{"id":658435,"date":"2026-05-22T12:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T12:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/658435\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T12:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T12:24:15","slug":"what-the-drought-means-and-doesnt-mean-for-chatfield-reservoir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/658435\/","title":{"rendered":"What the drought means (and doesn\u2019t mean) for Chatfield Reservoir"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Boaters float on Chatfield Reservoir on a cloudy day. May 20, 2026.<\/p>\n

Sandy Battulga\/Denverite<\/p>\n

Boating, paddleboarding, swimming, and other aquatic activities will all be possible this year at Chatfield State Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would have to see a completely unheard of drop before it actually caused a major disruption,\u201d park manager Kris Wahlers told Denverite.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s historically low snowpack<\/a> and warm weather<\/a> have spurred water restrictions in Denver and across the state<\/a>. While other reservoirs<\/a> are facing concerns \u2014 even drainage and water relocation in the case of high-altitude Antero Reservoir \u2014<\/a> Chatfield\u2019s doing alright.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A bird sits on a “no fishing” sign on Chatfield Reservoir on a rainy day. May 20, 2026.Sandy Battulga\/Denverite<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could go down another 10 feet or so before it really starts causing major operational impacts,\u201d Wahlers said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As of now, the swim beach at Chatfield is slated to open on Memorial Day, as usual.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rain helped, but just a bit.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the recent rainy weather has slightly eased drought and fire concerns, but only in the short-term.<\/p>\n

\u201cPardon the pun, but it’s kind of a drop in the bucket,\u201d Wahlers said. \u201cIt certainly helped saturate the ground. It’s helped relieve some of the wildfire risk because it’s helped hydrate the trees and the vegetation and the ground. It certainly hasn’t hurt the water levels, but it is hard to judge something on that large of a scale from a small-scale precipitation event.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Chatfield State Park Manager Kris Wahlers has been working at the park since the 1990s. He helped lead a tour around the lake. May 20, 2026.Sandy Battulga\/Denverite<\/p>\n

The rain did somewhat help Denver Water\u2019s inventory, according to the agency\u2019s manager of water supply, Nathan Elder.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur reservoirs haven’t lost storage, they haven’t really gained significantly, but we will be closely watching how our reservoir levels progress throughout the summer,\u201d Elder told Denverite.<\/p>\n

Multiple agencies store water in Chatfield, Denver Water being one of the largest. <\/p>\n

The future of Chatfield\u2019s water levels will depend partly on how much Denver Water and other agencies move water around the system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’ve all started pulling that water out to stock their reservoirs a little bit further downstream,\u201d park manager Wahlers said. \u201cThey’ve got a number of reservoirs upstream of us, a couple of treatment reservoirs downstream of us, and it really depends on the need from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Chatfield Reservoir on a rainy day. May 20, 2026.Sandy Battulga\/Denverite<\/p>\n

Chatfield\u2019s main role in the water system used to be for flood control, but a project to convert the area into more water storage<\/a> was completed in 2020. Denver Water is benefiting. <\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically, Chatfield played very little role in drought mitigation,\u201d Elder said. \u201cToday it continues to evolve into a different type of reservoir and an important piece of Denver Water’s drought mitigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lake with less water<\/p>\n

Though Wahlers isn\u2019t concerned about the water level disrupting operations this year, it is still lower than previous years and continuing to \u201cslowly go down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Low water levels in reservoirs are not only concerning for the regional water supply. <\/p>\n

\"\"A dead fish lays on the banks of Chatfield Reservoir. May 20, 2026.Sandy Battulga\/Denverite<\/p>\n

They also create an environment for toxic algae blooms and less oxygen-rich water, which harms fish.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s been a couple reservoirs that have already had algae blooms in May, which is very, very early,\u201d he said. \u201cWe’re watching very closely for other algae that comes up and we’re treating it or we’re testing it to see if it becomes toxic or not.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boaters float on Chatfield Reservoir on a cloudy day. May 20, 2026. Sandy Battulga\/Denverite Boating, paddleboarding, swimming, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-658435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}