Local agencies join forces to boost Colorado River flows

The Colorado River District, Denver Water and the federal Bureau of Reclamation are working to add flows to the Colorado River during a year of record-low runoff.

The extra water will be a boon for fish, rafters and crop irrigators from Colorado's Grand County to Mesa County. A release describing the plan said it was the result of the Shoshone Outage Protocol, agreed to by 42 Western Slope entities and Denver Water. The agreement marked an end to a long-running battle over water access (Greenwire, May 16).

Operators for the Wolford Mountain, Williams Fork and Green Mountain reservoirs are releasing water to increase river flows by about 450 cubic feet a second, according to the release.