McPhee Reservoir officially hit its full mark this week as warm temperatures melted snow in the mountains, sending it into the Dolores River and then into the waiting reservoir. The timing worked out well for rafters and festival goers.

Once one of the longest undammed rivers in the lower 48 states and a perennial candidate for federal Wild and Scenic River designation, the 250-mile Dolores now loses about 40 percent of its water, an average of 100,000 acre-feet each year, to irrigation withdrawals and trans-basin diversions centered on the McPhee Dam and Reservoir built in the mid-1980s.

The wind has been anything but predictable lately, and that has played some havoc on snowmelt predictions and whether or not there will be a spill on the Lower Dolores River. "If there is going to be a spill, it is going to be small and short," said Mike Preston, general manager of the Dolores Water Conservancy District.

Ten days after the start of the 2010 irrigation year, the water forecast for Montezuma Valley remains murky.

Eight years after a fire tore through the McPhee Reservoir marina, the area will receive some much needed development due to the work of the McPhee Breakwater Project, Montezuma County, and grants from the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

As winter melts into spring and McPhee Reservoir begins its slow ascent to full capacity, the placid waters conceal a raging battle with the hallmarks of history. Two major water providers, Montezuma Valley Irrigation Co.

Settlement talks between Montezuma Valley Irrigation Co. and the Dolores Water Conservancy District have reached the end of the year without resolution after a series of postponed meetings and anti-climactic hearings. MVIC filed suit against the conservancy district and the U.S.

The Dolores Water Conservancy District Board of Directors unanimously approved a request from Rico representatives Thursday night to divert water from underground sources off the Dolores River for municipal use.

A water-rights battle that began in June between two major providers in Montezuma County might be heading toward calmer waters. Montezuma Valley Irrigation Co. filed a lawsuit June 5 in U.S. District Court against the Dolores Water Conservancy District and the U.S.