News last week about the inlet gate repair work going on at Lemon Reservoir this winter brought a reminder of the history of the major source of Durango’s water.
No, Durango’s water does not come from Lemon Reservoir; it runs through it. Those knowledgeable about water law know there is a big difference between a right to a stream flow and to stored water.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Durango’s civic leadership acquired a right on the Florida River and laid a pipeline from the river to city reservoir. The river’s elevation allowed the pipeline, which can hold about 10 cubic feet per second, to be gravity fed. It began to be used in 1902.
Durango tapped Florida River water because the drainage area that flowed into the Florida did not contain any mines, nor any population. Florida River water was very clean water. Higher up and to the west, the Animas River was being fed by streams that were heavily contaminated by hard-rock mine wastes, some amounts occurring naturally. And at lower elevations, still above Durango, the Animas was too often viewed as a handy dump alongside farms and ranches and limited residential development.
A link to the Florida was a very wise decision, one that serves Durango well more than a hundred years later.
Only during the summer months, when residential lawns are green, is it necessary to draw supplemental water from the Animas.
Enter Lemon Reservoir. As part of the Colorado River Storage Project signed in 1956, several water projects were undertaken on the Western Slope to partially match water projects in adjoining downstream states. Lemon, completed in 1963, was one. Its location would be where the river valley narrowed severely, at about 8,000 feet elevation, and its surface when full would cover about 625 acres.
Lemon Reservoir is a reservoir designed to provide supplemental irrigation water to approximately 14,000 acres and full irrigation water to about 5,500 acres north of U.S. Highway 160 and south on the Florida Mesa, and to provide flood control (there had been a few floods with property damage in years previous). The project included better constructed irrigation water management structures along the previously used ditches, and it made water available at the south end of Florida Mesa where there had been none.
Before the availability of Lemon Reservoir water, the limited Florida River flows might bring irrigation to an end in early to mid summer. That meant less hay and lower grain yields on land that was much more productive. With the additional water, which did come at an annual cost, farmers and ranchers saw immediate increases in production.
This winter, while the inlet gates at Lemon are closed for their first refurbishment, Durango is relying on water from the Animas. A small amount of Florida water is bypassing the reservoir, via a pump, in order to continue to provide for fish in the river below.
The desire for clean water was what drove many communities in the West to accept federal control of lands at higher elevations. Heavily timbered slopes had been stripped to provide lumber for mine and building construction, and the resulting soil and rock-filled runoff contaminated and clogged waterways.
Durango’s early leaders responded to the need for clean water, and took advantage of the Florida River’s proximity and its elevation. They were wise to do so.
