{"id":44044,"date":"2021-10-28T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-getting-urgent-water-delivery-after-drought-dries-up-canal\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:17:07","slug":"dove-creek-getting-urgent-water-delivery-after-drought-dries-up-canal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-getting-urgent-water-delivery-after-drought-dries-up-canal\/","title":{"rendered":"Dove Creek getting urgent water delivery after drought dries up canal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A water shortage this year forced the Dove Creek Canal to shut off in July instead of October. (Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal)<\/span>Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Water is being delivered to the town of Dove Creek this week to prevent a municipal supply shortage caused by the drought.<\/p>\n

The normal timing for water delivery from McPhee Reservoir to the town\u2019s municipal storage and treatment plant was disrupted this year for the first time.<\/p>\n

A 90% water shortage driven by a below-average snowpack caused the Dove Creek Canal to dry up in July instead of in October, when it normally tops off the town\u2019s municipal reservoir.<\/p>\n

\"Water
Water is being delivered to Dove Creek this week to remedy a shortage because of the drought. (Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal)<\/span>Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Without the solution, the town would run out of water in February, said Chadd Dagan, manager of the Dove Creek Public Works Department.<\/p>\n

To fulfill the town\u2019s water rights in McPhee, the Bureau of Reclamation and Dolores Water Conservancy District arranged to deliver 40 acre-feet of water down the canal to fill the town\u2019s municipal reservoir.<\/p>\n

Slightly more was sent down to create sufficient flow along the 39-mile canal route. Managers anticipate some water seepage into the canal\u2019s earthen base and from evaporation. The delivery is unique, said DWCD General Manager Ken Curtis, because the canal is designed to run at a higher flow rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a first for us. The water is on its way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dagan said the water delivery will provide sufficient supply through spring and into summer. When the canal runs again in May, town storage will be refilled.<\/p>\n

\"Dove
Dove Creek's water supply faced challenges this year because the drought dried up the canal from McPhee Reservoir earlier than usual. A delivery was arranged this week to send the town's water allocation to its storage facility. (Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal)<\/span>Chadd Dagan<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Dove Creek is working on solutions to prevent the water shortage from occurring again.<\/p>\n

Public Works plans to build a second 95 acre-foot reservoir to store the full 280 acre-foot allocation all at once and earlier in the season. Both reservoirs would provide an estimated two-year supply. Also, the town is is working with Montezuma Water Co. to provide an additional water source if needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re putting in place redundancies,\u201d Dagan said.<\/p>\n

Besides rights in McPhee Reservoir, Dove Creek also has rights on the Dolores River, but the water is in a deep canyon and must be piped for many miles to reach town.<\/p>\n

The Dove Creek pumping station along the river has remained idle for many years, Dagan said, and needs repairs to operate again. The town plans to investigate potential grant funding to address the issue.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Dove Creek pumping station on the Dolores River has been idle for many years. (Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal)<\/span>Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The town prefers to receive its water allocation using the more accessible Dove Creek canal.<\/p>\n

The operating costs for the canal delivery is more affordable then the energy costs and maintenance needed to pump the water up from the river, Dagan said.<\/p>\n

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

Drought disrupts timing of McPhee Reservoir water flow for the first time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[837,80,402,28,280,445,295],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-county","tag-dove-creek","tag-drought","tag-headlines","tag-mcphee-reservoir","tag-newsletter-lead","tag-water"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44044","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=44044"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85949,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44044\/revisions\/85949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44044"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}