Pine River Irrigation District

I want to thank those that were involved in communications with The Pine River Irrigation District every day, even hourly, during these historic storms that impacted us all. Some people in these groups were negatively impacted by the flooding personally and they still maintained data and updates. If you know these individuals or groups, please thank them for all their efforts and assistance. Please don’t take issue if I misspelled a name or miss a member of an entity involved. I cannot thank all of them enough and am doing this now while all this is fresh in my memory.

Mike Canterbury – Vallecito Dam Operations (PRID) - for the extreme efforts put into the releases, adjustments, calculations and numerous issues throughout, and all without much time to sleep, in the pouring rain and all hours of the day and night.

The hydrology and operations group provided critical support with calculations, data evaluation, and daily decision-making processes. Much of this was done late in the evening, in the middle of the night and early in the mornings. Their steps were key in helping us get to where we are today. Their situational awareness and knowledge helped keep the process as controllable as possible.

Susan Behery - Barr Engineering

Bureau of Reclamation – Durango, Grand Junction and Albuquerque offices

Marc Miller, Kelsey Deckert, Bart Deming, Reece Carpenter, Conor Felletter, Justin Gilbert,    Andrew Limbach, Scott Steffens and more in the background.

Emergency Management from La Plata County, State of Colorado and Southern Ute Indian Tribe provided tremendous assistance. Numerous employees contributed, and only a few are named here. Others who were fantastic and their expertise really brought information, data and updates together.

Rob Farino, Ben Robinson, Matt Richardson, Brandon Heard, Manny Lewis, Thomas McNamara, and Weylin Ryan.

Watching the emergency management process in action, showed their great efforts, skills and dedication to help us all through these times. Archuleta County, San Juan County NM and neighboring counties also had many experts performing the same essential work under worse circumstances. I did not get to see inside their operations, but their performances needs recognition as well.

These emergency processes are still ongoing and will continue for some time. FEMA and others will follow those above group's lead going forward. Please use their tools and resources to help you get back to a better place.

La Plata County Colorado

These groups helped me almost every day and played a critical role in the instantaneous and daily decision-making process and data updates.

The remainder of the PRID staff who kept you all informed online and maintained daily operations, tracked incidents and damage and supported me throughout, and dealt with road closures while remaining available and prepared.

Chrissy Wright, Jamie Echeverri, Kaedon Rademacher and Mitch Abendroth.

Jay Dee Brunson and the crew at the SUIT Fairgrounds area, kept information flowing on the Pine River’s flow conditions and issues in the Ignacio area throughout the storms. With no gage in that area, the additional data improved decision making.

The Colorado River Basin Forecast Center and the National Weather Service out of Grand Junction, dedicated NOAA individuals, using modeling and vast amounts of data to generate forecasts that made the decision process vastly improved. Estimating timing and peaks in a set of historic storms, rerunning, updating, and listening to our input was beyond extraordinary. There were experts from across the country helping us along the way, and we will never even know many of their names: However, I have Kate Finley who really helped start the push early on.

Colorado Division of Water Resources, Southern Ute Water Resources and USGS staff.

These groups’ hydrological expertise was fantastic and needed.

Brian Boughton, Pete Nylander (& staff), Chris Musgrave, Kevin Murphy, Brian Leavesley, Cheston Hart and more. Five of these were measuring and maintaining gages throughout a vast area from the Dolores River, Mancos, La Plata, Animas, Piedra, San Juan rivers while traversing many miles to keep as much reliable data online as possible. That was a massive undertaking and is still continuing. Others were turning ditches on and off, tracking flows and providing information all around. Special thanks to Brian for stopping by the office often and updating me, measuring the Pine below Vallecito under poor conditions after the river channel had changed dramatically. His input made the process better throughout. His ideas and tools made quite a difference. He also used his expertise from the 2015 flooding when we made similar decisions during a rain on snow event which many of you may remember.

The Board of Directors of PRID and previous Superintendent – Allen McCaw, Steve Pargin and Nathan Wright, Ken Beck.

These four kept me updated, buffered calls, shared their past experiences with the system, asked good and tough questions and all while maintaining their jobs, which included ensuring hunters and others were accounted for.

The Robert Morrison and Pine River Canal/Spring Creek Ditch companies. These canals along with some BIA/SUIT ditches diverted water between the storms to ease flow through the Town of Ignacio even though the rains impacted their infrastructure. This helped the reservoir lower its elevation between storms.

Finally, there are groups I did not directly deal with, or very little, yet they may have been among the most important ones involved and had the boots on the ground in severe weather and worked diligently in the background throughout:

Fire Departments, emergency responders, search and rescue.

Upper Pine Fire Protection District - Chief Evan and Mike Muir in particular, but numerous others excelling at their jobs with little sleep and great effort throughout the entire county and beyond.

The Sheriff’s Department and State Patrol, including the deputy that sat at the entrance to Jack’s Creek and kept vehicles from entering high water and hazardous area. Many others doing similar jobs protecting us all throughout the region.

Southern Ute Emergency Responders and Police Department that had some of the highest flows in the Pine Valley and toughest conditions.

The towns of Ignacio and Bayfield, and La Plata County Commissioners, La Plata County managers, public works, maintenance crews, road and bridge, GIS analysts, Phone Centers. Local companies donating their time, employees and equipment, volunteers, neighbors taking in and helping neighbors and many, many more who went unmentioned.

And finally, the Bureau of Reclamation Engineers and Construction workers, long gone, who designed and built Vallecito Reservoir and the other infrastructure that helped get us through by reducing flooding and storing a great deal of water to be released later.

Thanks again,

David Hoffman