Click the link to read the article on the Denver7.com website (Colette Bordelon). Here’s an excerpt:
April 7, 2025
“The problem is becoming tougher to deal with and more acute,” one Western water lawyer told Denver7.
…this time of year has water experts wondering what the snowpack levels will mean for runoff into the Colorado River, a critical resource.
“Right now is exactly when we start being concerned about what our runoff is going to look like,” said James Eklund, who is a Western water lawyer. “It’s starting to get warmer, and so all that snow that everybody skied on and snowboarded on over the winter is going to start melting off and go into our rivers and our reservoirs.”
“Right now, we’re showing about 67% of average runoff, and that’s really remarkable, because our snowpack is right around 100% of average,” Eklund explained. “Even though we’ve got pretty good precipitation, and we did have really good skiing conditions in many parts of the state over much of the ski season, it’s not translating to as much runoff as we had hoped.”
Sixty-seven percent of average runoff is “not where you want to be,” according to Eklund, who considers this to be a “below average year.”