2002 3 FALL - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

DROUGHT- CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 About 75% of our water comes from South Boulder Creek. The water is diverted near Eldorado Springs and stored for Louisville in Marshall Reservoir, Harper Lake, and Louisville Reservoir. The other 15% is from the Colorado-Big Thompson project. This water is pumped over the Continental Divide and stored in Carter Lake before being pumped to Louisville and other recipients in the metro area. Once the water reaches our storage facilities, it is treated in one of our two water treatment plants and delivered to residents. In a normal year, the City would have approximately 6000 acre-feet or roughly 1.9 billion gallons of water available for our use. This water is entirely from runoff of winter snow. In a normal year, the spring runoff lasts from May into August. During those months the runoff gives us sufficient water to meet our summer needs as well as enough water to store a balance of water through the winter. This means that rain alone will not solve the problem. We are fully dependant on winter snowfall to guarantee that we have sufficient water for the summer. This year, snow pack numbers were roughly 60% of normal in March and by May were as low as 10% of normal in some places. In addition to the lack of usual spring moisture, April and May were warmer than usual, causing people to start watering yards much earlier in the year. The watering restrictions were put into place to assure that the City would have at least 1700 acre-feet or 550 million gallons of water in storage on March 1, 2003. Without this balance of water, it will be extremely difficult to meet water needs in the spring before runoff begins. In addition, if the snow pack is low again next year, watering restrictions could be even tighter next year. This drought has hit far wider than Louisville. The entire Southwestern United States is feeling its effects. Stream flows across the state are setting new records for minimum water flow. Stream flow on South Boulder Creek, where the majority of our water comes from, indicate this a drought only seen every 100 years or more. For those with long memories, this drought year may be drier than the last major one in 1954 and it could be even drier than the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s. All of this information is provided to give our residents an idea of why watering restrictions were put in place and to let everyone understand the severity of the situation. COLORADO'S CLIMATE AND ITS HISTORY OF DROUGHT If you are new to Colorado you may not know that we live in a semi-arid climate. What does he average Louisville that mean? family uses 122,000 • It means that on average we get only 17 gallons of water annually. inches of precipitation per year. •The years 1979-1996 were some of the 50% of that water is used on land- wettest years on record for Colorado and scaping.Almost all outdoor watering were the most reliable for precipitation occurs in June, July, and August. since the 1920s. • 2002 was the third year in a row of below July of 2002 was the hottest and average precipitation. driest July on record in Boulder • Droughts have been a regular part of the County. climate in Colorado for at least 100 years. 2002 has been the driest year There have been five multi-year droughts since the drought of 1954. in Colorado in the 20th Century. Fall 2002 2