://www.crwcd.org/

http://www.blueriverwatershed.org/

Bob Berwyn can be reached at (970) 331-5996, or at bberwyn@summitdaily.com.