{"id":737051,"date":"2026-07-01T14:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T14:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/737051\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T14:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T14:34:10","slug":"mountain-towns-must-tighten-taps-but-water-shortages-could-have-been-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/737051\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountain towns must tighten taps, but water shortages could have been worse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fresh<\/a><\/p>\n

This Fresh Water News story is a collaboration between The Colorado Sun and Water Education Colorado. It also appears at\u00a0wateredco.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Historic water shortages are drying out the scenic mountains that anchor Colorado\u2019s tourist economy, prompting the state to issue emergency orders earlier this month allowing water to be shifted to the towns and ranches most likely to run dry.<\/p>\n

The Colorado River District, which represents 15 Western Slope counties, is running the emergency response effort and with financial support from the Colorado Water Conservation Board has anted up nearly $1 million to make sure even towns that can\u2019t afford it, will have access to drinking water should it be needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To make the plan work, the river district opted not to lease portions of the water it normally holds in two high country reservoirs, Ruedi in the Roaring Fork Basin and Wolford Mountain, near Kremmling, on a first-come, first-served basis, as it normally does. Instead, the water is being doled out based on community need, with people and food production getting the water first, river district manager Andy Mueller said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a number of requests to lease that water out, but a lot of it would have gone to wealthy gentlemen ranchers, but it wouldn\u2019t have been for the common good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Under Colorado law, water can only be diverted, stored and used for a designated purpose, such as city drinking water, farm irrigation, environmental stream flows and industrial uses. Water rights are also tied to seasons, with some available only in certain months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But this spring, the river district, seeking more flexibility than the laws typically allow, went to Colorado State Engineer Jason Ullmann and asked for emergency authorization to use its water supplies differently. The state agreed, giving the district until the end of August to conduct emergency releases.<\/p>\n

At the same time, large agricultural water users in the Grand Valley agreed to cut their water use in an effort to lessen strain on the Colorado River, and protect some of the small towns and ranchers who would have been cut off otherwise.<\/p>\n

At issue is a special pool of water that lies within Green Mountain Reservoir, near Heeney, known as the historic users pool, or the HUP. The water is meant as a backup source that allows towns to pump wells and divert from streams even when their water rights are not in priority on the giant main stem of the Colorado River.<\/p>\n

Because of the drought, Green Mountain\u2019s HUP isn\u2019t projected to fill this year, something that hasn\u2019t occurred since the 1960s when the pool was created to protect mountain water users who had junior water rights, according to Ullmann. But the emergency order means that even without the backup from Green Mountain, these communities and ranches will be unlikely to have their water supplies cut off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Buoys used to warn boaters of approaching the spillway at Green Mountain Reservoir lie on rocks high above the waterline, Saturday in Heeney. (Jason Connolly, Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/p>\n

The Eagle River Water and Sanitation District, which serves Vail and other small towns in Eagle County, has water in the HUP.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Working in the shadow of a nearly snowless winter, the Eagle River District moved early to enact watering restrictions, limiting outdoor use to just two days a week back in April, after March saw temperatures soar to 80 degrees and the patchy snow cover evaporate months earlier than normal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe writing was on the wall,\u201d said Siri Roman, CEO of the Eagle River Water and Sanitation District. \u201cThis is a benefit of being in the headwaters and being a resort,\u201d she said referring to the headwaters of the Colorado River. \u201cOur whole community is so connected to snowpack and snow-water equivalencies and what that means. By February we knew there wasn\u2019t enough snow to change the picture for us. We wanted to get to the decision-makers early and say the red lights are flashing. We need to prepare for a water shortage this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today a banner on its website warns<\/a> that the risk of water shortages this summer \u201cis very high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eagle residents took conservation messages seriously<\/p>\n

In Eagle, Tom Gosiorowski, the utilities manager, was standing in Brush Creek shooting videos for the town\u2019s Facebook page, letting its 10,000 water customers know that the stream was the community\u2019s only source of water and it wasn\u2019t looking good. Eagle also relies on the HUP for some of its backup supplies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really wholly dependent on the stream flow and the water that is in the creek. It\u2019s different from the big Front Range utilities\u201d that have reservoirs, he said.<\/p>\n

The district is limiting outdoor water use to two days a week and is sharply limiting the filling of hot tubs and swimming pools. Gosiorowski said he expects golf courses to be restricted as well as the summer wears on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could get to a point where they can only irrigate tees and greens on the golf course,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve never had to reduce use, but this is so extreme that I think there will be some.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gosiorowski said the town was still working on worst-case scenario planning for the end of summer, when streams are normally at their driest. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to know exactly what\u2019s going to happen. We\u2019ve never experienced a drought to this degree in recorded history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aspen has also enacted two-day-a-week watering and is prohibiting the filling of pools and hot tubs.<\/p>\n

Grand Lake, another community that could be impacted <\/a>by the shortages at Green Mountain, is not showing signs of strain yet, though officials there are concerned about lake levels.<\/p>\n

Grand Lake, the deepest natural lake in Colorado, is linked to two other reservoirs, Shadow Mountain and Lake Granby. All three are part of Northern Water<\/a>\u2019s Colorado-Big Thompson Project. The C-BT delivers water from the Colorado River to 1 million customers and hundreds of farms on the northern Front Range.<\/p>\n

Mike Cassio is a citizen activist who tracks Grand Lake\u2019s health<\/a> and works with a coalition of community groups and water agencies to help manage the system. Cassio said he\u2019s worried about late summer water levels falling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know Mother Nature controls everything,\u201d Cassio said. If levels in Lake Granby and Shadow Mountain fall too low, water quality will suffer and that \u201cwill be the biggest issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kathy Chandler-Henry sits on the river district\u2019s board and is a former Eagle County commissioner. She said the brown hillsides and dusty streambeds are unnerving.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore it was never a question,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was always snowfall, there was always water. \u2026 Nothing like this year, when it was 80 degrees in March in Vail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in the 1980s, she said she participated in some regional planning efforts to help the Western Slope learn how to manage its growth. That there could be a winter without snow was unthinkable, if not downright funny.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne planning consultant in the workshop asked folks what it would be like without snow,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd everyone just laughed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite this summer\u2019s deep dry spell, water users say they are encouraged by recent light rains and cool weather. Just weeks ago, the HUP was projected to barely fill at all, but now the 66,000 acre-foot pool is rising again. It recently topped 33,000 acre-feet and is expected to move higher, providing some relief.<\/p>\n

But Mueller, of the river district, said this summer is a dress rehearsal for what lies ahead as climate change and warmer temperatures continue to hamper mountain snows<\/a> and spring stream levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are just beginning to grapple with the impacts of climate change. Science indicates that 30 years from now, this year may be on the wetter side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Type of Story: News<\/p>\n

Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This Fresh Water News story is a collaboration between The Colorado Sun and Water Education Colorado. It also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[317033,11751,192,317034,209351,94280,317035,317036,317037,209353,317038,317039,79,6808,25044],"class_list":["post-737051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-colorado-state-engineer","tag-eagle","tag-environment","tag-fresh-water-news","tag-grand-lake","tag-grand-valley","tag-green-mountain-reservoir","tag-kremmling","tag-lake-granby","tag-northern-water","tag-roaring-fork-river","tag-ruedi-reservoir","tag-science","tag-tourism","tag-western-slope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737051","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=737051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}