A Pagosa Springs-based collaborative group, called the Upper San Juan Watershed Enhancement Partnership ( WEP), has been working since 2018 to identify concerns and opportunities to address the needs of the diverse water users of the Upper San Juan River Basin.
The WEP strives to be a community-driven effort that supports values and needs unique to our basin while assisting the broader state and regional goals of the Colorado Water Plan and of the Southwest Basin Implementation Plan. The state calls these local planning efforts of multiple water uses either Stream Management Plans (SMP) or Integrated Water Management Plans (IWMP).
The WEP’s three-phased IWMP process is designed to ensure there is ample time to gather public feedback, conduct analysis, and create a plan with local priorities. To that end, the WEP encourages community members to attend an upcoming virtual public meeting. The partnership is excited to share updates from their work and hear ideas from the public on how this information can be used to support local water users.
In Phase I, the WEP organized a steering committee comprised of representatives of the agricultural, environmental, municipal and recreational water users in the Pagosa Springs community to begin outlining water-related needs and issues. Through multiple public meetings, the steering committee gathered input on the geographic scope and concerns, and potential project opportunities to help guide what information was known, what gaps existed, possible new data to collect, and what analysis and modeling the community wanted in Phase II.
In 2020, as part of Phase II, the WEP partnered with Lotic Hydrological and the San Juan Conservation District to analyze components identified as priorities during public meetings, such as current and future river flows, riparian habitat, forest health, wildfire risk, and agricultural infrastructure conditions and needs. Based on public feedback and the capacity of models and our partners, the WEP’s work has mainly focused on the upper San Juan watershed, but the partnership continues to include steering committee members and project components from the Rio Blanco and Navajo watersheds.
Phase II’s data analysis — including field assessments and model outputs — now needs to be reviewed and approved by the community. An upcoming public meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, March 31, to be held via Zoom from 5:30 to 7:30pm. The WEP will present preliminary results of their assessments and models; gather feedback to ensure it aligns with local experience and knowledge; and identify where additional data and analysis may be needed.
WEP steering committee members Joe Crabb, with the Division of Water Resources, and Justin Ramsey, district manager for Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District, will present on local water systems and drought preparations.
You can learn how to access the March 31 public meeting and find additional information about the Upper San Juan Watershed Enhancement Partnership at www.mountain- studies.org/sanjuan/smp.
To learn more about other Colorado watershed groups conducting a SMP/IWMP process, visit coloradosmp.org or contact Al Pfister at westernwildscapes@gmail.com or Mandy Eskelson at mandy@mountainstudies.org.