The 50-year-oldwastewater treatment system that serves 450 people at Aspen Village needs to be upgraded, but the deed-restricted community 10 miles below Aspen doesn’t have the money to do it …
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
County paddling upstream to kayak park on Roaring Fork
A long list of powerful parties are still opposing Pitkin County’s efforts to obtain a water right for a kayak park on the Roaring Fork River in Basalt, and a trial date in water court is now looming downstream …
Posted inWater
Study documents ’12 drought conditions on Fork and Crystal
Due to water diversions during the hot and dry summer of 2012, sections of the Roaring Fork River through Aspen and the Crystal River above Carbondale were running significantly below the levels a state water agency says are necessary to protect the environment.
Posted inWater
Trial date set in city hydro-water case
A 15-day trial has been set for Oct. 28 to decide if the city of Aspen has abandoned its water rights to produce hydropower on lower Castle Creek.
Posted inWater
Colorado Springs blocking donation of water to local rivers
Pitkin County and the Colorado Water Conservation Board are finding it’s not easy to leave water in two local rivers for environmental purposes.
Posted inTransmountain Diversions, Water
Pitkin County fighting city of Aurora over Fryingpan water
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.
Posted inWater
City updating 1990 water plan calling for dams, more hydro
City of Aspen water officials are now working to update the city’s comprehensive water management plan and the process could inform future decisions about potential new dams, reservoirs and hydro power plants.
Posted inWater
Aspen’s Ruedi water buy may bolster prospect for new dams on Castle and Maroon creeks
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.
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.