The Board of Directors has the responsibility to the reduce water consumption in order to make the water last as long as possible. During these rare occurances, we implement a one-day-a-week water policy.
There is a misconception that if the dam is full we have plenty of water, this is not true. The spring runoff, snow pack remaining on the mountains and summer rain around Westcliffe is the critical factor in determining how much stream flow is available and how long it will last. Without the creek flow there is less than sixty days of water stored in the reservoir.
At times there is water in the reservoir that does not belong to DeWeese, due to more stream flow coming in than is being released. The Water Commissioner keeps an account of how much water we have and how much we have used; periodically the head gate is adjusted to compensate for this.