Famed Colorado Reservoir to be Drained Due to Drought

Earlier this week, Denver Water announced that it will soon drain water from one of Colorado’s most popular recreational fisheries: Antero Reservoir. The decision will shutter recreational opportunities at the premier trophy trout fishery, likely impacting it for years to come.

Denver Water, a public utility that serves 1.5 million people in the city of Denver, says it made the difficult decision to increase efficiency as the state is experiencing historically low snowpack conditions. Antero, a 2,300-acre reservoir on the South Platte River, has a high water evaporation rate. Because of this, Denver Water will drain the waterbody’s water and transfer it to Cheeseman Reservoir, another waterbody managed by the utility.

“A lot of forethought and planning went into our collection system and reservoirs,” said Nathan Elder, manager of water supply for Denver Water. “Antero is a drought reservoir, designed to provide water to our customers during a severe drought. Consolidating this water into Cheesman will help us make the most of the water we have.”

Draining Antero will soon close it to recreation of any kind. Denver Water initially said that fish from the reservoir will be captured and relocated by Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW), but it’s not clear if that will actually be the case. This week, CPW contradicted Denver Water when it announced that it is opening Antero to an emergency “fish salvage” by eliminating all possession and bag limits through May 13, after which it will be indefinitely shuttered.

“Colorado Parks and Wildlife appreciates the public’s help in harvesting fish from Antero and utilizing those resources as much as possible,” said CPW Senior Aquatic Biologist Kyle Battige. “We are currently evaluating the feasibility of CPW-led salvage efforts and hope to rebuild into a high quality fishery once the reservoir is filled in the future.”

Antero is far from the only reservoir likely to be impacted by widespread drought conditions across the Western U.S. In fact, federal officials recently announced a significant drawdown on another famed fishery: Flaming Gorge Reservoir on the Wyoming-Utah border. That reservoir will see 660,000 to 1 million acre-feet drawn to keep downstream Lake Powell from failing this summer. The action will likely cause the water level at Flaming Gorge to drop by around 35 feet.

Feature image of Antero Reservoir via CPW.