Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District sent out a press release yesterday, giving a ‘heads up’ to PAWSD customers about impending watering restrictions and fee increases. It reads in part:
Hatcher Reservoir is currently full, and the San Juan River is flowing at 348 cubic feet per second (CFS). The NOAA National Integrated Drought Information System shows most of Archuleta in Extreme Drought. These conditions place us in the Voluntary Drought Stage.
Drought conditions are such that PAWSD is encouraging customers to voluntarily reduce the amount of water they use. There are no mandatory water use restrictions in place as of April 20.
PAWSD serves about 75% of the Archuleta County population with drinking water, and a smaller percentage with sewer service. The majority of customers live in the Pagosa Lakes subdivisions and the neighborhoods to the east, including downtown Pagosa Springs and out Highway 84 to the Loma Linda subdivision.
The ‘Drought Stages” are governed by the newly-updated “Drought Management Plan’ which can be found here. PAWSD monitors several indicators to determine the severity of our local water situation and the steps necessary to ensure sufficient drinking water through the tourist-heavy summer months.
One of the determining factors is the amount of snow in the San Juan Mountains, as measured through the USDA ‘Snotel’ system. As of March 25, 2026, the snow water equivalent (SWE) in Colorado was just 38% of the 1991-2020 average, marking the lowest snowpack in over 40 years. This significant reduction in snow pack is concerning for water supply and ecosystem health in the region.
PAWSD pulls its raw water from, basically, three sources: The West Fork of the San Juan River gravity fed to the Snowball Treatment Plant… The main stem of the San Juan River, pumped uphill to the San Juan Treatment Plant… and the water in Lake Hatcher used in the Hatcher Treatment Plant. Hatcher gets water from Fourmile Creek for most of the year, but is cut off by agricultural users during the summer.
From an email sent to PAWSD Board members yesterday:
We are still in the Voluntary Drought Stage, but just barely. The Snow Water Equivalency is at .7″ I believe we will go into Drought Stage 1 in the next few days. We have made it far enough into the month to keep us from going right into Drought Stage 2. When we hit 0″ I will send out notices to our Dropcountr customers, and send out email notifications to the school, town, county, and PLPOA. We will also post an update on our website and encourage customers to sign up for leak alerts with trigger points set for alerts above 5,000 gallons. Hopefully this will get the word out and give our customers time to curb their usage before the May billing starts.
The San Juan Water Treatment Plant will be producing water to the distribution system this week which will allow to staff decrease the production out of the Hatcher Plant. We will run the San Juan Plant as hard as we can while we have water coming down the river.
From the PAWSD press release:
The current Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) is 0.7 inches, the median SWE on this day is 31.0”. The recent snow in the upper watershed delayed the SWE from dropping to zero, however it is still likely the SWE will drop to zero in the next few days pushing the District into a higher-level drought stage, likely Stage 1. If the SWE drops to zero prior to April 30, we will go to Drought Stage 1. Stage 1 limits irrigation to the hours between 6:00pm and 9:00am — and a tier rate multiplier will be applied to flows above 5,000 gallons of water per billing cycle for residential users.
The District greatly appreciates everyone’s continued diligence in conserving water. If you have any questions regarding the current Drought Management Plan, it can be found on the website at https://www.pawsd.org/water-service/water-conservation/
Archuleta School District students prepared two websites that provide very good information on the PAWSD water system and drought conditions. Please visit these informative websites:
https://deed-waffle-71833514.figma.site/?authuser=0
https://sites.google.com/pagosa.k12.co.us/the-hatcher-challenge/home?authuser=0