Before there was a state water plan emphasizing the need for collaboration to develop innovative strategies to meet the state’s water challenges, Mesa County’s newest reservoir was already in the works and on its way to serving as a precursor to the suite of actions the plan would embody.

The 74-acre-foot “regulating” reservoir located near U.S. Highway 50 and 29 1/2 Road on Orchard Mesa is designed to allow users of the Orchard Mesa Irrigation District to access water during peak times, while at the same time minimizing reductions in ditch and river flows.

A water project like this doesn’t just magically appear. It took years of interagency cooperation and a leap of faith to make it happen. But in the end, it delivered exactly what the state water plan prescribes – new water solutions that make finite supplies go further.

Read more at The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.