Southeastern Coloraodo Water Conservancy District 2002 Annual Report

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From the Drought Scrapbook... Drought won't relent soon, experts w arn By Joey Bunch f _ / 5 /0, Z Dcn Post EO*onmentl ro FORT COLLINS — As rain fell lightly on the plains and the snow piled up in the mountains Wednes- day, weather experts at a summit said Colorado's drought isn't over by a tong shot. There's too much ground to make up, they said. Even if snow and rain come down at a normal pace for the next year, Denver Water's eight reservoirs will still have only 75 percent of their normal level, said Rocky Wiley, the general planning manager for the utility that serves one -fourth of the state's water cus- tomers, including 500.000 in Den- ver. Water restrictions in place this summer aren't going away any- time soon, he said. "Unless something really good or something really bad happens, we're going to have to get used to these-water restrictions for some titf7e to come," he said, after ad- drtssing about 200 scientists, pub - lityu[f icials, educators and regula- torssat the Colorado Drought Con - fer'halce in Fort Collins. The restriction last summer leW, lawns, ballparks and golf courses parched, with ban placed ontsprinkters, as well as limits on car,, washing, water fountain, cletin sheets in hotels and free ice water in restaurants. Heavy water users will continue to face surcharges for their overin- dulgence until reservoirs regain 80 ppee[�eceeat of their normal volume, Wgey said. pespite regular snowfalls since September, reservoirs, on average, are still more than half empty af- ter three years of below average sit wpacI (reams and rivers lost nearly _ o4-third of their flow this year as Colorado sweated out a hot, dry svppttmer when massive wildfires rdtased rain clouds from the sky, exberts said. •26• pr managers say the one They learned for sure from tate's worst drought in 50 is that they can't regulate pply on a year -to -year basis. ead, they will begin saving in the good times to brace e bad. That means weaning ideas tram such luxuries as showers and lush gardens, encouraging local and region - Ihorlties that have plenty of to share it with those that other prognosticators who at the conference agreed on little, except the [utility of ange forecasts. us Wolter, a Colorado -based spheric scientist with the Na- Oceanic and Atmospheric iislration, predicted a dry Water supply Denver Water, which serves 25 percent of the water customers in the state, including about 500,000 in Denver, gave these scenari- os tot water storage in its eight reservoirs. 2000 99"% of normal levels 2001 96% 2002 66 if drought continues 2003 35.38% 2004 20% 9 weather Is normal 2003 75% 2004 85% t1 weather is wet 2003 80% (I hope you've already taken ',� 2004 100% ytwr kids skiing,' he said. ethers said historical trends pointed to a welter- than -usual year ahead, based on weather pat- reaching new laws based on one tuns and tree rings that have re c tied droughts for centuries. dry year. 'The system is not broken, its late Engineer Hal Simpson said just out of water," she said. th public should turn to the power to bring more stow : State climatologist Roger Pielke Sr. agreed that elected officials Of prayer on the winter. shouldn't base long -term public poi - 11f we don't get a good (snow - icy on poorly supported predic- ps Al runoff next year, there won't tion that the West is becoming per - be. any outdoor water use on the : manenlly dryer and hotter. M is a ru! :-of- the -mill saw Range next summer," be ! drought so far," he said It's still a The drought will get plenty of at- re latively short-term drought, which should be a wake -up (call) tendon in the upcoming legislative that it could ,tin get woke." session, said state Rep. Diane Hoppe. R- Sterling, chairwoman of the House Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources Commit- tee. Hoppe said that while the drought can be a catalyst for change in water management, r stale leadership should resist far- Snowpac Brian Taylor Record Staff Writer While precipitation levels in Colorado have increased in the last two months, state offi- cials warn the drought of 2002 audits effects could be far from over. "It really is too early to tell what kind of runoff we are going to have next year, but a big part of that runoff will be going to deficiencies in stor- age and in the groundwater aquifer," said Assistant Divi- sion Engineer Keith Kepler of the Colorado Division of Water Resources in Pueblo. "The reservoirs are really drawn down, and the ground- water levels in alot of places are down," he said. On Tuesday, snowpack telemetry stations in the mountains above the Arkansas Friday, Jom,ory K1, 2003 ,1y -r„wy, to Junto (Colo a = opinion. Key points impacting drought Ucar Colorado's political resxnroirphilosophiesofnalional f'olotad,�, tit *c., t` ,r ut r - t to d - d-ci- e,ovirenmem< a nun n, li"cd Co.o ado -oily denng this :urrent Ricer dcvelopment inciud•:: drought bccau,c of sell- dcteaiinq t xed signal sups I to'Two deci ,ions to delay dcveiopmcnt Forks: refusal to c onside, the of the state'<surylus Colorado multiple adva n i ag es of high River entitiementc Plea:c c - tram -basin stor.,ge alternatives: side, the following key pni Ivnnlnation of the ,rated hal6 • Although Colorado'. high . ,mpl,md Upper Gunnison Suidy mountains and wet v nuts ,I Tram - hasin Storage option.: to vide most of thc�wrcr fo, support for Upper Gunuisan's oohwcstern states. Colorado is oxccsslve fish flow, and "not one ironically the most vulnerable drop" policy: and promotion of state during multi-year droughts: numerous inefficient, unproven • Calomdo's current Colorado alternatives that avoid high smr- Rivar lasses m California could age and beneficial use of Col. support about four million pco- .,ado's wasted Colorado River pie. These tragic state losses have entitlements: been increasing since the 1960',, • As a last result of devastating The west slope's steady comer- impacts from the current drought, sion from irrigated farming to 58 of Colorado's 64 counties tourism, coupled with Colorado's have wisely united to promote 10 failure to capture its wet year fundamental water principles to flood waters in high, off- channel correct Colorado's self- d"intic- reservoirs are the major factors. live water development direction. Most of Colorado's trans -basin Regrettably. these proposed prin- storage opportunities for both ciples still give emphasis to slopes are from its untapped unnecessary "last resort" type Upper Gunnison Branch of the alternatives, while avoiding a Colorado River; clear call for expedited develop- • Colorado's legislature autho- ment of Colorado's superior rued the Colorado Water Conser- trans -basin storage options for [ion Board in 1937 to help long -term beneficial needs of "plan, protect, and develop" Col- both slopes. orado's threatened Colorado Riv- The enclosed Requests for er entitlements for essential Stay. involving two landmark drought and growth needs of Gunnison Water Court Cases, future generations. The Board's, will give Colorado's Executive aggressive development work and Legislative branches time to from 1937 to 1971 is largely implement emergency measures responsible for Colorado's exist- to correct Colorado's flawed Col - ing high storage drought promic_ orado River development strate- tion for both slopes; gy. For example, Colorado's -Colorado's legislature created "overlooked" Water Resources the Colorado Water Resources and Power Devidopmem Authod- artd:PowerDevelttpmeirtAadrorf= °ip'tebvtV'expedite an- objective ty in 1982, to further strengthen comparison of Colorado's Big the state's Colorado River devel. Straw and Central Colorado Pro - opment program. Unfortunately, ject trans -basin storage alterna- the Authority's statewide water tives within a few months. The planning, permitting, and con- Authority could also facilitate struction financing work has been emergency permitting and co - improperly limited to develop- struetion financing for the win n - ment of small wastewater treat- ning project and its farsighted ment plants; local, state, and federal partici- • Since the mid- 1980's. Col- pants_ The drought has Col- orado's politically appointed oredWs attention. water leaders and consultants Dave Miller Staregic have quietly followed the anti- WererPtw r, Palmerfate, CO. k risinc, butt tiro might carton i i River drainage eported j ero re- have to go to storage, and that cipitation 24 percent above the will draw on the amount of historic daily average, and water available through diver - snow water content 46 percent sion," Kepler said. above average. Recent rains `Even if we get a lot of at lower elevations have also snow, a lot of it will be helped to increase stream absorbed by the hot and levels in area reservoirs. The Surface Water Supply Even with the moisture, Index released in October by average annual totals are still the Colorado Division of Water far below normal, according Resources shows the Arkansas to Mark Svoboda of the River Basin to be better off National Drought Mitigation than any other drainage in the Center. state, but still below normal. °For the January through Water Resource Engineer October period, Arizona, Col- Keith Vander Horst said much orado and California experi- of the weight of the ranking is enced their driest such period because of the many large on record," Svoboda said. reservoirs on the Arkansas Even though there may be River. water in streams and rivers in "Reservoir storage and the Arkansas River Basin next stream flows. contribute 90 to spring, Kepler said the 95 percent of the final index amount of water available to calculation," he said. water users may still be An exceptional snowpack restricted. in the upcoming winter would A lot of water is going to be required to bring the (sup- not over ply index) numbers back to a normal range, because the soft moisture profile is very low, which will cause river flows to reduce next spring.' Vander Horst said recent precipitation in the mountain areas is helping. "It's not to say the drought is broken, but it has been owing." Drought takes drastic toll on harvest Wheat production was down 44 percent, com was down 33 percent, hay was down 22 percent and sorghum production was a fraction of normal. By GAII, PI'STS 7h Puebin C6ie /min Dismal monthly crop reports ] throughout 2002 were rolled into one big drought - driven disappointment for the state's harvest for the year. The drought reduced harvested acres and yields dramatically. the Colorado Agricultural Statistics Ser- vice in Lakewood reported. All wheat production for the state was down 44 percent from 2001 to 38.7 million bushels. Average ,yield of 22 bushels per acre was 10 bushels an acre below last year. The area harvested for grain was estimated by the service at 1.65 mil- lion acres. down from 2 million in 2001. Winter wheat production was esti- mated at 36.3 million bushels, with acres seeded last fan for harvest this year estimated up 11 percent from the seedings that produced the 2002 crop. The spring wheat crop was estimated at 2.4 million bushels; down from last year's production, but with an aver- age yield of 100 bushels per acre, up 28 bushels from last year. The service said the state's com for groin crop fell 37.5 million bushels to 112.3 million bushels with a higher per -acre yield attributable to a large portion of the harvested acres being "Most of the dryland acreage was either abandoned or not harvested for groin;' the service said. Sorghum for grain production was shattered with an estimated harvest of 1.8 million bushels, down 7.66 mil- lion bushels from 2001 with average yields estimated at 20 bushels per acre, down 23 bushels per acre from the previous year. Only 90,000 acres were harvested for grain, 130,000 acres fewer than in 2001. As for hay, stocks on farms and ranches totaled 1.56 million tons on the first of December, down 22 per- cent from the 1.99 million on hand at the beginning of December 2001 and the lowest stocks since 1964. The low stocks reflected both a poor harvest and the need for _stockmen to feed animals early in the year as pastures failed. In the San Luis Valley, fall potato production was estimated at 27.89 million hundredweight from 7L500 acres harvested, the smallest crop since 1989. Statewide the summer potato crop was up considerably from d 2001 at 2.3 million hundredweight. not over ply index) numbers back to a normal range, because the soft moisture profile is very low, which will cause river flows to reduce next spring.' Vander Horst said recent precipitation in the mountain areas is helping. "It's not to say the drought is broken, but it has been owing." Drought takes drastic toll on harvest Wheat production was down 44 percent, com was down 33 percent, hay was down 22 percent and sorghum production was a fraction of normal. By GAII, PI'STS 7h Puebin C6ie /min Dismal monthly crop reports ] throughout 2002 were rolled into one big drought - driven disappointment for the state's harvest for the year. The drought reduced harvested acres and yields dramatically. the Colorado Agricultural Statistics Ser- vice in Lakewood reported. All wheat production for the state was down 44 percent from 2001 to 38.7 million bushels. Average ,yield of 22 bushels per acre was 10 bushels an acre below last year. The area harvested for grain was estimated by the service at 1.65 mil- lion acres. down from 2 million in 2001. Winter wheat production was esti- mated at 36.3 million bushels, with acres seeded last fan for harvest this year estimated up 11 percent from the seedings that produced the 2002 crop. The spring wheat crop was estimated at 2.4 million bushels; down from last year's production, but with an aver- age yield of 100 bushels per acre, up 28 bushels from last year. The service said the state's com for groin crop fell 37.5 million bushels to 112.3 million bushels with a higher per -acre yield attributable to a large portion of the harvested acres being "Most of the dryland acreage was either abandoned or not harvested for groin;' the service said. Sorghum for grain production was shattered with an estimated harvest of 1.8 million bushels, down 7.66 mil- lion bushels from 2001 with average yields estimated at 20 bushels per acre, down 23 bushels per acre from the previous year. Only 90,000 acres were harvested for grain, 130,000 acres fewer than in 2001. As for hay, stocks on farms and ranches totaled 1.56 million tons on the first of December, down 22 per- cent from the 1.99 million on hand at the beginning of December 2001 and the lowest stocks since 1964. The low stocks reflected both a poor harvest and the need for _stockmen to feed animals early in the year as pastures failed. In the San Luis Valley, fall potato production was estimated at 27.89 million hundredweight from 7L500 acres harvested, the smallest crop since 1989. Statewide the summer potato crop was up considerably from d 2001 at 2.3 million hundredweight.