Saturday, May 6, 2006

New agreement between XCel and Denver Denver Post: "It's rare when Denver and the Western Slope agree on water issues, but communities on both sides of the Continental Divide will benefit from a deal the Denver Water Board recently struck with Xcel Energy. "On the Colorado River, upstream from Glenwood Springs, Xcel operates the Shoshone hydropower plant, which has water rights dating from 1902 - making them some of the oldest legal claims on the river. The only more senior rights to the river belong to Grand Valley farmers. So during dry spells, the Shoshone plant gets dibs on the river's use, as long as Xcel lets enough water flow through to satisfy the Grand Valley claims. However, that normal allocation caused tensions during the 2002-03 drought. "Like many Front Range cities, Denver gets much of its water from the Western Slope, a longstanding point of tension between the regions. Denver Water also supplies about half the metro area's suburbs. One of the system's most important storage units is Dillon Reservoir, which dams the Blue River, a tributary to the Colorado. But Denver's water rights on the Blue (and by extension, the Colorado) date only from 1936. "So when Xcel runs its Shoshone power plant, Denver has to forgo storing some water at Dillon. That was true even four years ago, during the worst drought Colorado has had in three centuries. "Although Xcel and Denver worked out a temporary arrangement, the experience rattled Denver and some Western Slope communities that also were forced to let water just flow past their nearly empty reservoirs. "So when Xcel wanted to renew its utility franchise with Denver for another 20 years, the city said it wanted a Shoshone water agreement as part of the deal. And Denver bargained for benefits for both the Front Range and Western Slope. "The new agreement defines drought conditions in specific terms, such as reservoir levels falling below 80 percent of capacity. In those conditions (so rare they've occurred only three times in 50 years), Xcel will let Denver keep extra spring runoff in its reservoirs between March 15 and May 20. That cut-off date means water will flow through the power plant and into popular river-running segments on the Colorado before the height of the tourist season, thereby sustaining Garfield County's economy. "Western Slope communities got basically the same deal: During droughts, they'll be able to store early spring snowmelt at Green Mountain, Ruedi, Wolford and Clinton reservoirs, thus protecting municipal supplies in Grand and Summit counties. "Under the pact, when the cities are trying to store extra water, Xcel will shut down the smaller of Shoshone's two turbines. The amount of water the company surrenders, 30,000 acre-feet, is a fraction of the 850,000 acre-feet the power plant uses annually. An acre-foot is enough water to serve two families of four for a year." 11:14:35 AM     River of Sorrows lives up to it's name Touch luck for the boaters on the Dolores River this year, according to the New West. From the article, "It looks like the River of Sorrows is going to live up to its name for hopeful boaters this year. After forecasting as much two weeks of boatable flows for southwest Colorado's Dolores River, the Bureau of Reclamation announced on Tuesday that there likely will be no boating for the entire season. "It's been an up-and-down year for those anticipating time on the Dolores River. In November, the Bureau predicted that, following last year's relatively wet winter, a snowpack of only 55 percent of average would allow McPhee Reservoir to spill water for boating. The early winter, though, didn't come through, and the outlook turned bad. Then late-winter snows again raised hopes. On the forecast posted on the Dolores Water Conservancy District's website on April 18, it appeared flows would hit near 800 on May 25, and rise to over 1,000 cfs on May 26, lasting through June 9. On the May 3 update, flows through May are projected to peak at a meager 99 cfs, and an only slightly less dim 139 cfs in June. Over the course of the last month, the snowpack dropped from 89 percent of normal to 20 percent to start May, said Vern Harrell, of the Bureau of Reclamation. In early April, runoff was forecast at 210,000 acre-feet (the average is 320,000 af); but after a dry, warm, windy April, that figure has been scaled down to 180,000 af... "The bleak boating forecast also isn't going to stop studies being performed by the Dolores River Dialogue. Begun in 2004, the Dialogue brings together various stakeholders in the river to work together to find added flows for fish habitat and commercial and private recreation, while maintaining the regional economies dependent upon the Dolores Project's water. Among the group's projects, the Dialogue is working on gathering science that will help improve spill management from McPhee Reservoir. The 2005 season provided a golden opportunity for the Dialogue to move forward: Not only did it serve up the first boatable flows in five years, it also saw the largest flows on the river since McPhee first plugged the stream, with peak flow hitting 4,200 cfs. Following last year's peak runoff, the Dialogue, working with federal, regional, and tribal management agencies, as well as with the Dolores River Coalition, which represents more than 20 groups with vested interests in the river, launched a scientific study of the rare high water. Scientists were able to fly the entire length of the stream below the dam and film of the effects of the spill... "For everyone else wanting to get on the river for more selfish reasons, it's still too early for absolute despair: The Bureau's latest projections are, of course, just forecasts - and on the Dolores, forecasts can be off as much as 10 percent, says Harrell. Plus, it could still rain or snow. Harrell urges people to keep checking updated predictions at www.doloreswater.com. Forecasts are updated every two weeks, and once a week starting in mid-May." Category: Colorado Water 10:41:30 AM

© Copyright 2006 John Orr. Last update: 12/29/06; 11:34:36 AM.