Summer is hot and dry

ALAMOSA — “It’s time for rain dances.”

Rio Grande Water Conservation District Engineer Allen Davey’s comment was echoed throughout the district’s water meeting on Tuesday, as water experts discussed the Valley’s diminishing water supply this summer.

San Luis Valley Public Lands Manager Dan Dallas said Forest Service personnel are dealing with about three fires a day. “A couple of weeks worth of rain would not hurt,” he said.

Colorado Division of Water Resources Division III Engineer Craig Cotten announced a zero curtailment for irrigators on both Rio Grande and Conejos River systems beginning Wednesday, primarily because no water is flowing and the state’s obligation to downstream states has been adjusted accordingly.

He said he has lowered the projected annual index for the Rio Grande to 530,000 acre feet, 5,000 less than the projection at the beginning of this month and considerably less than the 575,000-acre-foot June 1 forecast.

Of the new 530,000-acre-foot projection, the Rio Grande must deliver 137,200 acre feet or about 27 percent to downstream states through the Rio Grande Compact. The Rio Grande has already delivered nearly 100,000 acre feet to downstream states, and the additional required delivery will likely be met through current return flows, Closed Basin Project water and winter flows in November and December, Cotten said.

“So we won’t need much at all during the irrigation season,” he said.

Cotten also decreased by 5,000 acre feet the projected annual index on the Conejos River system, which is now forecast at 290,000 acre feet. At the beginning of June the forecast was 315,000 acre feet.

Of the 290,000 acre feet projected annual index, the Conejos River system must deliver 102,200 acre feet downstream, or about 35 percent. The river will have no problem meeting that requirement. In fact, it will likely over deliver this year, Cotten said.

“We don’t need anything through the rest of the irrigation season to the bottom end of the Conejos,” he said. “However, that is also anticipating we are going to get 2,800 acre feet out of the Closed Basin Project.”

Cotten said the state is storing some compact water at Platoro Reservoir and will probably not need to release that this year to meet the compact.

Cotten explained that stream flows on the Rio Grande and Conejos were tracking average until about June 10, when they dropped significantly.

“It just cratered, dropped real hard and we are continuing to drop,” he said.

On the Conejos River system, he said, “We are significantly below our average stream flows on almost all of our gauging stations right now.”

He said the low river levels are an indication of the lack of precipitation the Valley has received so far this summer.

Cotten said the National Weather Service was previously predicting above average precipitation for this area but now is forecasting “close to below average” for the time period of August through October.

“We are really into the hot and dry area.”

Davey said for the first time in two or three years the Valley is going to see a decline in the unconfined aquifer storage as evidenced by a system of monitoring wells.

“It is not particularly alarming,” he added, “but it’s time for rain dances.”

Davey said the unconfined aquifer storage in the west central Valley study area is still minus 700,000 acre feet from where it was at the beginning of the study in 1976. The storage had dipped to minus 1,000,000 but had been gaining ground in the last few years. The water management sub-district plan calls for an aquifer recovery of between minus 200,000 and minus 400,000 acre feet.

“We are a ways away from that still.”