Paonia Reservoir Water Level
Paonia Reservoir is at 6,377.65 ft today (Oct 30), 69.85 ft below its 6,447.5 ft full pool, up 0.01 ft this week.
Colorado · Muddy Creek
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Water level history
About Paonia Reservoir
Paonia Reservoir is a reservoir on the Muddy Creek in Colorado, operated by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Its full summer pool sits at 6447.5 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CWMS) and update hourly.
Understanding Paonia Reservoir's water level
Paonia Reservoir sits on Muddy Creek in Gunnison County, about 16 miles from the town of Paonia, just above the spot where Muddy Creek meets Anthracite Creek and the two become the North Fork of the Gunnison. Reclamation began storing water behind the 199-foot zoned earthfill dam in December 1961 and finished it in January 1962 as the centerpiece of the Paonia Project, one of the participating projects authorized with the Colorado River Storage Project in 1956. Its job is irrigation storage for about 15,300 acres, delivered through the Fire Mountain Canal to farms in the North Fork Valley of Delta County. The Fire Mountain Canal and Reservoir Company and the North Fork Water Conservancy District run it day to day. Full pool, 6,447.5 feet, is the spillway crest. At that level the lake is roughly three miles long and a fifth of a mile wide, about 334 surface acres, fed by 246 square miles of drainage.
The level follows a short, steep cycle. Snowmelt off Muddy Creek fills the pool in late spring, anything above the crest goes over the spillway, and irrigation demand pulls it down hard through summer and fall. The recent gauge record tops out at 6,449.32 feet in 2023, close to two feet over the crest. Since 2010 and 2011 Reclamation has also lowered the pool in early spring so the rising runoff can flush sediment through the outlet works before the gates close to refill for irrigation. In its sediment modeling Reclamation used a winter operating level of 6,377 feet and a spring storage level of 6,447.5, a swing of about seventy feet in a normal year. The recent low, 6,369.97 feet in 2025, sits a dozen feet above the 6,358-foot line that marks the original dead storage. Colorado Parks and Wildlife allows boating from June through September or until the falling water closes the ramp, and calls the reservoir fishing window mid-June to mid-August.
Sediment is the long story here. Reclamation designed Paonia for a 50-year sediment life, half its usual standard, and set the intake tower 70 feet above the original valley floor to stay ahead of the mud. A June 2013 survey found the reservoir trapping about 101 acre-feet of sediment a year and nearly a quarter of its original 20,950 acre-feet gone. The outlet works first partly plugged in 2010. When the pool was drawn down in late October 2014, the whole dead pool and six feet of active pool were full of sediment, and waterlogged logs and branches coated in silt were piled six feet high against the intake grates. Crews spent two weeks of 10-hour days clearing it by hand and with an excavator, and a 10-ton concrete bulkhead in the outlet had to be jackhammered out. Reclamation now lists active storage at 15,600 acre-feet, down from 18,150, and is working on a long-term sediment management plan.
Paonia Reservoir — frequently asked
What is Paonia Reservoir's full pool elevation?
6,447.5 feet, which is the spillway crest of Paonia Dam. A 1966 survey put total capacity between the streambed at the dam (6,290 feet) and the crest at 20,950 acre-feet. Reclamation's current figure for active storage, the water that can actually be released for irrigation, is 15,600 acre-feet, down from 18,150 when the dam was finished in 1962. Sediment from Muddy Creek accounts for the difference.
Why is Paonia Reservoir so low?
Mostly by design. The reservoir exists to hold Muddy Creek snowmelt for irrigation, so releases draw it down through summer and fall, and Reclamation's own modeling assumes a winter level around 6,377 feet, seventy feet below full. Since 2010 managers have also lowered it in early spring to flush sediment through the outlet. In a dry year the drop comes sooner: in April 2026 the ranger overseeing the park warned trailered boats could lose the ramp by the Fourth of July.
What is the record high level at Paonia Reservoir?
The gauge panel on this page covers only about 2020 onward, and its high is 6,449.32 feet in 2023. Older USGS records, which run from storage beginning in December 1961, show a maximum of 6,449.76 feet on June 6, 1995, with 17,460 acre-feet in storage. Both readings are about two feet above the spillway crest, meaning snowmelt was running over the spillway.
What is the record low level at Paonia Reservoir?
Within the recent gauge panel, which covers only about 2020 onward, the low is 6,369.97 feet in 2025. Older USGS records show a minimum of 6,360.72 feet on April 14, 1996, with just 117 acre-feet of live storage, an early spring low before runoff. Those older figures predate the heavy sediment buildup at the outlet that Reclamation documented in 2014, so the bottom of the pool no longer looks the way it did then.
Why does Reclamation draw Paonia Reservoir down in spring?
To move sediment. Muddy Creek carries its heaviest sediment loads early in runoff, before the snowmelt peak. Since 2010 and 2011 Reclamation has lowered the pool in early spring so that runoff sluices sediment through the outlet works, then closed the gates to refill for the irrigation season. A Reclamation sediment study credited the practice with preventing further plugging, though Reclamation calls it a short-term fix.
Is Paonia Reservoir filling up with sediment?
Yes. A June 2013 Reclamation survey found about 101 acre-feet of sediment settling in the reservoir each year and nearly 25 percent of original capacity lost. By 2014 the dead pool below the outlet was full and debris had partly plugged the intake. Reclamation estimates that at the current rate the reservoir would fill completely in about 150 years, but sediment would disrupt the intakes and outlet works long before that.
When can you launch a boat at Paonia State Park?
There is one ramp, at the north end of the reservoir off County Road 2. Colorado Parks and Wildlife allows boating normally from June through September, or until the water drops far enough to close the ramp. Motorized boats need an inspection, so the ramp is gated when inspectors are not on duty. Canoes, kayaks and paddleboards can still launch by hand. Ice fishing is prohibited because the ice is never considered safe.
Other lakes near Paonia Reservoir
- Ridgway ReservoirCO
- Lemon ReservoirCO
- Vallecito ReservoirCO
- Cherry Creek ReservoirCO
- Blue Mesa ReservoirCO
- Chatfield ReservoirCO
See current levels for all 7 Colorado lakes and reservoirs →
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