Water resources in the Colorado River Basin are looking better than last year as southwestern water managers continue to evaluate ways to reduce consumptive use.

The Southwest Basin Roundtable’s Colorado River subcommittee met Thursday for an update about the state of water resources in the Colorado River and to discuss a demand management program the state is considering.

After strong snowstorms in late December and early January, water resources in western Colorado appear healthier than last year.

“Water year 2022 so far is looking a little bit better than 2021, although as a reminder, at this time of year in 2021, things didn't look all that bad yet,” said Michelle Garrison, a water resources specialist with the Colorado Water Conservation Board.

The U.S. Geological Survey defines the water year, which is used to track precipitation and other measurements, as the 12-month period starting Oct. 1 and ending Sept. 30.

Poor soil moisture conditions last year led to the second lowest ever runoff in the Upper Colorado River Basin last year, Garrison said.

Early precipitation this winter has led to above-average snowpack and better soil moisture conditions.

“We are in the accumulation season, and this is a good place to be for this time of year,” she said. “Hopefully, the snowpack that we get, we’ll see a little better runoff from in spring of 2022.”

While water resources are looking better than last year, early projections still vary widely as the Upper Colorado River Basin has encountered a dry spell the last few weeks.

“We’re in that part of the year where things bounced around a lot,” Garrison said.

Snowpack graphs from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service for river basins like the Gunnison and Dolores that feed the Colorado River show a huge uptick in precipitation through the beginning of January, but a leveling off as of late.

Climate forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show warm and dry weather for much of western Colorado for February.

“If things were to stay dry, we could still end up quite a bit below normal,” Garrison said. “If we see an uptick in storms again, hopefully we can track above-normal for a while. (But) given the direction of 2021, runoff for this water year is still tracking pretty low.”

In addition to the hydrologic update, the Colorado River subcommittee met to discuss a potential demand management program for the state’s Colorado River Basin.

The Colorado Water Conservation Board has been studying the feasibility of a program that would see “temporary, voluntary and compensated reductions” in Colorado River Basin water use.

The four states in the upper basin, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico, have each undertaken their own analysis of a program to cut consumptive use as climate change and drought exacerbate concerns of water cuts and harm to water resources both in the Upper and Lower Colorado River basins.

“When we talk about demand management, that’s just a fancy term for reducing consumptive use,” said Peter Fleming, general counsel for the Colorado River District, which addresses water security in Western Colorado. “There may be other ways to tackle that, but it’s really about reducing consumptive use, not about efficiency.”

Other basin roundtables, including the Gunnison, Arkansas, South Platte, Yampa/White/Green and Colorado, which represent Colorado’s eight major river basins and the Denver metropolitan area, have issued statements outlining their priorities and providing input as the state considers a demand management program.

The Southwest Basin Roundtable, which represents water users from Archuleta County west to the Utah border and north into Mesa County, has so far refrained from developing its own statement.

Edward Tolen, general manager of the La Plata Archuleta Water District in Ignacio, said that the roundtable would be better served if each organization provided their own opinion of the program separately.

“We might be better off just individual organizations taking a position as opposed to trying to come to a consensus with the whole roundtable,” he said. “There’s so many complexities involved and I’m sure so many different opinions that it may be difficult for us to come to anything but a general consensus.”

Steve Wolff, general manager of the Southwestern Water Conservation District in Durango, questioned if representatives on the roundtable and across the state were using the same definition of demand management.

“Lots of groups in Colorado and around the Upper Basin have been talking demand management for almost three years now,” he said. “I’m just curious if we all have the same concept of what demand management is. Do we continue to talk about the same thing or has that concept morphed into a whole variety of demand management programs?”

Representatives on the subcommittee had no clear answer, agreeing to continue discussions at their next meeting in late April.

As the meeting ended, Gigi Richard, an at-large member of the Southwest Basin Roundtable and a professor of geosciences at Fort Lewis College, argued the group could find common ground, and doing so would allow them to exert greater influence on the state’s demand management plan.

“I think there is potential for us to identify a couple of things that we may be in agreement on,” she said. “... If we could have a few points where we are in consensus and can provide some kind of position, that would have a lot of value for us as a group and then also for us in the statewide conversation.”

ahannon@durangoherald.com