Summit County – Dillon Reservoir is expected to fill
sometime next week – the first
time it will have reached capacity
since 2001, according to Denver
Water resource engineer
Marc Waage.
For several weeks thereafter, depending
on weather and the remaining
snowpack, the reservoir
will spill, overflowing through
controlled structures and potentially
sending enough water down
the Lower Blue Valley for eager
kayakers and rafters, Waage said.
Years of drought had drained
the reservoir to as low as 47 percent
of capacity in the spring of
2003, leaving a depressing landscape
of stranded docks, dirt and
mud as a reminder of the high
times.
“It’s a lot easier to get this boat
in and out of the water this year.
It’s a shorter trip to carry,” part-time
Keystone resident Bill Libby
said Thursday afternoon as
he and his wife, Jeanette, pulled
an inflatable kayak from the water.
“I hope they can keep the level
high all summer.”
Despite below-normal snowpack
this winter, the utility was
able to keep filling the reservoir
this spring because of reduced
consumption by Denver Water
customers and timely spring
moisture in the South Platte River
Basin, which supplies most of
the water for metro Denver.
Eight of Denver Water’s 10 reservoirs
are near or at capacity
this week.
“Our system is about 95 percent
full. It’s pretty close to normal,”
Waage said.
But it’s too soon to know
whether a multiyear drought is
loosening its grip on Colorado,
said Trina McGuire-Collier,
Denver Water’s spokeswoman.
“We don’t know if we are experiencing
one wet year in a
drought cycle or the start of a
wet cycle,” she said. “Often you
don’t know it’s over until many
years after the fact.”
Dillon Reservoir was at 97
percent of capacity on Thursday,
with only a thin ring of exposed
earth separating the water
and the reservoir’s high-water
mark.
The historic fill date is June 14,
but cool spring weather in the
high country delayed the runoff
slightly this year, according to
Dillon Marina manager Bob
Evans.
“It’s been coming up a little
slower. You can see they’re getting
ready for the spill because
they’ve put up the little warning
buoys” around the giant drain
near Dillon Dam, Evans said.
That drain is where the water
flows out of the reservoir and
into the spillway.
“It really goes down there
with a roar. It’s thunderous,”
Evans said.
The reservoir hasn’t been this
high since late in the summer of
2003, when it was 9 inches from
capacity, Waage said. The refilling
was buoyed that summer by
bountiful runoff from a record
March blizzard.
Dillon Reservoir is the largest
of Denver Water’s storage buckets,
holding up to 254,000 acrefeet.
An acre-foot is roughly
enough water to supply two average
families of four for a year.
Waage said the reservoir
should stay at or near capacity
through Labor Day, when Denver
Water turns on the Roberts
Tunnel and begins diverting water
to the Front Range under the
Continental Divide.
Staff writer Theo Stein contributed to this report.
