I went to the town board meeting on the 10th of October and heard the trustees decide that all outside watering must stop as of the next day because it has been so dry and because Jackson is so low. The next morning I rolled up my hoses and turned off my outside water. Then two days later we had that nice rain and hailstorm that will serve as a temporary band aid as winter approaches and Jackson continues to drop even lower.
When I was quite young I remember going with my father to the Lower Forty to see how much hay could be cut down there. It was the first cutting and yet it was so dry that where water had reached the alfalfa we could see green shoots and beyond that was dry dirt and brown stems. It took only a couple of minutes for my father to stop walking. I looked up as he shook his head and said, Theres nothing we can do here.
After Jackson Gulch Dam was completed, my father and the other farmers could generally be assured there would be enough water for the first cutting of hay and most often water for most of the acreage for second cuttings. Farmers that stood to lose heavily in a dry year had their fortunes stay intact when Jackson was full in the spring.
Jackson, however, hasnt always been a fortune saver. It is now even lower than it was in 2002 when the town bought water that fall from Tom Weaver (and maybe Glenn Humiston) and it raised the ire of some farmers who felt they should have been able to purchase that water, not the town. The only reason we didnt end up the same way this fall is because the emergency level of Jackson occurred in October instead of September like it did in 2002.
If the four inches of moisture in Cortez so far this year is an indication of what is coming for the Mancos Valley, we wont be just turning off outside water. A fairly dry winter could leave us right from the start rationing water big time.
What happened to our water? I can remember when a ditch went next to the road alongside the Mormon Church and the Masonic Hall. It then went under Main Street where it turns into County Road 41. That was how many in town received water for lawns and gardens. There were at least two other ditches that came into town proper for the same reasons. The bridge across the Mancos where Grand continues to the east was a Johnny-come-lately and one of the ditches that was being used way before that bridge (and my time) came west through Boyle Park.
Farmers used to have water runoff rights and my family had the rights to water that ran off Al Deckers fields. A flume carried it under Road 41 and into the southeast corner of our property. Sprinkling and dry years have all but obliterated any sign of that ditch and countless others throughout the valley.
Next week: Floods on the Mancos?