After a chilly start to the rafting season, the managed release, or spill, from McPhee Dam into the lower Dolores River is set to continue at 1,200 cubic feet per second through this week.
That’s a good flow for boating, but flows are set to soon rise to 2,000 cfs and to peak at 4,000 cfs later this spring. In a release, the Dolores Water Conservancy District, which manages McPhee in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation, says the snowpack that sent an extra 30,000 to 40,000 acre-feet into the reservoir in March – much earlier than usual – has been fattened by new snow in recent days. Managers are continually adjusting their plans, but they currently expect to release a total of 250,000 acre-feet of water during the spill, which they estimate will have about 60 days of boatable flows.
