From the La Junta Tribune-Democrat (Bette McFarren):
The abundance of water has caused the Pueblo Reservoir to make plans to start limited spills to control the water level. The top of the active conservation surface elevation is 4,880.38 feet or 245,373 acre-feet. The reservoir is, as of Tuesday, at or above 259,000 a.f. The level must be down to the active conservation number by April 15, so the reservoir will start 2,000 cubic feet per second controlled releases sometime in April, currently projected to be April 12.
The normal end of the winter water season is March 15. Ditches were encouraged to start taking winter water on March 1, if possible, to reduce the total acre-feet in the reservoir. If the farmers are able to take the water early, they will offset the possibility of losing some of their winter water in the required spills. First week of March, most ditch companies will be looking at pre-irrigating so they don’t lose their carry-over winter water from last year, said Jeanette Myers of the Colorado Division of Water Resources.