On July 6, Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) District Engineer Justin Ramsey issued a clarification to the district’s stage two drought restrictions, indicating that outdoor irrigation is allowed between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m.
In his clarification, he explains that the district’s drought management plan had sections that indicated that irrigation was restricted to between 6 p.m. and 9 a.m. and sections that indicated the limitation was between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m.
He adds that the district has now settled on the latter interpretation, which is different from some previous sources of information about the drought restrictions.
The other restrictions for drought stage two remain the same. Irrigation is allowed every other day at the designated times on weekdays, with odd-numbered addresses watering on odd-numbered days and even-numbered addresses watering on even-numbered days. Weekend watering is prohibited.
Edible and ornamental gardens can still be hand watered or drip irrigated.
Residential water use above 4,000 gallons a month is subject to a two times rate multiplier under drought stage two.
Restaurants are required to serve water only on request, and hotels are encouraged to only replace towels and bed linens for new guests and at the request of current guests.
The goal of drought stage two is to reduce water usage by 20 to 30 percent, according to the PAWSD drought management plan.
For more information on the plan and water conservation resources, visit www.pawsd.org/water-service/water-conservation/.
San Juan River levels
The U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS’s) water flow monitoring data is the primary window into local river flows, which factor into PAWSD’s drought stage calculations.
The primary monitoring station for the San Juan River in Pagosa Springs is located underneath the bridge where U.S. 160 crosses the river near 1st Street.
The reported flows have undergone significant recalibrations this month, with flows in the San Juan River appearing at times in later June to drop below the historic low flows in 2002 before being revised upward.
These revisions are partially driven by last year’s flooding events, explained Kyle Raimer, who works as a hydrologic technician for the USGS Colorado Water Science Center’s Western Colorado Office in Durango.
Raimer stated that the monitoring system sends out a radar pulse every 15 minutes, which contacts the water below the monitor and returns to the sensor, allowing it to measure how high the water level is.
He explained that the river level is then correlated with the river discharges, typically reported in cubic feet per second, associated with this water level to create an estimate of river flow.
The flooding event and other construction work near the site have changed the shape of the channel and altered this relationship between water level and river discharge, Raimer indicated.
USGS staff are working to rebuild accurate estimates by taking manual river flow measurements of the river at different water levels, Raimer stated, which can then be used to establish the correct correlations between water level and discharge.
He explained that staff took measurements on June 8, June 12 and June 29, which led to recalibrations of the river flow estimates between and before these dates that raised the estimates of river flows.
Although he stated that he is “pretty confident” about the accuracy of the river flow data before June 29, he emphasized that this data is still provisional and could be changed by further calibration and analysis.
River flow data is typically analyzed and given final approval in about 150 to 250 days, Raimer stated, although he noted that the approval process on the San Juan River in Pagosa Springs is currently delayed due to the ongoing work rebuilding accurate flow estimates and uncertainties about water flow data at the time of the flooding in October 2025.
Ramsey and PAWSD District Manager Andrew Connor indicated that the recalibrations have not impacted PAWSD’s operations or drought calculations.
josh@pagosasun.com
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