From the Montrose Daily Press ( Katharhynn Heidelberg):
The valley needs to brace itself for another tight water year, with even less available than in 2012. The Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association has delayed turning on the Gunnison Tunnel until a least April 1, does not expect to deliver 100 percent of its water and won’t be renewing pump contracts for approximately 250 people in Montrose and Delta counties. The UVWUA last year turned on the water March 18 and kept it on until early last fall.
From the Glenwood Springs Post Independent (Nelson Harvey):
The “Snapshot assessment of the Roaring Fork Watershed” finds that the Roaring Fork River was driest on July 25 [2012] near Aspen’s Mill Street Bridge, when flows were measured at a trickling 4.7 cubic feet per second (CFS). The lowest flow on the Crystal River was measured near the Thomas Road Bridge south of Carbondale on Sept. 22, at a paltry 1 CFS…
In addition to being used for irrigation, much of the water in the Roaring Fork River above Aspen is diverted in the early summer to users on Colorado’s Front Range, through the Independence Pass Tunnel and into the Arkansas River basin. By mid-July or early August, a water right held by downstream agricultural users in the Grand Valley called the Cameo Call typically comes into effect, leading so-called “transbasin” diversions to cease and prompting water levels to rise in the river through much of the Roaring Fork Valley…
If water levels stay low next summer, Sharon Clarke of the Roaring Fork Conservancy said her group may consider other methods of improving flows, such as deepening and narrowing parts of the river channels or planting vegetation on the banks to add shade and reduce erosion. “One of the things we want to look at is restoring the channel to function better at low flows,” she said.