The listing of the Crystal River by American Rivers as one of the top-10 most endangered rivers in America this year is designed to influence the boards of two regional water districts
Author Archives: Brent Gardner-Smith
Brent Gardner-Smith founded Aspen Journalism in 2011. He also served as AJ’s first executive director, from 2011 until 2021, and as its first editor, until 2020. He's also been the news director at Aspen Public Radio and a reporter at The Aspen Times and the Aspen Daily News. Brent also worked at ProPublica in 2010, as a communications intern, while earning his master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.
Questions, and answers, about the Base Village deal
SNOWMASS VILLAGE — When Related Cos. announced May 1 that it had reached an agreement to buy its Base Village back from four European banks and settle ongoing litigation with those banks, executives at the private real estate company characteristically left many questions unanswered.
Aspen’s hydro process is criticized before Congress
The approach used by the city of Aspen to gain federal approval for a proposed hydropower plant was cited as a bad example by a critic of the project in testimony last week before a House subcommittee on energy and power in Washington, D.C.
New stream gauge on Castle Creek installed
The location is below the city’s diversion dam and its irrigation ditches, and above the location of the proposed hydropower plant’s tailrace where diverted water is to be returned to the stream.
Groups seek water for rivers, and fish, this summer
Seeking water owners who might be willing to lease their water on a short-term basis to the Colorado Water Conservation Board
City report on hydro riddled with errors
ASPEN – City of Aspen officials are working to correct several mistakes in a report submitted last week to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regarding its proposed hydropower plant on Castle Creek.
New report drops net power estimates for city hydro plant
Consultants for the city have lowered the estimate of how much electricity Aspen would likely produce if it built and operated a new hydro plant on Castle Creek
The Aspen 50 – Forbes billionaires in Pitkin County
At least 50 billionaires on Forbes’ most recent wealth lists own property or have strong ties to property in the Aspen area.
Expert recommends filling in Rio Grande ‘kayak park’
A highly regarded expert on rivers who has worked for both Pitkin County and the city of Aspen has recommended that a channel dug by the city in 1992 as a kayak course along the John Denver Sanctuary be filled in because it is harming the ecosystem in the Roaring Fork River.
Buyers accuse SkiCo of fraud in Base Village condo sales
Attorneys for 29 condo owners in the Capitol Peak Lodge claim in a lawsuit that Aspen Skiing Co. “participated in a joint scheme” with other Base Village developers to defraud condo buyers. The suit claims that Skico, along with Intrawest, The Related Cos., Related WestPac and other corporate entities involved with Base Village, purposely overstated […]