Upper Los Pinos Watershed Report

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Lake Monitoring Group has been collecting water-quality and lake-profile data at Vallecito Reservoir. Through the volunteers, the Pine River Watershed Group was formed, and the group has tnldged onward through funding shortages, wildfires, floods, and debris flows. Even though the spotlight has moved away from their area as having potential for floods and debris flows due to wildfires, the thoughts have not left the minds of those who live below steep slopes and burned forests. The citizens l~1ow that flood awareness (through rainfall awareness), streamflow montoring, and water-quality montoring are important for their survival. The citizens also feel that something must be done about the mercury problem in the reservoir. Data collection and monitoring are the keys to understanding of the causes and effects of natural and human-related activities on the watershed. Purpose and Scope The purpose of this report is to present data for rainfall, streamflow, stream stage, rainfall runoff water quality, and lake water quality collected during June-November 2006 by the volunteers of the Pine River Watershed Group. The sites were setup for data collection (Figure 3), and the volunteers were taught methods for streamflow gaging and water-quality sample collection. Data were collected by volunteers and the watershed coordinator, and the coordinator compiled the data and analyzed water-quality samples collected by the volunteers. The data presented in this report represent efforts of 15 volunteers who contributed more than 200 hours of labor during 2006. The work was funded by a grant from the Colorado Watershed Protection Fund. The sponsor of the work was the San Juan Resource Conservation and Development Council (San Juan RC&D), whose goal is to assist local commuiuties with natural resoLirces projects. Rainfall Runoff, Flood Hazards, and Water-Quality Data for the Upper Los Pinos River Watershed, Southwestern Colorado, 2006 Stream gage construction began in June 2006, rainfall data were compiled during June- November 2006, stream stage data were collected during July-October 2006, stream water-quality samples were collected during July-October 2006, and reservoir samples were collected during June- November 2006. Report writing was completed in March 2007. Electronic files of the data, digital maps, and copies of this report are available at the San Juan RC&D office, 31 Suttle St., Durango, Colorado, 81303, (970) 259-3287. RAINFALL DATA Rainfall data compiled for this report were accessed from two sources: (1) Online real-time and historic rainfall data were downloaded from the U. S. Geological Survey (Figure 4A) (http://co.water.usgs.gov/ fires/ missionridge/index.html, accessed Febn~ary 27, 2007). The USGS raingages were installed in the Missionary Ridge wildfire area through cooperative agreements with the Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation (BAER) team and the La Plata County Office of Emergency Management. The USGS raingage A-4 is located in the headwaters of Jack Creek. (2) Online rainfall data were obtained from the CoCoRaHS rainfall data network (Figure 4B). CoCoRaHS is an acronym for the Commuity Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network, which is anon-profit, community-based network of volunteers working together to measure and map precipitation (rain, hail and snow) (http://www.cocorahs.org/, accessed February 27, 2007). Raingage site number CO-LP-32 is operated by volunteer Hal Shoemaker, and the site is located in the Vallecito Lake community, north of Vallecito Reservoir. In cooperation with the Colorado Watershed Protection Fund and the San Juan Resource Conservation and Developrnent Council