{"id":127183,"date":"2026-05-01T18:07:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T00:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-city-council-hears-water-supply-report-in-the-midst-of-severe-drought\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T12:35:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T18:35:27","slug":"cortez-city-council-hears-water-supply-report-in-the-midst-of-severe-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-city-council-hears-water-supply-report-in-the-midst-of-severe-drought\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez City Council hears water supply report in the midst of severe drought"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"McPhee
McPhee Reservoir provides residential and agricultural water supply to many in Montezuma County. Limited snow pack and warm temperatures have resulted in its low water level \u2013 harming farmers most of all. (The Journal file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Ken Curtis, general manager of the Dolores Water Conservancy District, gave Cortez City Council an equally bleak and hopeful presentation about the devastating impacts of a dry winter and spring Tuesday.<\/p>\n

He assured council members that municipal water in Cortez and Towaoc is protected while addressing the consequences of prolonged bouts of low precipitation and high temperatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are dire times. We\u2019re going to be about the third worst year on record,\u201d Curtis said. \u201cWe\u2019re just slightly better than our worst year.\u201d<\/p>\n

March was an impactful month for water resources. It was the warmest March in Colorado\u2019s history, yielding<\/a> 0.7 inches of snow, or 14% of the monthly average, for Cortez.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrior to the drought, we often counted on March as one of our biggest snow making months and that has certainly not been the case regularly in the last 26 years,\u201d Curtis said. \u201cPer the precipitation map, we were largely under what the 30-year average would have told us to expect.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March, fire ignited south of Colorado Springs and temperatures reached into the 90s on the eastern plains of the state. Snow melted a month earlier than the average year, depleting the little snow pack present in Southwest Colorado, which Curtis estimated to be about 5% of the average by April 1.<\/p>\n

He said the Cortez area has always relied on snow melt beginning April 1. But the past winter was different.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you spend any time in the lower elevations, none of the snow pack below 9,000 feet stayed the whole winter,\u201d he said. \u201cIt came, it melted. It came, it melted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cortez\u2019s water comes from McPhee Reservoir. However, the Dolores River \u2013 which feeds McPhee \u2013 is at 23% of its average flow. Montezuma County is in severe drought and the city\u2019s mandatory water restrictions preventing the watering of lawns between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. commence May 15.<\/p>\n

The city hasn\u2019t announced any further mandatory restrictions, and Curtis said municipal water will not face cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do prioritize the municipal water,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we talk about our project supply, the first water we set aside is municipal. We will not let the municipalities go short.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Curtis, municipal water supply makes up a small portion of the amount extracted from McPhee Reservoir each year. He estimated it will make up around 10% this year with the ongoing drought, but in previous years it lay somewhere below 5%.<\/p>\n

He said mandatory shortages won\u2019t be imposed, but people around Cortez will experience shortages nonetheless.<\/p>\n

He pointed to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Farm, which he said initially anticipated receiving 8% of its normal water supply but, because of negotiations, has been bumped up to 14%.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be a full farming year,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, a lot of fallowed fields to the south and the north.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior water rights holders in the region will see 40% of their normal water, he said, but ideally that will be raised to 50%.<\/p>\n

City Council member Claire West asked Curtis if there is a way to anticipate the farming community\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n

Curtis, a farmer himself, cited federal and state funds and loans accessible to farmers. Regionally, the Montezuma County Farm Service Agency offers an insurance-type coverage in the event of lower crop yields because of drought and other circumstances.<\/p>\n

However, he said, there\u2019s no good answers for the financial fallout farmers are likely to experience in the face of limited water.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worry about our younger farmers,\u201d he said. \u201cThe revenue doesn\u2019t match the billing.\u201d<\/p>\n

But recent, cooler days have brought some cause for hope when it comes to preserving and prolonging limited water supplies, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis return to spring that we\u2019ve had has actually slowed down the start of the irrigation season,\u201d Curtis said. \u201cThe farmers are turning on, but the cool and somewhat wet weather is being a little bit helpful for the start of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forests in Southwest Colorado are surviving off the remaining moisture, he said, but the next couple months\u2019 weather will determine how quickly fire season will come on. Recent precipitation is also a silver lining \u2013 while McPhee will appear noticeably drained as irrigation season kicks into gear, residents will still be able to enjoy the reservoir as both a lifeline and a recreation opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still here,\u201d Curtis said. \u201cWe\u2019re still thriving. I think we can get through this.\u201d<\/p>\n

avanderveen@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dolores Water Conservancy District General Manager Ken Curtis discusses municipal and agricultural consequences at Tuesday\u2019s City Council meeting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":127184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[1429,402,28,29,6419,295,414],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-127183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez-city-council","tag-drought","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem","tag-water","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128369,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127183\/revisions\/128369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127183"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=127183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}