Dolores Project Drought Contingency Plan
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DOLORES PROJECT DROUGHT DOLORES WATER CONSERVANCY CONTINGENCY DISTRICT PLAN A plan to reduce the impacts of drought for users of the Dolores Project by implementing mitigation and response actions to decreases theses impacts January 2018 0 Table of Contents TABLES AND FIGURES .............................................................................................................. 3 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................................ 4 ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONS ..................................................................................... 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................ 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ 9 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 10 Purpose of the Drought Contingency Plan ..................................................................... 10 Planning Area ................................................................................................................. 10 History of Dolores Project.............................................................................................. 18 Dolores Project Drought Background ............................................................................ 25 2 Funding and Public Stakeholder Involvement ...................................................................... 32 Planning Task Force ....................................................................................................... 32 Task Force Involvement ................................................................................................. 32 Public Stakeholders ........................................................................................................ 32 Public Stakeholder Involvement and Comments ........................................................... 32 3 Drought Monitoring .............................................................................................................. 34 Summary of Monitoring ................................................................................................. 34 Methodology for Monitoring, Accounting, and Determining Drought ......................... 35 Description of Past Dolores Project Droughts ............................................................... 38 Current Drought Monitoring and Potential Future Improvements................................. 39 4 Vulnerability Assessment ..................................................................................................... 41 Impact of Past Dolores Project Droughts on Water Users ............................................. 41 Summary of Past and Future Risk of Economic Losses ................................................ 58 Summary of Past and Future Risk of Social and Environmental Losses ....................... 58 Assessment of Climate Change on Future Risk ............................................................. 60 5 Mitigation Actions Prior to a Drought .................................................................................. 63 Structural Mitigation Actions ......................................................................................... 64 Non-Structural Mitigation Actions................................................................................. 94 Summary Tables of Potential Mitigation Actions ........................................................ 103 1 6 Response Actions to a Drought........................................................................................... 106 Active Communication Structure ................................................................................. 106 Improve Water Supply Projections and Timing ........................................................... 107 Use of DWCD Water Portfolio for Other Project Uses During a Drought .................. 110 Narraguinnep Reservoir Re-Operations ....................................................................... 111 Municipal Water Conservation .................................................................................... 111 Summary Table of Potential Response Actions ........................................................... 112 7 Operation and Administrative Framework ......................................................................... 113 Roles ............................................................................................................................. 113 Responsibilities & Procedures ..................................................................................... 113 8 Plan Update Process ............................................................................................................ 115 Plan Evaluation Process ............................................................................................... 115 Measuring the Effectiveness of the Plan ...................................................................... 115 Timing of Updates to the Plan...................................................................................... 116 9 Priorities of Drought Plan Actions ...................................................................................... 117 Priorities of Potential Mitigation and Response Actions ............................................. 117 Priorities of Potential Response Actions ...................................................................... 120 2 TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1. Dolores Project Allocations .......................................................................................................... 34 Table 2. FRE Drought Water Supply and Income ...................................................................................... 42 Table 3. Full Service Irrigation Drought Water Supply and Income* ........................................................ 43 Table 4. Full Service Irrigation Crop Census Summary ............................................................................. 45 Table 5. Dolores County Drought Crop Yield Per Acre ............................................................................. 46 Table 6. Montezuma County Drought Crop Yield Per Acre ...................................................................... 46 Table 7. Total MVIC Project and Non-Project Water Supply* .................................................................. 47 Table 8. Downstream Fishery Project Water Supply* ................................................................................ 49 Table 9. Installation Cost Estimate ............................................................................................................. 65 Table 10. Connection of Irrigated Lands to Rocky Ford Cost Estimate ..................................................... 67 Table 11. Lower Arickaree Canal Cost Estimate ........................................................................................ 73 Table 12. Piping of Existing Goodland Canal Cost Estimate ..................................................................... 76 Table 13. Piping of Goodland Canal Tailwaters to THC Cost Estimate .................................................... 77 Table 14. Moonlight Canal Cost Estimate .................................................................................................. 80 Table 15. Potential Structural Mitigation Actions .................................................................................... 104 Table 16 . Potential Non-Structural Mitigation Actions ........................................................................... 105 Table 17. Potential Response Actions ....................................................................................................... 112 Table 18. Potential Mitigation Actions Priorities ..................................................................................... 118 Table 19. Potential Mitigation Actions Priorities Continued… ................................................................ 119 Table 20. Potential Response Actions Priorities ....................................................................................... 120 Figure 1. Location Map ............................................................................................................................... 14 Figure 2. Yearly Streamflow of the Dolores River at the Town of Dolores (1896-2016) .......................... 15 Figure 3. Precipitation at Great Cut (Water Year 1986-2016) .................................................................... 16 Figure 4. Average Cumulative Snow Pack on May 1 for Lone Cone, El Diente Peak, Lizard Head Pass, and Scotch Creek SNOTEL sites ....................................................................................................................... 17 Figure 5. McPhee Maximum Active Capacities ......................................................................................... 28 Figure 6. Total McPhee Reservoir Inflow .................................................................................................. 29 Figure 7. McPhee Ending Active Capacity and Yearly Spill ...................................................................... 30 Figure 8. Percentage of Full Allocation Available ....................................................................................