The $511,000 contract is seen by city officials as a way to help protect the city’s future diversion and storage projects from being called out by downstream water owners.
Category: Water
Our water desk, staffed by Heather Sackett, produces the most authoritative reporting available on Roaring Fork and upper Colorado river basin water policy and politics.
Posted inWater
Local groups want Crystal River to be Wild and Scenic
Wild and Scenic status, which ultimately requires an act of Congress to obtain, prevents a federal agency from approving, or funding, a new dam or reservoir on a Wild and Scenic-designated river.
Posted inWater
Trees on Thomas Reservoir removed, new tailrace planned
Trees on a dam are considered a hazard as their roots can cause the dam to leak and high winds could blow the trees over, leaving a big hole where the roots were.
Posted inWater
City maintains rights for dams on Castle and Maroon creeks
The upper ends of both Castle and Maroon creek valleys would be the sites of two new city of Aspen water storage reservoirs and dams, under 47-year-old conditional water rights that the city has continued to keep alive.
Posted inWater
Aspen defends its journey from penstock to drain line
Was the city manipulating a federal process in the name of public safety?
Posted inWater
State: Those dam trees have to go
A state dam safety engineer is requiring the city of Aspen to cut down 25 trees on the Thomas Reservoir dam and said the trees may already have caused “dam safety problems.”
Posted inWater
American Rivers fighting phantom dams on Crystal River
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
Posted inWater
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.
Posted inWater
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.
Posted inWater
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