Taylor River flows to start dropping Aug. 6

Water flows in the Taylor River will begin decreasing today, Aug. 6, as water releases from the Taylor Park Reservoir begin to drop, altering recreational opportunities and habitat along the river heading into the fall season.

Releases are expected to drop from the previous 225 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 200 cfs on Aug. 6, with flows gradually declining t0 150 cfs by Aug. 8 and 75 cfs by Sept. 1.

The decrease in flows is part of Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District’s (UGRWCD’s) management of the river and reservoir, a complex annual process involving a variety of stakeholders and intended to ensure that the reservoir reaches levels that will sustain its use next year when the water year ends on Oct. 31.

UGRWCD General Manager Sonja Chavez and General Counsel John McClow said that the extreme drought conditions have made this annual process much more complicated, and may have ongoing repercussions for water releases and Taylor River flows into 2027.

McClow explained that two water rights govern the management of the Taylor Park Reservoir, a senior 106,230 acre feet first fill water right held by the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association (UVWUA) and a junior 106,230 acre feet second fill water right held by the district.

The first fill water right gives the UVWUA first access to the water that fills the reservoir, up to the 106,230 acre feet needed to fill the reservoir, after which the UGRWCD’s second fill water right takes effect and the conservancy district can begin accumulating water for its use.

McClow said that the UVWUA uses this water right for irrigation downstream in the Uncompahgre Valley. The UGRWCD’s water right is designated for enhancing recreation in the lake and, when released, for benefitting the fishery and recreational value of the Taylor and Gunnison rivers above Blue Mesa Reservoir, and providing supplemental irrigation water for agricultural purposes.

Two factors add complexity to this relationship and set of rights.

The first is that, when first fill water is released from the reservoir, the UVWUA is compensated by the addition of the same volume of water to an account in Blue Mesa Reservoir, which the association can also draw on to be released downstream to its users.

The second is that, at the beginning of the water year on Nov. 1, whatever second fill water remains in the Taylor Park Reservoir becomes first fill water and is counted towards the amount for the UVWUA’s first fill right. Whatever water is remaining in the UVWUA’s account in Blue Mesa Reservoir on Nov. 1 is also counted towards the UVWUA’s first fill water right.

In a normal year, this results in the UVWUA’s first fill right being fully satisfied on or near Nov. 1 with the combination of remaining Taylor Park water and the water in the Blue Mesa account, meaning that the UGRWCD can quickly begin counting water that flows into the Taylor Reservoir towards its own second fill right.

McClow said that, assuming the UVWUA’s water right is satisfied on Nov. 1, the UGRWCD’s second fill water right will usually be fully satisfied with water flowing into the reservoir before the end of the water year.

However, in dry years, he said that the water levels in Taylor Park Reservoir and in the Blue Mesa account may not be enough to quickly satisfy the UVWUA’s right, pushing back the date when the district can begin accumulating second fill water.

The amount of second fill water the district can accumulate combined with the amount of water it aims to have in the reservoir at the end of the water year, its down payment towards satisfying the UVWUA’s water right, determines each summer’s budget of water that can be used between May and November to assist recreation, habitat and irrigation on the Taylor and Gunnison rivers.

In wet years, the district can accumulate a large amount of second fill water, allowing it to release more water to benefit habitat, recreation and irrigators while keeping reservoir levels higher at the end of the season, meaning that its payment towards the UVWUA water right is larger and this right is more likely to be satisfied early.

In dry years, the district can accumulate less second fill, meaning it has to balance a leaner budget of water for recreation, habitat and irrigation in the summer while making a smaller payment towards next year’s first fill.

Consecutive dry years like 2025 and 2026 are especially problematic, McClow said, pushing towards a low first fill payment in the fall that combines with lower amounts of water running into the reservoir further straining the water budget next year.

The decisions about how to use this budget of water are guided by the Taylor Local Users Group (TLUG), McClow said. This group meets frequently during the summer and fall and includes representatives from rafting and boating interests, flat water recreation interests on the reservoir, wade fishermen, irrigation users on the Taylor and Gunnison Rivers and property interests along the rivers, in addition to a member of the UGRWCD Board of Directors.

This group negotiates plans for reservoir releases that best satisfy the competing needs of these water users, McClow explained, which is then approved by the UGRWCD board, the UVWUA, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Colorado River Water Conservation District, the signatories of a 1975 agreement that laid down many of the rules that govern the reservoir’s operations.

These plans are a balancing act and a forum for negotiations about water use in the river, Chavez said, with each party benefitting from different things in terms of river flows. High flows during the summer benefit rafting and boating but could impede wade fishing, she said. Irrigators focus on flows at the beginning and end of the summer with less interest about flows in the middle period while fishermen are focused on maintaining flows over the whole season to help protect habitat.

Drafting these plans also involves a variety of water forecasts, including ones from the Bureau of Reclamation and internal forecasting done by the UGRWCD in partnership with Airborne Snow Observatories Inc., Chavez said.

She added that the process has become especially dependent on UGRWCD’s own forecasting work due to staffing losses at the Bureau of Reclamation causing a reduction in the frequency of the forecast the TLUG and the conservancy uses from biweekly to now monthly.

Finding the right balance this year has been especially difficult, Chavez said, with a reduced amount of water available due to the dry winter and previous drought and a range of significant needs.

She said that the conditions have harmed many users of the river, including fishing guides and rafting companies who have had to reduce their number of trips and have seen struggles with recruiting staff for the summer due to uncertainty about whether there would be a full summer of work.

“There’s been a lot of discussion and dialogue about that,” she said. “It’s painful.”

The overall river conditions this year have also been challenging for fish, Chavez said, with higher than normal temperatures and potential for temperature driven fish kills that are rare on the Gunnison and Taylor rivers.

McClow said that the TLUG is critical to ensuring what water is available to is used to the optimal effect.

“There’s just so much water, period,” he said, “and the existence of this group makes sure that every stakeholder gets as much of their fair share as possible, as much of their needs as possible. Without that kind of management, it would be chaos. Or, if somebody else got to decide on the releases and it would just look like someone looking after his or her own interest, all of the stakeholders would be at a disadvantage.

“This is an ideal system for operating a river like that. Many other places don’t have that and so you see dry stream beds because somebody let out too much water in the spring and so forth.”

Chavez said that the members of the TLUG are highly attuned to each other’s needs and concerns.

“I would say that, because we’ve been able to manage the flows this year without any conflict and with really good compromise, it really is an excellent example of how a community can come together to manage a resource effectively,” said Chavez.

This group, alongside UGRWCD staff, will continue to adjust the release plan to respond to changes in weather conditions and guide the reservoir to the currently planned level of 50,000 acre feet on Oct. 31, significantly lower than the 70,000 acre foot level that the UGRWCD typically aims for in normal or wet years.

McClow said that a drought next year is likely to have repercussions for next year’s second fill and the amount of water the UGRWCD will have available.

If 2027 is another dry year, he said it is even possible that the first fill will not be satisfied until August 2027, meaning that the UGRWCD will have very limited opportunities to collect second fill water.

In a similar situation in the past, McClow said that the district was only able to start collecting second fill in August and only got about 3,200 acre feet of its 106,230 acre foot right before the end of the water year.