August 18, 2026 News
OMID Water Supply Update
August 18, 2026
Despite an exceptionally difficult water year, the Grand Valley irrigation community has worked together to stretch our available supplies to create a longer irrigation season. There is still uncertainty about when our irrigation season will end, and we are doing our best to provide water for as long as possible. Typically, in dry seasons, we rely on water stored in Green Mountain Reservoir to supplement the natural river flow in the late irrigation season. This year, that storage fell woefully short of a full supply.
Since the beginning of the 2026 irrigation season, approximately 48,000 acre-feet of storage accrued (normally ~66,000 acre-feet) in Green Mountain Reservoir. An additional approximately 26,500 acre-feet of supplemental supplies have been acquired through donations and contract purchases.
We are grateful to the many partners who made these supplies possible, including QB Energy and the Town of Palisade through Colorado Water Trust, Colorado River District, Colorado Water Conservation Board, Northern Water Conservancy District, and Ute Water, along with our irrigation, municipal, technical, and water management partners.
To stretch water supplies as far as possible through the growing season and provide additional protection for municipal water providers, the Grand Valley irrigation community has maintained the call at approximately 1,450 cfs at Cameo for much of the season, which is 500 cfs below our 1,950 cfs calling right.
Our collective demand reduction enabled us to stretch the supplemental supplies through August. Once supplemental supplies are exhausted at the end of August, the Colorado River will drop to its “natural flow”, which is water from mountain streams and any rain that falls. The forecast is for river flows to decline and as that happens, water will be administered according to the prior appropriate system. Each irrigation provider will be allowed to divert according to the seniority of their water right.
In September, if necessary, because of low river flows, OMID may need to enter Phase 3 operations as described below. Please note that September 1 is not a projected shutoff date.
OMID Operations Plan
OMID has a phased plan to help equitably distribute the water available throughout our system.
Phase 2 – Current: Red tags are in place at all headgates and lawn pumps that feed directly from the canals. The headgates have been calibrated to approximately 100% of the allocated water right.
Phase 3 – If Necessary: OMID will implement an odd/even headgate schedule. We will post the schedule through our Facebook page and website when this step becomes necessary. Along with Phase 3, depending on the flow of the river there may be a time when we will have to shut down our canals for a 2-week period alternating supplies with our carriage partner Grand Valley Water Users Association. If this takes place, we will do what we can to have water (if available) half the month of September and half the month of October. Finer details will be provided as soon as we can nail them down.
We do not have any way to exactly anticipate if or when this may take place. We will do our best by communicating these operational decisions as early as possible so precautions and arrangements of laterals and on-farm usage can be coordinated.
We will continue monitoring conditions closely and communicate updates as they occur.
Thank you to our water users and partners for helping us make every drop count.
Orchard Mesa Irrigation District
Jackie Fisher – Manager