Hydrologists opened the spigots Friday on Vallecito Reservoir, releasing more water than typically considered safe to keep up with recent rainstorms.

Emergency workers monitored high-water conditions on several streams and rivers throughout La Plata County. No evacuations were ordered, but some property owners downstream of Vallecito reported minor flooding and water in areas that haven’t experienced water in recent years, according to a news release from La Plata County government.

A decline in precipitation in the headwaters above Lemon and Vallecito reservoirs will likely allow reservoir operators to reduce the heavy flow during the next few days, a release said.

“La Plata County received much less moisture (Friday) than what was anticipated,” the news release said.

Bruce Evans, chief of the Upper Pine River Fire Protection District, said the fire department filled more than 200 sandbags to protect homes and was working to remove debris from bridges along the Pine River to ensure their integrity and prevent flooding.

“The river is getting stressed with that amount of water in it,” he said Friday. “These are really historic releases on both the Pine and the Florida rivers.

“So far, it’s doing well, it’s holding up. We’ve had a couple of weak points, but nobody has lost anything yet, except for a couple of decks that were out on the river.”

Emergency workers were particularly concerned about a bridge that serves as the primary access to the Pine River Ranches subdivision on Ludwig Drive. If a logjam were to occur anywhere along the Pine River, it could cause water to back up and flood upstream homes, Evans said.

As of Friday afternoon, only a few homes had experienced water in their crawl spaces, but that was from ground seepage, not overflow of the river, he said.

June is typically the driest month of the year. But a record-setting amount of rainfall in May and a couple of showers in June have pushed reservoirs to capacity.

Hydrologists started releasing water June 2 at Vallecito Reservoir, pushing the flow in the Pine River to 1,000 cubic feet per second. They incrementally increased the flow and upped it to 3,000 cubic feet per second as of 5 p.m. Thursday, said Ryan Christianson, chief of the water management group for the Bureau of Reclamation in western Colorado.

The safe channel capacity downstream is 2,500 cf/s, but the Bureau of Reclamation went past that to avoid an overflow on Vallecito Reservoir, he said.

The water level was a half-foot from the top of the dam Friday, he said. Hydrologists will continue to release as much water as necessary to prevent the water from going over the top of the dam, which can damage it, he said.

“We have a half of foot left, but we don’t like to operate that close,” Christianson said. “So, we’re essentially full.”

The dam itself is considered safe, he said.

On Thursday, Bayfield Town Manager Chris La May said town officials may have to consider evacuation plans if the water level continues to rise.

“There’s always that remote possibility if we have another precipitation event that causes the in-flow to the reservoir to spike up again,” Christianson said. “But we try to do it as controlled as possible.”

The National Weather Service issued a flash-flood watch Friday for La Plata County. A flash-flood watch will be in effect again from noon until 10 p.m. Saturday. A flash-flood watch means conditions may develop that lead to flash flooding.

Heavy storms could materialize above Vallecito in the San Juan Mountains, Joe Ramey, forecaster with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.

“If they get any kind of rainfall up there, they’ll have to release harder, which can affect houses downstream,” Ramey said. “We’re watching that closely. We have a little moisture coming through, and you guys are hanging on to the best moisture in Western Colorado.”

In anticipation of the storms, discharge out of Lemon Reservoir and Vallecito Reservoir will continue for the next few days, depending on weather patterns, moisture accumulation and upper-elevation temperatures in the headwater areas of the streams, according to the county release.

If rain falls on snow in the high elevations, it could cause a noticeable increase in snowmelt, resulting in high runoff into the streams.

As of 6:30 p.m. Friday, the Animas River was flowing at 4,700 cf/s through Durango, almost double the daily median. It was down 2,030 cf/s from its peak recorded at 1 p.m. Thursday.

Evans said there has been good communication and working relationships between agencies.

“Everything we’ve asked for from La Plata County, they’ve been right on it,” he said. “The entire emergency management system has been working. ... People just need to keep an eye on things.”

shane@durangoherald.com