Water Wednesday: Low snowpack leads to poor river outlook

Hi there. This is Rica Fulton from Dolores River Boating Advocates here to provide some information on this year's water forecast for Water Wednesday, as of yesterday afternoon, the Dolores River in Dolores is running at 435 cubic feet per second. The Animas River in Durango is running at 589 cubic feet per second. And the San Juan River in bluff, Utah, is running at 733 cubic feet per second. Across the board, this year is one of the worst snow packs in recorded history. The unprecedented March heat wave really set the region back in terms of available snow to help feed the rivers here in the southwest, the river started to run too early for many agricultural producers to use and before recreation really ramps up. Yesterday, the Colorado River Basin Forecast Center released their water forecast estimates for the year for the Upper Colorado River Basin, this forecast translates into the amount of snow pack in the mountains into 1000s of acre feet of water that will flow into our rivers. For the Dolores River, the average water inflow at the town of Dolores is 215,000 acre feet. But this year, they're projecting that there will only be 76,000 acre feet flowing into McPhee reservoir from the Dolores River. This is only 35% of the medium inflow amount, and is one of the three lowest years in the past, 113 years on record for boaters. This means there will be a really short season on the upper Dolores above McPhee reservoir. In fact, the peak flows could have already occurred a few weeks ago. For larger rafts, anything lower than 450 CFS is tight, but smaller crafts are okay. On lower flows, it goes without saying, there will be no boating season below McPhee Dam. And since the downstream releases are subject to shortages, the river will really suffer this year. Currently, there is only five cubic feet per second being released from the dam. While there still may be some precipitation in the forecast, it will be a dry year for us all, boaters and farmers alike.