Dolores, Colorado - Last week, representatives from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Dolores Water Conservancy District, and the local boating community hosted a public meeting to discuss this year’s boating releases into the lower Dolores River.  This is the first year since 2011 that water managers released boating flows from McPhee Dam. For some, the recreational releases were something to celebrate.  For others, they were confounding and underscored the frustration boaters have felt since the Project came online 30 years ago.

The Dolores is one of the premier rivers in the entire country. Second to the Grand Canyon for its iconic slickrock gorges, ponderosa forests, and wilderness and wildlife, the Dolores River draws whitewater paddlers from nearly every state - when it flows. Recent drought conditions and a reduced water supply in the watershed have resulted in fewer flows available for whitewater boating in the Dolores River - and a huge decline in user-days on the river. Boating flows depend upon releases of water made from the Bureau of Reclamation’s McPhee Reservoir, but only when conditions are right. Unlike all other project uses, whitewater boating doesn’t have a water right or allocation on the Dolores River, so any water released for boating is “surplus water”, or water that can’t be contained or controlled by the dam. The only water boaters get, is water that “spills” out of the dam.

Many paddlers feel like water managers exercise huge discretion in how they control the reservoir’s elevation before filling (and spilling), which raises questions about how water is accounted for in the Dolores system. The US Bureau of Reclamation uses snowpack data to estimate the volume of expected runoff and decide if a surplus of water can be released in groupings of five or more consecutive days and with advance notice given to whitewater boaters.

The annual operation of McPhee Reservoir is determined by Reclamation, in consultation with the Dolores Water Conservancy District. Beginning in March of each year, Reclamation and the district begin to assess conditions in the Dolores Project area, and distribute forecasts of projected reservoir operations and information on inflow, reservoir storage elevations, Project demands, and anticipated releases to the downstream environment for fish and recreation. Typically, Reclamation releases forecasts every two weeks. When a “spill” occurs, DWCD provides daily updates on conditions at the reservoir and how flows in the river are being controlled.

For paddlers hoping for a good boating season, emotions run high. Each week through the spring, boaters across the country watch storms stack up in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, and track snow accumulation to determine whether a trip to Southwest Colorado for the annual Memorial Day river trip on the Dolores is a go. 2016 proved to be a roller-coaster of expectations, and in the end, communication around the managed release left paddlers canceling their trips (at enormous expense), and then wondering why there is water in the river for boating, when notice was given that the “spill was off”. 

In 2016, releases from McPhee Reservoir came in two small “spills”, and while these occurred over two weekends, boaters lost the opportunity to enjoy longer trips below Bradfield Bridge and the confluence with the San Miguel River. In fact, the public did not receive advance notice of the second spill, and when managers announced an 800-1000 cfs release on June 10^th  the boating community had no time to react. The next day, flows were 1200 cfs, and boaters were asking questions. There are also significant concerns around the affect the “spill” has had on native fish.  Peak flows occurred later in the month than under more natural conditions, which may have flushed spawning fish with cold water from the reservoir.  Additional monitoring by Colorado Parks and Wildlife will help us determine these impacts.

At the root of the problem was the communication system that should have informed paddlers of daily changes to infows/outflows at the Dam. The anticipated release, as forecasted by BOR and DWCD, led paddlers to plan their trip around the Memorial Day weekend – taking vacation time from work.  Then, on May 20^th, BOR and DWCD announced that the spill was NOT going to happen over the holiday weekend!

AW’s staff and members have been paying close attention to how BOR and the DWCD meet their commitments and obligations to sustain whitewater boating on the Dolores River. Last week, managers admitted they “were out of practice” when it comes to coordinating with its stakeholders and providing sufficient information to the general paddling public in advance of a release from McPhee.  

Kent Ford, a local paddler and member of AW’s Board of Directors, relayed specific examples for why communication around reservoir operations must improve. “We took out at Dove Creek Pumpstation [on Thursday June 2^nd].  A fully rigged raft from Salt Lake City was there waiting for a new pulse of flows as rumored”.  As of 10 am Thursday, DWCD managers were answering calls and questions from paddlers about the spill – “we are done” was the answer.  Boaters from Utah, Vermont and Idaho, plus who knows how many downstream, aborted their trips on bad beta.

“Every math savvy boater was predicting [that there was more water than forecasted], but the DWCD website and direct calls to [DWCD General Manager] convinced people to derig and get off the water. It looks like the lake level wasn’t properly measured and reported [before the spill].  WASTED WATER!  … someone has to hold DWCD accountable for bad information. This was outright MISINFORMATION.”

Spill Management Criteria for McPhee Reservoir was initially set forth in the 1977 Final EIS and several Project Documents as mitigating measures to alleviate the adverse effects on whitewater boating. The 1977 FEIS firmly declares that, “under project conditions all launching days would occur in groups of five or more consecutive days.” In fact, the document commanded that Reservoir Operating Criteria be developed so that launching days available during the high use period of May 21 to June 10 could be predicted, grouped, and scheduled in advance to encourage a high efficiency of use. Reservoir Operating Criteria include:

-       Minimum Boatable releases is considered 1,000 CFS. However, 800 CFS will provide minimal boating opportunities. The desired release for boating is 1,200 CFS. Higher releases will shorten the number of boater days.


-       Provide a min. of 2,000 CFS for 7 days when possible for stream bed maintenance.

-       Provide peaking flows near May 21 to match the natural hydrograph.

Reclamation recently adopted a spill management approach of fully filling McPhee Reservoir before making any downstream floodwater or spill water releases. Reclamation’s ‘fill then spill’ approach does not maximize the use of forecasted spills for boating below McPhee Dam, as required in the Project documents. Reclamation’s recent adoption of the ‘fill then spill’ approach, and departure from criterion promulgated in the 1977 Project design documents, may amount to a violation of the National Environmental Protection Act. Despite Reclamation’s spill management criteria aimed at mitigating adverse impacts to whitewater boating, boaters continue to experience increasingly reduced flows downstream of McPhee Reservoir. 


American Whitewater continues to work with local stakeholders and legislators to establish a National Conservation Area to protect the land and water values along 127 miles of the Dolores River below McPhee Dam. While we are actively involved in several cooperative efforts to improve flows in the Dolores River, we are increasingly leery of the progress of these efforts and are consulting with legal counsel in the event the cooperative efforts fail.