Water war warms up at Horsetooth

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

Politically speaking, the waters at Horsetooth Reservoir have been pretty choppy this summer. Demands on the resource have been high from all sides, and some feel that recreation is getting short shrift.

On one side of the water war, officials claim that the reservoir was managed as well as possible this year, considering the weather and demands from its priority users - agriculture and municipalities. On the other side, a private marina operator and the county parks department are frustrated and looking for answers.

This summer's discontent could lead to efforts to recognize recreation as an official priority of the Colorado-Big Thompson project, which includes Horsetooth and other reservoirs. When Congress approved the project in 1937, the defined purposes were to provide water for agriculture and municipal/industrial use and to generate power. "Nowhere in that scenario is recreation," said Kara Lamb, spokesperson for the Bureau of Reclamation which owns the C-BT facilities.

Gary Buffington, director of Larimer County Parks and Open Space, countered that the bureau "can't ignore the fact that recreation is a part of the project." Horsetooth Reservoir was recently featured on the cover of Money Magazine, he noted, and the reservoir's recreational amenities are a "huge part of this community," both from an economic and a quality-of-life standpoint.

Glen Werth, owner of Inlet Bay Marina at Horsetooth, said he would like to amend the 1937 bill to include recreation as a third priority of the C-BT project. That initiative would have to come from private citizens to be effective, Buffington said, and he's hoping it won't be necessary.

Buffington plans to set up a meeting with Bureau officials so he can better understand their management of C-BT water this year. "The bureau has reasons for managing as they do," he said, but he wants to see the charts and get some questions answered. The bureau contracts with Larimer County to manage recreation at Horsetooth Reservoir and three other lakes in the C-BT system.

Buffington also wants recreation to be a recognized priority in the water distribution decisions. "I would hope it wouldn't come to a Congressional matter; I would rather get together locally," he said. "We've been partners (with the Bureau of Reclamation) for over 50 years, and I think we'll be able to talk this through."

Both Buffington and Werth said they recognize the importance of agriculture and the municipalities when it comes to water priorities. However, they would both like to see the reservoir start out with as much water as possible in the spring.

This spring, Horsetooth topped out at an elevation of 5,414 feet, slightly down from the average of 5,415 feet. At the full level, the elevation is 5,430 feet. Werth said that even if the season could start at 5420 feet, it would make a big difference in the length of the boating season.

"Starting almost 20 feet down doesn't give us a good chance to succeed," he said.

The boating season also impacts the county parks budget, noted Buffington. "We've had a good summer, with revenues up," he said, but fall is an important part of the boating season. With current reservoir levels, he said, boating will likely fall off and the county could lose up to $50,000 in revenues.

Weather a factor

Bureau officials blame this year's reservoir levels on weather and demand. This past winter, there was considerable optimism through March, with above-average snowpack in the mountains. Precipitation came to a halt in April, however, and stream runoff was extremely low. With severe drought conditions on the plains, ag demands for water started early in the spring.

Although the reservoir started the season close to its average depth, the situation deteriorated rapidly. Demand remained high, and water began leaving the reservoir much faster than it entered. In July, the water level at Horsetooth was dropping more than a foot a day.

At that point, boaters began grumbling, and Werth said he was "in a little bit of a panic," thinking he might have to shut down operations at the end of the month. He called a meeting on July 24 to discuss the situation with bureau and county parks officials, and about 80 marina customers showed up for the gathering.

About a week later, conditions at the reservoir began to improve, but bureau officials said it had nothing to do with the meeting. A big factor in the improvement, according to Lamb, was that Carter Lake finally reached its target level, so managers could run more West Slope water to Horsetooth. Ag demand also slowed down.

As a result, dire predictions of a short season at the marina did not materialize, and Werth said he was grateful for that. However, some marina customers had already pulled their large boats from the reservoir because of water concerns in July.

Looking ahead to future summer seasons, Werth said he wants to address the long-range priority issue at the reservoir.

"We know who the boss is, but we want a good boss who will look out for us," he said.

Fred Ore, the Eastern Colorado area manager for the Bureau of Reclamation, defended this year's water management. "The people that do this have been doing it for a long time, and they're the best at what they do," he said.

After reviewing the summer's data, he said the bureau would have followed the same plan again. "We move water on the project exactly as authorized," he said, meaning that the two legislated priorities are honored.

He said projections of water supply and demand are made in December, and this past winter managers brought over the appropriate amount of water based on those projections. However, both runoff and precipitation turned out to be less than anticipated.

Ore said Carter and Horsetooth are the "safety valves" for catching spring runoff, so the bureau doesn't like them to get too high ahead of the runoff. Letting water spill out of the reservoirs is a violation of the Colorado River Interstate Compact, Lamb noted.

Looking at the season as a whole, Lamb said more water than average was delivered to Horsetooth Reservoir this year; however, the reservoir level in late August was below average. On Aug. 22, the reservoir stood at 5,386 feet, while the average for the end of August is 5,392 feet.

In terms of changing C-BT legislation to include recreation as a priority, Ore said it would likely be a difficult process because of the impact on already-established priorities, namely ag/municipal needs and power generation.