{"id":132744,"date":"2026-06-11T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/facing-irrigation-water-shortage-cortez-supplements-parks-with-potable-water\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T11:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T17:26:14","slug":"facing-irrigation-water-shortage-cortez-supplements-parks-with-potable-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/facing-irrigation-water-shortage-cortez-supplements-parks-with-potable-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Facing irrigation water shortage, Cortez supplements parks with potable water"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Conquistador
Conquistador Golf Course remains a priority for the city as dry or dying grass could impact revenue and increase maintenance costs. Creighton Wright, Cortez Parks and Recreation director, said replacing dead trees and turf would also be more expensive than allocating municipal water to supplement park irrigation. (Journal file photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

With Cortez Parks and Recreation expecting to deplete their limited irrigation water supply by early July, City Council approved plans to supplement city parks with potable water.<\/p>\n

During their meeting Tuesday, the council approved allocating $294,000 from the city\u2019s general reserves toward distributing some of the city\u2019s municipal and industrial water allotment \u2013 which would otherwise go unused \u2013 to parks.<\/p>\n

The extreme drought plaguing Montezuma County led Montezuma Valley Irrigation, the city\u2019s irrigation water provider, to cut the city\u2019s allocation to 37% of normal. Wright said the allocation could be increased, but he could not guarantee that. Without the majority of the its water supply, the irrigation season \u2013 which runs into September \u2013 would be shortened by three months, risking the health of trees and grasses in city parks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t water in the hottest part of the season, we run the risk of killing grass, killing trees, and it frankly will take longer and (be) more expensive to bring that stuff back when we have access to water,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n

Once MVI water runs out, the city would cut park irrigation by 40% and the golf course and softball complex by 20%.<\/p>\n

Under the cuts, Conquistador Golf Course \u2013 which has generated over $400,000 in revenue for the city so far this year \u2013 will require 2.4 million gallons of municipal water per week. The parks will require 1.5 million gallons and the softball complex will need 200,000 gallons.<\/p>\n

Council Member Bill Lewis, who sits on the Golf Advisory Committee, stressed the importance of maintaining the turf, which relies on adequate watering.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you lose a green, you\u2019ve lost your business,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t keep that golf course green, we\u2019re going to have a reduction in revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pinto Bean Golf Classic at Conquistador Golf Course in August, which draws golfers and fans alike into Cortez and is a boost to the city\u2019s economy, came to his mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have many people from outside the city that come here to compete and they stay overnight and they eat out and spend a lot of money,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cWe need to keep that course as green as we can considering the conditions, or we may have people that won\u2019t come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wright said the golf course would remain functional for players under the cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should still be enough water that the grass will stay greenish \u2013 mostly green. Same with South Softball Complex. The park areas, the functional turf areas: the same,\u201d Wright said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be the surrounding areas that we\u2019ll start seeing more of the yellow around it.\u201d<\/p>\n

City staff say extending the irrigation season with potable water would not significantly impact the water treatment plant, which treats residents\u2019 and business\u2019s drinking water throughout the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have assured me that they can certainly generate the amount of water that we need,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n

However, Wright said, city staff are accounting for the worst case scenario, assuming MVI will not extend irrigation water supply and the summer remains dry.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, if we have no rain, no moisture, no nothing for the next three months, this is what it\u2019s going to take for us to keep our parks and golf course usable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Weather forecasters predict an active monsoon season this summer, which could alleviate some of the need for potable water at city parks. Any of the $294,000 not spent on the irrigation would go straight back to city funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s a cooler September or monsoon rains or MVI gets extended, all of those start cutting this number off,\u201d Wright said. \u201cThere is even a chance that maybe we don\u2019t need hardly any of it depending on how long MVI gets extended. This is absolutely a worst-case scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Conquistador Golf Course, South Softball Complex to be prioritized as conservation measures enter effect<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":132745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[28,29,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-132744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132744","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=132744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132799,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132744\/revisions\/132799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132744"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=132744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}