U.S. Water News Online
PALISADE, Colo. -- Two of the Western Slope's largest irrigation districts plan to cut how much they take from Green Mountain Reservoir to stretch water supplies amid a fifth year of drought.
Grand Valley Irrigation Co. and Orchard Mesa Irrigation District intend to cut their take from the reservoir on the Colorado River so they will have enough water to send farmers through the end of the growing season in October.
Grand Valley Irrigation District manager Phil Bertrand said he would do the same if he has to.
"I think it will be a shocker for people to realize we could exhaust the historic (water supply) in Green Mountain by some time in October," said Dick Proctor, Grand Valley Irrigation Co.'s manager.
"We're looking down the gun barrel of 2002 as far as flows," said Scott Hummer, a state Division of Water Resources commissioner. "If they weren't making releases from the reservoirs, there would hardly be any water in the system at all."
The irrigation districts can by law call for more water from the reservoir, but they fear their supply would run out before final deliveries to winter wheat and fall barley fields.
"It's the next year's crop we're trying to save," Proctor said.
This is the third time in four years that water levels at the federally-owned Green Mountain Reservoir have been low.
Under a deal with the federal government, Denver Water will have to send 26,439 acre feet of water to the Western Slope. In wet years, Denver Water can keep water in Dillon Reservoir that would normally go to Green Mountain Reservoir, but, in dry years, it must reimburse Green Mountain.
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