Select Water Storage Information and Flow Conditions

• File Number: 8461.450
• Description: EAC/RCC Meetings
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 11/5/2007
• Author: Ted Kowalski
• Title: Select Water Storage Information and Flow Conditions
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Board Memo

STATE OF COLORADO
Colorado Water Conservation Board
Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
www.cwcb.state.co.us
MEMORANDUM
To: Reservoir Coardinating Committee ("RRC") and
Environmental Account Committee ("EAC") Members
From: Ted Kowalski, Program Manager
Date: November 5, 2007
Subject: Summary of Select Water Storage Information and Flow Conditions
for the South Platte River Basin
1. INTRODUCTION
Bill Ritter, Jr.
Govemor
Harris D. Sherman
Executive Director
Dan McAuliffe
Acting Director
Since the last RRC/EAC meeting, the three States and the U.S. Department of the Interior have
embarked on implementing the Platte River Endangered Species Recovery Implementation Program
Agreement ("the Program"), which began on January 1, 2007.
Please see the following information in support of the RRC and EAC meetings for the Program. In
preparing the information I continued to focus my efforts on the South Platte River and selected
data, which I believe is the most relevant for the RCC. As always, I have also included a number of
Internet Sites, which people can access for additional information and up-to-date information over
the next several months. Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend the fall 2007 RRC/EAC meeting,
but Tom Blickensderfer, of the Department of Natural Resources will be appearing in my stead.
II. WATER SUPPLY OUTLOOK
Stream Flow
I have attached several graphs of historic and current (September 2007) flow information for the
South Platte River at Julesburg. Of note, on the first table, the streamflows at Kersey and Julesburg
are higher than this time last year, see pages 1-6 of the attachments. In particular, there were higher
than average peaks at the Kersey and Julesburg gages in April-June, 2007. This is largely due to the
snows that occurred last winter and the resulting runoff. In addition, most of the reservoirs are much
higher than they were this time last year, see page 1 of the attachments.
Reservoir Storage
A summary of the status of select reservoir storage and reservoir capacity is provided in the
attachments, pages 7-10. While the amount of precipitation in the South Platte River basin was
above average this winter, the warm temperatures in March resulted in an earlier than usual runoff.
Nevertheless, many of the reservoir levels in the basin continue to be fuller than normal. Pages 7-8
show that reservoir storage for Colorado below Kersey are fuller than this time last year. Similarly,
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