Click the link to read the article on the Colorado Public Radio website (Tegan Wendland). Here’s an excerpt:
May 22, 2026
The state and the Colorado River Water Conservation District, a public water policy and planning agency on the Western Slope, have a new plan to protect mountain towns from losing their water supply during an unprecedented drought this summer. The District’s proposed emergency water supply plan was approved at the Colorado Water Conservation Board meeting on Wednesday, May 20, 2026…The emergency plan would protect certain water users on the main stem of the Colorado River by replacing water that would have historically come from Green Mountain Reservoir. This year forecasts say it won’t fill up for the first time in history…A portion of the reservoir is reserved for what’s called the “historic users pool,” which holds 66,000 acre-feet of water…It’s an important emergency water supply plan that protects approximately 250 municipal and domestic water entities across the Colorado River Basin from being called out due to senior water rights claims. It was created as part of the Colorado Big Thompson project, a massive water engineering project that created reservoirs and redirected Colorado River water to Front Range cities…After a drought in 1977, water managers set aside the historic user pool for agricultural and domestic users. It’s historically always been filled and available to protect those water rights from being usurped by more senior users…Every year, a group of agricultural and utility entities in the Grand Valley near Grand Junction makes what’s called the “Cameo call” to use water from it. It’s the largest and most senior call on the main stem of the river and demands that they get enough water for their needs. That includes the Grand Valley Water Users Association, Grand Valley Irrigation Company, Orchard Mesa Irrigation District, Palisade Irrigation District, and Mesa County Irrigation District. The call is made annually, generally between June and August. This year, the fear is that if that water demand is called early, there won’t be enough water for upstream towns and municipalities, including Silverthorne, Eagle River, and Grand, Garfield and Mesa counties…
The River District plans to borrow water from other reservoirs — the nearby Wolford Mountain and Ruedi reservoirs — to replace the water that would have come from Green Mountain and to prevent the Cameo call from being made…At the meeting, the board committed to support the move with $585,000, in addition to $342,000 the District committed last month.
“Instead of having to turn off all of these cities’ water rights up here and the farms and ranches up above the Grand Valley, the Green Mountain historic user pool would release water to meet the Cameo call and protect the West Slope users. It is a really appropriate use of that water,” Mueller told CPR News.
