Cheesman in August

[Kirk]

Looking for any predictions or typicalities for flows on the South Platte through chessman canyon around the dates of August 15th through the 20th of this year. Also Bailey. Any help with determining this would be great.

Thanks,
Kirk

[Caspian]

Bailey maaaaaayyyy run in that time frame. Usually there is water there, but early indications from Denver Water are that 2007 will not be a banner year or even close, like last year was. Cheeseman...I wouldn't hold your breath. It hasn't really run for a few years, but the reservoirs upstream are full early and that might inure to the benefit of Cheeseman flows. There are good flows out of Cheesman Rez right now, but that is below the canyon...if they refill quickly, Cheeseman might run, but no ideas on if/when that would be right now. Colorado is generally dry in August, you usually get Bailey, Gore on down, and low water Arkansas.

[Kirk]

we are hitting black canyon at that time (if there is water) and while we are out there we would like to run some good class 5. Other options we were considering were Crystal Gorge, Bakers Box, Bailey,

Someone told me Bailey was unlikely to go and that Cheesman more likely due to low demand from Denver from water. Things are a little more complicated in CO than they are in the SE with that stuff, so I appreciate any explanation of how things work with diversions/water demand.

Thanks again
Kirk

[Caspian]

Yeah Crystal Gorge would usually be running then.

The deal with water is that Denver only gets water from the NFSP (western slope water piped into Bailey) when it can't get the water from the eastern slope. As long as there is water on this side of the divide, Bailey is a 37 cfs trickle unless there is natural runoff. This year, all the reservoirs for Denver are full-up, so there will be much less of a call for water from Dillon. SFSP water is eastern slope water, and since there is a lot of it already and a very good SP snowpack, the SF will run bigger this year - and that is what might make Cheeseman go. Understand though that this is all a lot of guessimation - even the DWB guys can't say what will happen. Last year they said don't expect much water in Bailey, then the weather changed and it was a banner year.