Residents of Routt, Rio Blanco and Moffat County all live in drainage basins that currently have little storage capacity to hold back snow melt run-off water during the spring and store it for use later during the summer.

There are a few lakes and reservoirs capable of storing and releasing water, but they are limited in size and operational efficiency.

Both the Yampa and White River Drainage Basin’s water users continue to look for new and innovative ways to store or slow down run-off so that western Colorado may utilize more of the water resources that come from our mountainous regions.

On July 9, 2025, the Public Education, Participation & Outreach (PEPO) committee of the Yampa-White-Green Basin Roundtable (YWG BRT) hosted a tour of three unique sites utilizing differing techniques to try to solve this problem in the White River drainage area near Meeker.

The first site visited was the White River Alliance’s (WRA) Yellow Creek Riparian Restoration Project. The tour group heard from The Nature Conservancy’s Joe Leonhard and WRA members about reintroducing beavers into Yellow Creek to help hold back run-off water during the spring high flows and to slow water down during the summer.

This gives water a chance to stay within the Yellow Creek system longer and to create healthy riparian areas which will benefit local wildlife and create a groundwater surplus over the summer season.

The second site visited was Lake Avery east of Meeker on the White River. Shawn Welder, Yellow Jacket Water Conservancy president and Scott Grosscup, lawyer with Balcomb and Green, discussed various options for improvements to the storage capacity of Lake Avery.

The current capacity of the reservoir is 7,658 acre-feet and options to increase capacity add anywhere from 1,177 to over 10,000 additional acre-feet. The White River is currently in the process of being deemed over-allocated.

The third site visited was the Agency Park Overlook which is two miles west of the town of Meeker. Liz Chandler, with the White River Integrated Water Initiative, discussed the current findings of the White River Return Flow Study that was recently completed.

The study looked at how much water was utilized by crops during flood irrigation versus how much water was returned to the river later in the season.

The study, done over the last two years, concluded that for water diverted from the White River for irrigation, approximately 75% returns to the river. The 25% irrigation efficiency is extremely low but, through extensive groundwater recharge, creates conditions conducive to groundwater return flow to the White River as late season flow.

The YWG BRT believes that water is a precious resource here on the Western Slope of Colorado. Keeping and utilizing the water in Colorado, as illustrated during the tour, is a high priority for all of us. You have all heard about the diminishing resources of the Colorado River.

Keeping and utilize Colorado’s share of that resource is of upmost importance.