GEORGETOWN, Colo. -- The spring runoff is in full force in the Colorado mountains and safety officials are hoping for cooler evenings.

Officials told 7NEWS that when overnight temperatures remain high, the snow melt continues 24 hours a day.

No homes have been jeopardized by flooding in Georgetown so far, but Clear Creek, which runs through the center of the small community, has risen four feet in the last week.

The bigger concern is north of Georgetown where a 40-year-old water filtration plant has had to be shut down almost every day. The town’s water supply has been cut in half.

The rushing water carries too many types of sediment to safely be processed.

Cory Nicholson admits it’s a strange irony that their water supply would be limited by too much rushing water.

"What we need to do is make water and we can’t because the runoff is so fast," Nicholson said.

The runoff has been intensified by dust storms in the region.

Andy Barrett of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder said the dust was deposited by 12 storms between mid-December and early April.

Dust-covered snow melts faster because its darker surface absorbs more of the sun's heat than cleaner snow does. Clean snow typically reflects 90 to 100 percent of the sunlight.

Mike Gillespie, snow survey supervisor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service, said the result of quickly melting snowpack will be a condensed runoff season. Flows will be high early and recede sooner.