CIMARRON — All four gates are open on the Morrow Point Dam in Montrose County for the first time since 2017, providing a spectacular display of force as water spills into the Gunnison River, the fifth largest tributary to the Colorado River.
While the flow from 15-foot-wide gates 468 feet above is intriguing to tourists and locals making their way along Morrow Point Dam Road from U.S. 50 in Cimarron, the water is intended to simulate spring runoff conditions to protect the endangered Colorado pikeminnow and razorback sucker in the lower Gunnison River and three other endangered fish species in the Colorado.
Typically only two gates open on the dam, if they open at all. Two gates opened in 2019, but the year before they were closed because of drought conditions. Four gates were opened to test the system in 1970, but they remained closed until after the Aspinall Record of Decision in 2012, which regulates how much water must be released to aid fish in the river while still protecting the functions of Morrow Point and two other dams on the Gunnison, the Crystal Dam to the west and Blue Mesa Dam to the east. Four gates opened in 2014 and again in 2017.
Completed in 1968, Morrow Point has hydroelectric generating capacity of about 165 megawatts of power. Facilities manager David Klein said prior to the notice of decision, the spillway was open only in emergencies. “They preferred to use the water to generate power,” he said.
Klein said the gates will remain open at least through the weekend.