Category: Transmountain Diversions

Pitkin County has spent $50,000 since 2010 to prevent a Front Range city from expanding a water right it owns to divert 2,600 acre-feet of water a year from four creeks high in the Fryingpan River basin.

About 47,000 acre-feet of water has been diverted each year of the last decade off the top of the Roaring Fork River drainage and sent through Tunnel No. 1 under Independence Mountain.

“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.”