Boulder’s water supply hangs on for now amid historic drought conditions

Boulder’s water system is likely to hold through this year without mandatory restrictions, but only if conditions don’t worsen.

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City officials say they expect to remain in a “drought watch,” urging voluntary conservation, even as snowpack has fallen to historically low levels and much of Boulder County sits in extreme drought.

The underlying picture is more fragile than the designation suggests.

Snowpack in the larger river basins that supply Boulder’s water is just 32% and 25% of normal — levels the city describes as “historically low … in the range of … 1981, 2002, and 2012,” some of the driest years on record, according to a memo to the Water Resources Advisory Board. 

And in one key watershed, conditions have already collapsed: Middle Boulder Creek’s snowpack has fully melted about six weeks ahead of schedule.

The city’s reservoirs are currently near typical levels for this time of year, but that may not last. With snowpack so low, they “may or may not fill during [spring] runoff,” staff warned in the memo.

What happens next depends on whether the reservoirs refill. Each spring, Boulder calculates how much water it expects to have relative to demand, using a formula that determines whether the city moves from voluntary conservation to mandatory restrictions. That calculation won’t be finalized until early May, when snowpack, supply and runoff are clearer.

“But we anticipate that we already hit the peak snowpack back in mid-March, which is one reason the city declared a drought watch,” said city Water Resources Project Manager Isabelle Lheritier at the Water Resources Advisory Board meeting on April 20. 

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