Spring runoff in one western Colorado valley is worse this decade than the Dust Bowl era
Colorado Sun Follow
Shannon Mullane, The Colorado Sun
OLATHE — Water engineer Bob Hurford has a chart he often shares with communities in the Gunnison River Basin to drive home the seriousness of the region’s water conditions.
It shows that the basin’s runoff in the 2020s, so far, is worse than the Dust Bowl era of the ’30s.
“That’s the position that everybody’s in right now,” said Hurford, Colorado Division of Water Resources division engineer for the Gunnison River area.
The western Colorado river basin spans mountainous, agricultural regions and communities like Crested Butte, Gunnison, Paonia, Montrose, Olathe and Delta. Snowpack in the basin this year was near normal — when based on 30 years of data. The 100-year look was much more bleak, Hurford found.
For local farmers, almost-average snowpack does not always equal a good flow of water onto fields of corn, onions, alfalfa and other crops for the summer. And this summer’s conditions are just exacerbating frustrations over their water supply and how it’s managed.
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