From West Slope Now (Marcus Beasley):
We’re currently under a severe drought here in Grand Junction, but how’s that affecting the snow pack up in the mountains, and what will the results be come spring time here in the grand valley?
The “Ute Water Conservancy District” are keeping their eyes on the snow pack up in the mountains, and that way, they will know if we are going to have a shortage of water here in the spring.
“Ute Water Conservancy District uses the north side of the mesa for our source water. We’re looking at two snotel sites on the north side of the Grand Mesa. We look at Mesa Lakes which is currently at 26%, and Park Reservoir, which is at 25%.”
Those numbers are a little low because we’d like to see numbers around 100%, but it’s a little too early to start worrying about the water for the spring.
“mid to late March is when we’ll have a better indicator of where we’re going to be for the rest of the year, and that’s when we’ll start to formulate a plan if we need to move into any of our phases in our drought plan, it’ll happen around that time.”