According to a local rumor that has apparently gained some credence, Totten Lake, a popular fishing and wildlife-observation area near Cortez, is supposed to be permanently drained for development soon and replaced by a wetlands area that is being created by the Bureau of Reclamation just east of the lake.

But while that rumor is untrue, the lake’s water level will be going through some dramatic fluctuations over the coming years if, as expected, the Dolores Water Conservancy District acquires the rights.

"If we buy it, our intention is to use it as an irrigation reservoir again," DWCD Manager John Porter said Monday, although there is also the possibility that some of the water could be used to supply the fishery below Lake McPhee.

Porter said the boards of DWCD and the Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company have essentially arrived at an agreement under which MVI would turn over the water rights to the lake, which contains about 3,300 acre-feet when full, in return for the DWCD buying 1,500 shares of MVI Class B stock for $2.25 million. He said the agreement was currently being fine-tuned by the boards’ attorneys and the deal should be concluded by the first of the year.

Porter said the tentative plan is to take up to 1,800 acre-feet from the lake annually during August and September for irrigation, but that under a long-standing agreement with the Colorado Division of Wildlife, a minimum pool of 600 acre-feet must be left in the lake at all times. Still, even when the lake is full, this yearly depletion would lower its volume by more than half by late summer, and this would probably not be replaced until the following spring, he explained, or, in very dry years, it may never get completely full.

will get as low as it’s going to in September," he said, "but it might not fill more than an inch a day in a drought until the spring runoff." The lake’s water is replenished through "natural" drainage, he explained, although much of that is actually run-off from irrigating fields to the north.

Using Totten to store irrigation water "is one of the options that we are including in our WETpack feasibility study," Porter said, "and we have not got far enough along on the feasibility study to select a preferred option." WETpack is an effort to acquire up to 6,000 acre-feet of additional irrigation water that MVI is not presently using, he explained, and to ensure that the pool of 36,500 acre-feet that has been reserved for the downstream fishery remains available once a short-term lease of 3,300 acre-feet from the Ute Mountain Ute tribe expires in two years.

"But our plan is to recommission, or put Totten back in service as a storage reservoir for agricultural purposes," Porter added. The soonest water could be taken from the lake is 2001, he said, since environmental-impact issues still must be investigated, and it could well be a year or two later.

"If we proceed beyond the feasibility study to a preferred alternative," he said, "then that has to be backed up with the environmental-assessment process Ñ how that part of the environment will be affected." Although this study won’t be finished for a year, he said, the purchase of the MVI water rights should be accomplished within six months.

Porter said he’d talked to some bass fishermen, whose main concern was that the lake remain full during June, when the bass spawn, and that this should pose no problem, since the irrigation demand would be later in the summer.

However, Mike Japhet, an aquatic biologist with the DOW, said major fluctuations in the water level could be potentially disastrous. Since 1993, when the Rocky Ford canal was abandoned, the lake’s water hasn’t been used for irrigation and the level has relatively remained stable, he said.

"Basically, (Totten) is managed as a non-fluctuating lake rather than a reservoir," Japhet said Thursday, "and much of the wildlife we see around there is dependent on that stable water level.

"We’re trying to manage the recreational fishing in the lake primarily for large-mouth bass, bluegill and channel catfish," he explained, "and the bass and bluegill require a stable water level in order to have successful spawning.

"Even if we were able to get a spawn-off, if they draw the water level down after the spawn, it tends to concentrate the small fish out in the same water where the big fish are, so they end up getting eaten."

He said lowering the level for such long periods would also harm the "high-quality" wetlands that have grown up around the lake’s margins.

ÔHaving water flooded up into those areas with a full lake has made it very attractive for the ducks," he explained. "The waterfowl use the area because there’s a lot of aquatic vegetation in the shallow margins, and if the water levels were fluctuating up and down, those plants would not be able to survive that."

Along with serving as a food supply for fish and fowl, the plants provide hiding places for small fish while they’re growing, he said.

"I can’t think of a positive impact of drawing the reservoir down (to that extent) for wildlife," Japhet said. "It seems the fishery is going to be greatly diminished from what it is today."

But so long as the DWCD maintains the 600 acre-foot minimum pool, he said, it is free to use the rest of the water for any purpose.

"I know the district has tried to be sensitive to wildlife concerns in the past and I hope that they will continue to be," he said, "but if they’re definitely set on using the water for irrigation or whatever, they’re legally entitled to do so."

Fred Thomas, who lives near the lake and along with his wife Nancy has created a wildlife preserve in its wetlands, said he hadn’t been aware of DWCD’s proposal, but recalled that it had been used for irrigation in the past.

Still, he said, "The upper reaches of Totten on both those estuaries are important nesting areas. The birds would just have to go somewhere else because they need that water Ñ especially water fowl.

"I think it would kind of ruin a lot of the nesting areas if the water is low."

Porter said that the wetlands project just across County Road 29 in Simon Draw is not directly related to the district’s plans for Totten Lake. He explained that this mitigation effort is the final installment of a commitment made by the Bureau of Reclamation to restore about 50 acres of wetlands that were either inundated or dried up when McPhee Reservoir was built. Other wetlands were already created below the dam some time ago to make up the rest, he said.

When finished, the 20 acres of new wetlands will contain five or six small dams that will be fed from a siphon on the Towoac/Highline canal system with part of the 800 acre-feet in McPhee reserved for wildlife habitat, he explained. He said that water may first be run through Totten to keep it fresh and then piped back to the wetlands.