Tag: City of Aspen water

The city now owns a large and vacant parcel of land in Woody Creek to be used for potential reservoirs filled with water rights now tied to potential dams and reservoirs on upper Maroon and Castle creeks.

City cites a need for 8,500 acre-feet to meet future needs in the face of climate change.

The city of Aspen is buying land for potential reservoirs ranging from 1,000 acre-feet to 8,000 acre-feet.

The city tells opposing parties it is willing to move the water rights tied to the Maroon Creek Reservoir to locations in the Roaring Fork valley under certain conditions.

Reducing irrigation on the golf course may be a good option, but city staff and advisors are still calling for some level of storage to meet future needs.

An in-situ reservoir under Aspen’s golf course might allow the city to store up to 1,200 acre-feet of water under the surface of the course.

Effort includes additional study of Castle Creek Reservoir site

The city says it “can and will” build two large reservoirs on upper Maroon and Castle creeks, if necessary.

The USFS is likely to oppose Aspen’s due diligence filing to extend its conditional water rights for reservoirs on Maroon and Castle 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.