Colorado river rats will have their work cut out for them this summer, as state streamflow forecasts dip well below average, signaling a short white water rafting season this month and next, and challenging river conditions come late summer.
Statewide streamflow forecasts this month are well below normal, ranging from a low of 48% of median on the Rio Grande to a high of 79% of average in the Upper Colorado River Basin, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Services, a federal agency that tracks snow and water.
“It’s not looking great,” said Brian Domonkos, Colorado snow survey supervisor at the NRCS in Lakewood. Domonkos was referring to recent warm weather that is speeding up the melt of a snowpack that registered barely normal earlier this year and which means shrinking stream flows as the summer progresses.
This Fresh Water News story is a collaboration between The Colorado Sun and Water Education Colorado. It also appears at wateredco.org/fresh-water-news.
Across the state, water managers and river guides are gearing up for the dry season.
On the Arkansas River, a multiagency voluntary flow program, designed to help the rafting industry and irrigators, is searching for ways to retime the release of water on certain stretches in an effort to keep the river as full as possible for as long as possible, according to Chris Woodka, senior policy manager for the Southeastern Water Conservancy District in Pueblo. The district, which manages Pueblo Reservoir for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, participates in the voluntary flow program each year, along with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Trout Unlimited, the Arkansas River Outfitters Association and Chaffee County.
In early April, Woodka said, water managers thought they would be dealing with an average water supply year. “Then it stopped snowing,” Woodka said.
At that time, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was forecasting water supplies for the Fryingpan Arkansas Project, of 58,000 acre-feet of water. Since then that number has dropped to 40,000 acre-feet, Woodka said. An acre foot equals nearly 326,000 gallons of water, enough to serve two to four urban families for one year.
“There is a real concern right now that the flows during June may not be sufficient to hit the targets,” he said, referring to the operating agreement that spells out how much water is needed in various sections of the river for healthy rafting flows.
But not all rivers in the state have dams and reservoirs where water can be stored and released on a schedule that’s not dependent on Mother Nature. That’s the case on the Yampa River, where there is very little water infrastructure. This summer that means the white water season there will also be ultra short, though not without some hope, said Jamie Hood, manager of Bucking Rainbow Outfitters in Steamboat Springs.
“The end of June is when that is going to start running out,” Hood said. But when that happens, the Bucking Rainbow guides take guests to the Upper Colorado, near Kremmling, another river stretch that can benefit from timed releases of water.
And even as the water shrinks, Hood says, floaters can still enjoy the water, even without the adrenaline rush of cold, frothy, fast-moving flows.
“No matter when you come, you will still be able to get on the river,” Hood said.
Down in Durango, however, there are fewer choices when the Animas River passes peak white water, according to river guide Robbie Chapple.
“It’s going to be a low water year for sure,” said Chapple, who has been guiding on the Animas for the past five years. “We are at Mother Nature’s mercy.”
But the prospect of a dry river isn’t too daunting, he said. “You just get really good at missing rocks and moving people around.”
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