The decision takes away the long-simmering prospect, however thin, that two Ruedi-sized dams would be built on the Crystal River, including the 129,00-acre-feet Osgood Reservoir, which would have put Redstone underwater.
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Posted inEnvironment
Stormwater mismanagement in the gas fields
The state’s Water Quality Control Division says a division of Williams natural gas company failed to take measures at a gas field construction site to keep dirt and mud from running down steep hills into a tributary of Parachute Creek, which flows into the Colorado River in Parachute. On Nov. 1, 2010, state inspectors witnessed […]
Posted inEnvironment
Two other gas field stormwater violations
Williams is not alone when it comes to failing inspections at construction sites in Garfield County’s gas fields. The Petroleum Development Company received two stormwater permits, one in 2002 and one in 2007, for construction of an access road for oil and gas exploration on 56 acres about 10 miles north of Parachute. Under the […]
Posted inWater
The market for Crystal River water
If the Colorado River District dammed the Crystal River, would anyone want to buy the water stored behind the dams? Probably so, according to Kerry Sundeen of Grand River Consulting, with large landowners along the Crystal River seeking irrigation water perhaps the strongest potential market.
Posted inWater
West Divide Project water rights chart and map
An updated look at the conditional water rights associated with the West Divide Project was provided at a meeting on Wednesday, March 16, 2011.
Posted inWater
PitCo’s Ely barred from executive session, new maps show range of reservoirs
Pitkin County Attorney John Ely was asked to leave a closed-door session on Wednesday, March 16, so two water district boards could talk about potential dams on the Crystal River without Pitkin County, which sits on one of the boards, in the room.
Posted inWater
The Phantom Dams of the Crystal River
A dam once envisioned on the upper Crystal River would drown the town of Redstone under an artificial lake bigger than Ruedi Reservoir, submerging the Redstone Castle and putting the town’s historic coke ovens under water.
Posted inWater
The History of the West Divide Project
To understand the prospect of, and the evolving rationale for, the Osgood and Placita Reservoirs, it is helpful to imagine driving from Marble to DeBeque. Every day, water from the Crystal River makes this same journey.
Posted inTransmountain Diversions, Water
Draining the Fork & the Pan: transmountain diversions
“Local interests in the Roaring Fork Watershed should … expect Front Range water providers to eventually attempt to firm up undeveloped water rights and excess diversion capacity associated with the Fry-Ark Project, Busk-Ivanhoe System, and Twin Lakes System.”
Posted inEnergy and Climate
Proposed EPA fracking study
The EPA has proposed an in-depth study of the relationship between water and the hydraulic fracturing process in natural gas production. The federal agency’s draft proposal, highlighted below, is written in clear language and should be of interest to anyone with a stake in Garfield County, where natural gas production and the use of “fracking” […]