At an April 9 meeting, the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) Board of Directors approved revisions to the district’s drought management plan.
District Engineer Justin Ramsey opened discussion of the plan, which he explained was a complete rewrite of the previous plan and was adopted in 2020 with a stipulation that it be reexamined in 2026.
He added that the district also had to implement the plan in 2025 due to dry conditions, which gave additional insights into how the plan functions.
He explained that he recently reconvened the committee that drafted the plan, including PAWSD board members, water experts in the community, business owners and other community members.
Ramsey stated that, although there were some changes recommended to the plan, it has, overall, been highly successful.
He explained that the drought stages outlined in the plan are entered based on triggers, which are different depending on the time of year.
Early in the year, he stated, the triggers are the snowpack in the mountains, measured by the amount of snow water equivalent (SWE) at the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service SNOwpack TELemetry Network (also commonly known as SNOTEL) station on Wolf Creek Pass and the date when the district’s water supply is cut off on Four Mile Creek due to other senior water users diverting water.
If specific SWE levels or a call on Four Mile do not occur by specific dates in the spring, the plan shifts to a different set of drought triggers based on water levels in Lake Hatcher (one of PAWSD’s primary reservoirs), water flows in the San Juan River and the drought stage for Archuleta County designated by the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS).
He explained that the amount of water in Lake Hatcher is weighted the most heavily, with flows in the San Juan being the next most influential factor and drought designation being the least.
He added that the different drought stages come with different drought surcharges and water rate adjustments.
In response to a question from a board member, Ramsey stated that the drought plan would have also have to be updated if PAWSD completes a pipeline connecting Hatcher to Stevens Reservoir, which would change the dynamics of water in Hatcher.
He explained that the first drought stage (voluntary drought) aims to cut water use by 10 percent, while the most severe drought stage (stage four) is intended to cut water use by 50 percent.
Ramsey stated that the drought plan focuses on reducing water use for irrigation since this makes up much of the additional water use in the summer.
To do this, he indicated that the plan limits irrigation by reducing times when irrigation of lawns is allowed, going from every other day in early drought stages to once a week or never in more severe drought stages.
Ramsey explained that the previous drought plan before 2020 focused on total water supply without considering whether or not that water was usable by PAWSD or connecting water levels to the time of year they are occurring in.
He explained that the current plan focuses on reducing water consumption early to prevent the district from entering deeper drought stages or facing water supply problems.
Ramsey then explained the impacts of the various stages in the 2020 drought plan on rates, stating that voluntary and stage one drought have no rate impacts, stage two features a two times rate multiplier for water use above 4,000 gallons per month, and stages three and four feature the same rate multiplier as stage two and an additional surcharge.
He added that the rate multipliers are not applied in stage two to commercial users since they have less ability to reduce the amount of water they use, but that the additional surcharges for stages three and four are applied to them.
Ramsey also stated that the surcharges are calculated based on the amount of revenue PAWSD expects to lose due to reduced water usage during a drought and that it would increase in the 2026 update due to revisions of those calculations.
He stated that the plan was effective in reducing water use in 2025, especially once the district entered drought stage two and the rate multipliers kicked in.
However, he indicated that the drought plan did not kick in quickly enough once snowpack levels dropped, which he noted are a key source of water supply for the district, and that he would recommend shifting the drought trigger points for snowpack earlier in the year to ensure it reduces water use.
He added that the drought plan committee also recommended putting on a 1.25 times rate multiplier for water above 5,000 gallons per month for stage one drought to help reduce water use and prevent a large increase in rates from stage one to two.
He indicated that this rate multiplier would not apply to commercial users.
Ramsey stated the biggest complaint about the drought plan in 2025 was a lack of communication about the drought stages and that PAWSD is working to remedy this by circulating a newsletter about drought conditions, placing it on the PAWSD website and doing other communication efforts.
Following more discussion of the outreach efforts, Ramsey turned to discussing the intersection between entering drought stages and the billing cycle.
He explained that, in the previous drought plan, entering a drought stage beyond voluntary required a board vote, but that the district had difficulty since it cannot add multipliers and other charges in the middle of the billing cycle.
To address this, Ramsey stated that the updated plan would only apply water use multipliers and surcharges to the next billing cycle after a drought stage is entered, although restrictions on irrigation times would begin immediately.
He also indicated that the new plan would allow waivers from the irrigation day requirements, which would allow customers to be exempted from the restrictions on watering times at the discretion of the district manager if they had a good reason to be exempted, such as newly installed landscaping.
Ramsey added that the waivers were added to the plan in response to a situation involving newly planted trees at Pagosa Peak Open School in 2025 that were installed when the school was not aware of potential oncoming drought restrictions and which the school received an irrigation restriction waiver for.
Ramsey explained that the district received 27 written complaints last year concerning the drought, most of which focused on the complainant not knowing about the rate multipliers or the drought conditions.
He added that there were also complaints about the drought plan not placing rate multipliers on commercial users, which Ramsey stated he understood, but that he felt the reasoning for not imposing rate multipliers on commercial users was justified.
PAWSD board member Bill Hudson asked the board for its thoughts on commercial users not being charged a rate multiplier in drought stages one and two while residents are charged.
“Don’t we want to all kick in and solve the problem?” Hudson said.
PAWSD board chairman Gene Tautges replied that this rule was intended to reflect that commercial users experience more negative impacts given these increases impact their livelihood while watering a resident’s lawn does not.
Hudson countered that he is concerned about residents being charged more to shower or brush their teeth while commercial users are making a profit and not being charged.
Ramsey stated that the rate multipliers are formatted in such a way that basic activities like showers should still be possible for the resident without additional multipliers.
PAWSD board member Bruce Jones, who served on the plan update committee, added that not charging commercial users is also a recognition that they cannot control how much water they use since they cannot control their number of customers.
“That makes sense,” Hudson said.
PAWSD board member Glenn Walsh added that businesses also likely face additional negative impacts in times of drought.
Following more discussion of details of the drought plan, Ramsey presented the changes proposed for the updated drought plan.
These included moving up the trigger dates for low SWE levels in the spring up one week for drought stages one and two, adding a rate multiplier for stage one drought, increasing communications about drought levels, changing the timing of billing drought impacted rates and adding a waiver process for irrigation timing restrictions.
Ramsey then explained the current drought conditions to the board, which were covered in the April 16 and April 23 issues of The SUN.
Jones proposed that the board move to give staff permission to move into deeper drought stages until a week before the end of April without additional board permission.
After Walsh recommended that staff should be allowed to enter drought stages one and two without board approval, Ramsey suggested that this should be allowed only for entering drought stages early in the season due to SWE levels.
Jones then moved to accept the changes to the plan and to allow staff to move into drought stages one or two according to the plan in the near future.
Jones also expressed his appreciation for Ramsey’s attention to detail with the plan, a sentiment that was echoed by other board members.
Following more discussion of the current drought conditions and the drought stages, the board unanimously voted to accept Jones’ motion and adopt the updated drought plan.
josh@pagosasun.com
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