From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
The Boustead Tunnel, which brings Fry-Ark water into the valley, was still flowing heavily Thursday but starting to slow down. The melting snowpack was augmented by a week of rain showers in the mountains, [Roy Vaughan, Bureau of Reclamation manager for the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project] said. That means the rivers on the Western Slope are flowing at levels high enough to satisfy local demands and diversions into the Arkansas River basin can continue.
To date, more than 56,000 acre-feet of water have come into the tunnel through Boustead into Turquoise Lake. Storage in all three project reservoirs – Pueblo, Turquoise and Twin Lakes – is well above normal, but there is still room for nearly 20,000 acre-feet in the upper reservoirs. The imports are about 4,000 acre-feet higher than average and nearly to the level projected in early May. Projections have shifted after alternating wet and dry stretches this winter and spring, an early spring runoff and heavy late spring precipitation.
Wary of running into another shortfall like the one that occurred in 2008, the Southeastern district last month trimmed allocations of project water to about 29,500 acre-feet. The district had to repay the Pueblo Board of Water Works 5,000 acre-feet loaned last year to meet the district’s obligations.
From The Fairplay Flume (Debra Orecchio):
Five locations within [Park] county posted snowfalls last winter that ranged from 16 percent below average in Fairplay to 36 percent below average in Lake George. Lake George, in southeastern Park County, was also the only location of the five to have below-average snowfall in the winter of 2007-2008…
According to data on the National Weather Service Web site, the Bailey snowfall for this past winter of 2008-2009 year was 62.5 inches, which is 14.12 inches, or about 19 percent below average…
Snowfall in Antero, near Antero Reservoir in southwest Park County, was also below average. Only 38.5 inches of snow fell this past winter, which was 8.3 inches, or about 18 percent, below the 48-winter average of 46.83…
The Flume obtained data for Fairplay, in northwest Park County, that goes back only 21 winters. This past winter’s snowfall of 75.8 inches was 14 inches, or about 16 percent, below the 89.83-inch average over 21 winters…
The snowfall in Grant, which is 10 miles northwest of Bailey in northeast Park County, was 79.8 inches in the winter of 2008-2009, which was 15.5 inches, or 16 percent, below the 46-winter average of 95.3 inches per winter…
The Lake George area fared the worst this past winter for snowfall, getting 36 inches of snow. That was 36 percent below the 49-winter average of 56.28 inches.