Two Four Corners Reservoirs Meet the Big Drought
Two months ago, the Canyon Country Zephyr published my photo-illustrated article focusing on the effects of the current drought in the Colorado River Basin. My photos from Lake Powell, the Blue Mesa Reservoir, and the Paonia Reservoir showed the dramatic effects of declining water levels and seemed to generate considerable interest among Zephyr readers.
As a result, I was inspired to head out with my camera to explore the drought’s effect on two additional reservoirs in the Four Corners area which release water to Lake Powell and the Colorado River. The first one I visited, Navajo Lake, was created in the early 1960s by construction of the Navajo Dam across the San Juan River in northwestern New Mexico. The lake extends approximately 35 miles northeast from the dam into Colorado. The northern end of the lake in Colorado and the southern end including the dam in New Mexico are accessible by public roads. The middle section crosses remote Navajo Reservation land and is only reached by boat or oil and gas field access roads. To drive from Arboles, Colorado near the north end to the dam requires following winding paved highways for 45 miles. Following is a map of the San Juan River basin showing the location of Navajo Dam and Lake.
Next, I drove 9 miles around an arm of the lake to the Two Rivers Marina which has the only boat ramp and docking facilities at the north (Colorado) end of the lake.
According to
the ranger, large house boats are normally able to operate on the lake until
late October but this year, owners were pulling them out in early
September. They wanted to get them out
of the lake before the water level dropped so low that they would not be able
to use the boat ramp to retrieve them. In
summary, he noted that the situation is “not good”. I saw several dozen huge house boats like
these in a dry storage area.
Nearly an hour after leaving the Two Rivers Marina, I arrived at the Navajo Lake Marina near the dam in New Mexico. This marina dwarfs the Two Rivers facility with its rows upon rows of pricey power boats. The view is to the northeast toward Colorado and the dam is about ½ mile to the right. Down on the docks, I was serenaded by loudspeakers playing Jimmy Buffett (I don't know where I'm a gonna go when the volcano blow.) But since it was the Tuesday after Labor Day, there were few boaters around to maintain a festive party atmosphere.
A few people
were launching and retrieving small boats.
Because of the deep water here near the dam, I’m guessing that the
Navajo Marina faces less risk from declining lake levels than Two Rivers at the
upper end of the lake.
At the base
of the Navajo Dam, water is being released at the rate of 765 cubic feet per
second (cfs) on the day I snapped this photo.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which built and operates the dam, upped
discharges from less than 400 cfs in June to 800-900 in August. The Bureau has decided it needs to release
more water from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir (on the Green River in Utah), Blue
Mesa Reservoir (Gunnison River, Colorado), and the Navajo. The purpose is an attempt to slow the steep declines
in the water level of Lake Powell which lies downstream. Power generation capability at the Glen
Canyon Dam on Lake Powell will diminish if the lake level drops another 25
feet. However, flows from the Navajo are
the smallest of the three and only account for about 15% of the inflow to Lake
Powell.
The following day, I headed northwest to Dolores, Colorado at the upper end of McPhee Reservoir on the Dolores River. Following is a location map of the Dolores River Basin showing the McPhee Dam and Reservoir.
Source of
base map: Shannon1, own work.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Doloresrivermap.png#file
And here is the trickle of water (only 5 cfs) emerging from the base of the McPhee Dam several miles downstream. Because that’s only 11% of the water flowing into the reservoir, you’d think that water levels would be increasing. In fact, the reservoir went down ¼ foot the day I was there. Where is the water going? Certainly some must be loses due to evaporation. The day of my visit was sunny with a high of 89.
The surface of McPhee Reservoir is now at its lowest level since it filled in the mid-1980s. And the effects on the water recreation there should be noted. This is a photo of Doc’s Marina including the 6-lane boat ramp. I spoke with a none-too-cheery Doc’s employee who told me they were going to shut down the ramp when the water dropped another foot and a half. At the current rate of decline, it would have closed about a week later.
So what good is this damn dam anyway? It’s not maintaining water levels needed for boating. And it’s a fiasco for the water quality and flow regime of the Dolores River. This is a photo of the pathetic Dolores below the dam (compare it with the photo above of the pristine Dolores above the reservoir). That water you see is practically stagnant – there is little perceptible flow. No self-respecting fish would or could survive in such a degraded aquatic environment.
A bit of
internet research turned up articles in two Durango, Colorado newspapers where
I learned the fate of much of the water that flows into McPhee Reservoir. Some provides municipal water to local towns
such as Cortez through a tunnel from the reservoir. However, the bulk of the water is diverted
through a canal for agricultural irrigation.
The Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company, which provides water to local
farmers and ranchers, and other agricultural interests hold the senior water
rights to Dolores water. Much of this
irrigation water is used to grow alfalfa and corn which provide feed for
cattle. We might give some thought to
the effects of ranching on rivers and ecosystems in the West the next time we
bite into our juicy hamburgers or succulent prime rib.
But it’s not
just the ranchers. Everyone in this part
of southwestern Colorado seems to want a piece of the Dolores – officials in sprawling
towns, second home developers, recreational boaters, fishermen, ranchers/farmers,
water-consumptive industries, and white-water rafting businesses. The irony is that demand for the foolishly
over-allocated water is going up but the supply is drying up. For example, the water level of the reservoir
is now so low that canal diversions for agriculture are threatened. Poor ol’ Dolores has given all she can and is
now dying. In the process, she is
exacting her revenge on human greed and short-sightedness.
In its
journey below the dam, the Dolores flows through gorgeous canyons in remote
areas of the western edge of Colorado before joining the Colorado River at
Dewey Bridge, Utah, upstream of Moab.
It’s absolutely criminal that this river is being destroyed. My pipe dream is that the gates in the McPhee
Dam are miraculously opened letting the reservoir slowly drain so that the
delightful Dolores is allowed to flow free once again.
This article
first appeared in the October-November 2021 issue of the Canyon Country Zephyr. The
following comments were posted with the article:
Richard Replin
Colorado
October 1, 2021
Thanks for the enlightening first
hand report on a sad situation.
Cherie Rohn
October 4, 2021
Scary indeed. Thanks for the fine
reporting.
Bob Michael
Colorado
October 7, 2021
Keep up the good work! El río Dolores
tiene muchos dolores….verdad. (Photos from Calif. are even scarier, if that’s
possible
Nadia Coleman
Colorado
October 7, 2021
Timely and important. Thank you.
Paula Sapienza
Colorado
October 7, 2021
Thank you for your good work keeping
this issue before us.
Bruce Briscoe
Bali, Indonesia
October 7, 2021
Thank you, Mr. Mahoney. Such a good
writer. I really feel you have made me realize how bad this situation is. I
hope the legislators can now, with your fine photos and writing, do something
for long-term relief. Thanks again. Please keep the articles coming.
Bill Reichert
Ohio
October 8, 2021
I now have a better understanding of
the situation at hand. Great pictures! A definite need is at hand and the
problem needs help.
Chris Mohr
Colorado
October 8, 2021
These two articles are so simple and
direct. I am not a geologist or hydrologist, but the evidence is right there in
front of our eyes. It’s really scary. I was going to say I don’t know what will
happen, but I’ll go ahead and predict a very major water crisis unfolding from
now into the forseeable future.
Andrew Wolcott
Uruguay
October 8, 2021
Thanks for trying to wake people up,
great read.
Charlie
Colorado
October 9, 2021
Another well documented article Mr.
Mahoney. Unfortunately, I seriously doubt that you will need to write any more
of these articles 20 years from now.
Thanks for your insightful work. I am
looking forward to future articles.
Maryanne Jerome
Colorado
October 10, 2021
We need to make this information widely available to the general public. We must conserve water, stop climate change, and decrease the multiple draws on this finite resource.
This really brings home how serious
our water crisis is. This should be published in all media so that all may see
it and take steps to reduce water usage and wastage.
Roy Brown
California
October 10, 2021
Thank you, Will, for illustrating
with your words the story that is also told beautifully in your photos. The
reality of the coming water shortage becomes clearer with each example. The
trend is there for each of us to see. How we respond is the next question to
consider. Keep up the good work, I am interested to hear more. Are there any
examples of a hopeful response to this situation? Signs of conservation at
least. Maybe farmers that are changing crops to favor drought resistant crops…
Trish M
New Mexico
October 11, 2021
Beautifully written! I’ve wondered
(for years) how they monitor water rights- what developer’s & ranchers
actually pull from our rivers, streams, irrigation ditches? I appreciate your
discussion on this important subject to the West! Thank you.
Hugh
Ireland
October 12, 2021
Thanks for another enlightening
article about human short-sightedness in their treatment of Nature. We now see
the effect of the endemic abuse of Nature. We should take nothing for granted,
the world has changed, and we have a lot of catching up to do. It’s a cultural
issue, as Will Mahoney alludes. Humans have nurtured a sense of entitlement and
disregard when it comes to Nature. Every cause has an effect, and Nature is
feeling the strain – water is a more valuable resource than oil.
Charmaine Settle
Florida
October 13, 2021
Excellent report and photos…..so appreciated
to better understand such an important issue!
Sky Baldwin
Colorado
October 13, 2021
Thanks again for publishing another
of Will’s insightful articles of the reservoirs that are all around where I
live and recreate. I have seen these declining reservoirs firsthand, but
appreciate Will explaining more of what I see happening. Keep up the good
reporting on such an important topic.
Mike Bonar
Colorado
October 13, 2021
Another great article by Mr. Mahoney!
The straight forward writing paired with the photography hammers home this
issue that impacts us all.
Tom Ziemer
October 21, 2021
Thanks, Mr. Mahoney. There has to be
a better light shone upon this ghastly environmental and socio-economic
problem, though unfortunately I think we’re all mostly just preaching to the
choir on these issues. The people most able to make an impact are ironically
the ones that are least likely to, often because they stand to lose something
along the way. Votes, money, whatever. The modern West has gotten itself into
quite a pickle, made worse by these folks, city councils, and companies that
exploit The Now while giving no thought to The Immediate Future. They don’t
care because when it dries up, they’re just gonna pull up stakes and take their
business elsewhere. If they think about it at all, they maybe imagine they’re
gonna “pivot their business model” or some such nonsense. They could maybe do
something about it if they all banded together, but for a variety of reasons,
that’s not gonna happen either. No money in THAT. So they buy rental OHVs
instead of rental boats next year, and shift their exploitations to dry land.
There has to be a better balance to be found in balanced use…
Keith Benefiel
December 21, 2021
I believe ol’ one-arm Powell warned
us about this a while back.
© Will Mahoney 2021
All rights reserved. No part of this blog post nor any associated photo can be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission of the author and photographer.
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