MONTROSE -There was good news and a little bit of bad news for areas water users this week.
The snowy winter that has piled white stuff onto area mountain ranges will fill local rivers and reservoirs to their highest levels since drought hit the area in 1999.
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As of yesterday, the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service measured snow-water equivalent in the Gunnison basin at 138 percent and total precipitation at 105 percent of the basin's 30-year average.
That snowpack should mean good news for area water users.
"We have our reservoirs full, so we should have a good water year this year," said Marc Catlin, manager of the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users' Association.
The good news for the local snowpack comes on the heels of a decision by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton earlier this weekto maintain releases from Lake Powell on the Colorado River.
The decision was a setback for Colorado and the rest of the river's upper basin states who are required by the Colorado River Compact to deliver 8.25 million acre-feet to the reservoir on the Utah-Arizona border.
Catlin said any extra demands to fill drought-stricken Lake Powell would not affect the UVWA.
"Our water right is a 1904 right and the Colorado River Compact is 1922 so they couldn't call us out if they had to make some kind of delivery. Where we would be concerned is Dallas (Creek Project) and Ridgway (Reservoir)."
The Dallas Creek Project, of which Ridgway Reservoir is a part, was not completed by the Bureau of Reclamation until the mid-1980s, long after the compact was put into place.
In the meantime, Ion Spor, superintendent of the Ridgway Dam, said his facility might be getting back to pre-drought water levels.
"It's been about three years since we've been at this point of getting more on the average of what this valley does produce."
In its May water supply outlook, the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center predicted that stream flows in the Gunnison Basin would be above average through July.
The report estimates that inflows into Blue Mesa Reservoir will be 104 percent of the 30-year average, while Ridgway would come in at 108 percent of average.
Spor said the water level at Ridgway has been lowered to accommodate the runoff.
"Typically what you see is your peak runoff between May 20 and June 27 for this basin (Uncompahgre)," he said. "We're probably going to be close to what we normally see, which is a full reservoir of 84,410 acre feet around the Fourth of July."
Despite the return to normalcy with the moisture levels, the shape of this year's runoff could be a problem.
Avery said the recent weather patterns could prevent a gradual and controlled runoff.
"We've seen below normal temperatures since the end of April and that has really slowed down the snowmelt. Usually under normal conditions, once you get to May 1, the snowmelt begins in earnest. We've not seen that yet this year."
Avery warned that a quick transition from our current cool temperatures to highs in the 80s could lead to flood conditions similar to those that occurred in 1983-84 and 1993-94.
Contact Matt Hildner via e-mail
at matth@montrosepress.com
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