{"id":44823,"date":"2021-09-07T11:21:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-07T17:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/water-releases-from-an-already-low-blue-mesa-reservoir-will-prop-up-lake-powell\/"},"modified":"2021-09-07T17:21:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T17:21:00","slug":"water-releases-from-an-already-low-blue-mesa-reservoir-will-prop-up-lake-powell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/water-releases-from-an-already-low-blue-mesa-reservoir-will-prop-up-lake-powell\/","title":{"rendered":"Water releases from an already low Blue Mesa Reservoir will prop up Lake Powell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The receding shoreline of Blue Mesa Reservoir, near Gunnison, Colorado, shows signs of severe drought on July 16, 2021. (Dean Krakel\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
As of Sept. 1, the reservoir was 37% full, which is about 68 feet down from a full reservoir, and a ring of muddy shoreline was growing<\/div>\n

In an effort to prop up water levels at the declining Lake Powell, federal water managers are negatively impacting recreation on Colorado\u2019s biggest man-made lake.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the message from Colorado water managers and marina operators at Blue Mesa Reservoir in Gunnison County. On Aug. 1, the Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the reservoir, began emergency releases. By the time the releases are finished the first week of October, Blue Mesa is projected to fall to its second-lowest level ever, just 215,000 acre-feet, or 22.8% of its 941,000-acre-foot capacity.<\/p>\n

As of Sept. 1, the reservoir was 37% full, which is about 68 feet down from a full reservoir, and a ring of muddy shoreline was growing. Parking lots and boat slips sat empty, and Pappy\u2019s Restaurant was closed for the season. The dwindling water levels are first impacting Iola, the easternmost of Blue Mesa\u2019s three basins. Iola is where the Gunnison River now cuts through a field of mud.<\/p>\n

Eric Loken, who operates the reservoir\u2019s two marinas (Elk Creek and Lake Fork), said he was given only nine days\u2019 notice to empty Elk Creek Marina\u2019s 180 slips. The dock system\u2019s anchors, which are not built for low water, had to be moved deeper. He said about 25 people lost their jobs six weeks earlier than normal and the marinas lost about 25% of its revenue for the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are tons of people who would like to be out here boating and are very disappointed,\u201d Loken said. \u201cNormally on Labor Day weekend, you can barely find a place to park. So it\u2019s definitely been a big hit to us as a business for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The empty Elk Creek Marina at Blue Mesa Reservoir. (Aspen Journalism)<\/span>Aspen Journalism<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Elk Creek Marina and restaurant are closed for the season, although the boat ramp is still open and is expected to be accessible through the end of the month. The Lake Fork Marina is open through Labor Day, but the boat ramp has closed for the season. The Iola boat ramp is restricted to small boats only and is scheduled to close after Labor Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are just trying to make it through the holiday weekend and then we will be shutting up this marina too,\u201d Loken said.<\/p>\n

The Bureau announced July 16 that it would begin emergency releases through early October from three Upper Basin reservoirs: 20,000 acre-feet from Navajo, on the San Juan River; 125,000 acre-feet from Flaming Gorge, on the Green River; and 36,000 acre-feet from Blue Mesa, on the Gunnison River. The goal of the releases is to prop up water levels at Lake Powell to preserve the ability to make hydropower at Glen Canyon Dam. The 181,000 acre-feet from the three upstream reservoirs is expected to boost levels at Powell by about 3 feet.<\/p>\n

The three reservoirs are part of the Colorado River Storage Project, and their primary purpose is to control the flows of the Colorado River; flatwater recreation has always been incidental. But the releases at Blue Mesa illustrate the risks of building an outdoor-recreation economy around a highly engineered river system that is now beginning to falter amid a climate change-fueled drought.<\/p>\n

Timing concerns<\/div>\n

Although the secretary of the Interior can authorize emergency releases without coordination from the states or local entities, Loken, along with some Colorado water managers, is not happy about the timing or the lack of notice from the bureau. Under normal drought-response operations, the federal government would consult with state and local water managers before making releases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had very little time to handle this decision that was made that none of us have any power over,\u201d Loken said.<\/p>\n

John McClow, general counsel for the Upper Gunnison Water Conservancy District, said Colorado should make noise and complain about what he called a clumsy execution of the releases. McClow has also served on the Colorado Water Conservation Board and is an alternate commissioner on the Upper Colorado River Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no reason they couldn\u2019t have waited another couple weeks or another month to release that water from Blue Mesa to get it to Lake Powell,\u201d McClow said. \u201cIt goes back to consultation and timing. Had they even asked, it would have been easy to say, \u2018Hey, can you wait so you don\u2019t kill our business?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month at Colorado Water Congress\u2019 summer conference \u2014 a gathering of water managers, researchers and legislators in Steamboat Springs \u2014 Rebecca Mitchell, CWCB\u2019s executive director and the state\u2019s representative to the UCRC, told the audience that the impacts of ending the boating season early at Blue Mesa trickle down to all Coloradans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means dollars in Colorado. That is who we are in Colorado,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely had an impact in that local community when we talk about the recreation. That is heavy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell said water managers in the Upper Basin states (Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Utah) will be carefully monitoring the impacts of the reservoir releases and figuring out how to quantify those impacts, which she called devastating. The states will work with the bureau to develop a plan for how to send water to Lake Powell in future years, taking into consideration the timing, magnitude and duration of the releases, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere can the states and the bureau make the best decisions to lessen the impacts?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"A
A sign at the Blue Mesa Reservoir damn. (Aspen Journalism)<\/span>Aspen Journalism<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The National Park Service operates the Curecanti National Recreation area, including the campsites, picnic areas, visitors centers and boat ramps that run the 20-mile length of the reservoir. According to numbers provided by the Park Service, Curecanti gets nearly a million visitors a year. The reservoir is popular among anglers for its trout and Kokanee salmon fishing. Blue Mesa is one of three reservoirs \u2014 along with the much smaller Morrow Point and Crystal reservoirs \u2014 on the Gunnison River, collectively known as the Aspinall Unit.<\/p>\n

Gunnison Country Chamber of Commerce Director Celeste Helminski said her organization is planning an event later this month: the world\u2019s largest snow dance. A big winter would help refill Blue Mesa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe water definitely has me concerned for the future,\u201d she said. \u201cWe see a lot of summer recreationists who come and spend the whole summer at several of the campgrounds. It\u2019s just going to take a lot to replace that water. It\u2019s going to take awhile to get back to levels of what recreationists come for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bureau spokesperson Justyn Liff could not provide any insight into how the timing decision for the releases was made, but pointed out that although lake recreation was impacted, downstream rafting and fishing in the canyon are getting a boost from the roughly 300 cubic-feet-per-second extra water that the releases provide. The Gunnison River below the Gunnison Tunnel diversion, which takes a large portion of the river\u2019s outflow from the Aspinall Unit for delivery to downstream irrigators, was running around 600 cfs the first few days of September, according to USGS stream gauge data. This is a critical data point for boaters running the Black Canyon or Gunnison Gorge sections of the river, which are below the stream gauge. At 600 cfs, the river is flowing 11% above the median for this time of year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we had waited six weeks, that would have been six weeks less of commercial rafting\/guided fishing on the Gunnison River downstream from Aspinall,\u201d Liff said.<\/p>\n

Hydropower production<\/div>\n

Although the local impacts to recreation are acute, the impacts of not being able to make hydropower at Lake Powell would probably be much worse. The dams of the CRSP are known as \u201ccash register\u201d dams. The power they produce is used to repay the costs of building the project, maintain operations and provide power to millions of people.<\/p>\n

The Western Area Power Administration distributes Lake Powell\u2019s electricity, including to some power providers in Colorado. According to Water Education Colorado, electric costs will surge as Glen Canyon Dam struggles to produce hydropower because of declining water levels.<\/p>\n

The bureau\u2019s target elevation for Lake Powell is 3,525 feet, in order to provide a buffer that protects hydropower generation; if levels fall below 3,490, all power production would stop. Lake Powell is currently about 31% full, at 3,549 feet, which is the lowest surface level since the reservoir began filling in the 1960s and \u201870s. According to projections released by the bureau in July, Lake Powell has a 79% chance of falling below the 3,525 threshold in the next year. The emergency releases are intended to address this.<\/p>\n

\u201cA loss of power generation is a pretty significant issue compared to a few months of boating on Blue Mesa,\u201d McClow said. \u201cLocally, yes, it hurts, but in the big picture, I don\u2019t know if you can make a fair comparison.\u201d<\/p>\n

As water levels at Blue Mesa continue to fall, Loken worries that this may be just the beginning of an era of empty reservoirs.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The releases) don\u2019t solve the long-term problem,\u201d Loken said. \u201cWe are just going to end up with an empty Lake Powell and a bunch of empty reservoirs upstream. I think the powers that be really need to put pencil to paper and figure this out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The receding shoreline of Blue Mesa Reservoir, near Gunnison, Colorado, shows signs of severe drought on July 16, 2021. (Dean Krakel\/Special to The Colorado Sun)cca As of Sept. 1, the reservoir was 37% full, which is about 68 feet down from a full reservoir, and a ring of muddy shoreline was growing In an effort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44823"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}