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New reservoirs likely with grants
JANE STEBBINS
October 23, 2004
SUMMIT COUNTY - The Western Slope could see new reservoirs after the Colorado River Water Conservation District (CRWCD) decided to expand its grant program that funds water projects.
That decision will result in the creation of a new challenge grant program of $150,000 the board will award to those proposing large-scale water projects, said CRWCD education specialist Peter Roessmann. That grant fund will operate concurrently with the existing small-project grant program for the next three years. The two will alternate in following years.
The additional grant money will be used for construction of new water storage, reservoir enlargement or dam rehabilitation projects within the district's 15 West Slope counties. Those counties are Summit, Mesa, Rio Blanco, Moffat, Routt, Grand, Eagle, Pitkin, Gunnison, Garfield, Ouray, Delta and portions of Montrose, Saguache and Hinsdale.
Breckenridge town manager Tim Gagen said the town would be interested in applying for those funds to help with costs of a reservoir proposed to be built on the McCain property just south of County Road 3. The town has applied for such loans to do work elsewhere, including the Goose Pasture Tarn in the town of Blue River, which holds the town's water supply.
"Every little bit helps," he said. "We'll certainly do - like we always do - knock on every door we can knock on."
Analysts are currently developing concepts and cost estimates for such a reservoir. Detailed engineering would follow that, possibly as soon as next year, Gagen said.
"When it would be built is different," he said. "That will depend on financing."
That financing could involve the Breckenridge Sanitation District, whose board is looking into the feasibility of a "pump-back" system from Farmer's Korner to the Iowa Hill Water Treatment Plan.
CRWCD board members say new facilities are needed because of the ongoing drought, Roessman said.
They began the grant program in 1998 to assist small water projects in getting off the ground. Some projects involve creating new water supplies, improving existing supplies and instream water quality, promoting water use efficiency, reducing sedimentation problems and controlling water-robbing, invasive noxious weeds.
The program awards grants of up to $15,000 each year, many of which have funded improvements to agricultural producers and small municipalities. So far, more than $1 million has been awarded to 107 projects.
Guidelines for the new grant program will be approved at the board's January 2005 meeting. The large grant program will begin next February and plans to award grants by July 2005. Small-project grant applications will be accepted in November.
In another decision, the board passed a resolution urging the states of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico to "take whatever actions are necessary" to conserve storage in reservoirs and release only the absolute minimum amount of water necessary from Lake Powell to meet obligations to downstream states.
Roessmann said record low water levels in Lake Powell, Flaming Gorge Reservoir, Navajo Reservoir and Colorado's Aspinall Unit directly affect Upper Basin states like Colorado and pose a significant threat to hydroelectric power generation capacity as reservoir levels recede.
Lake Powell in particular has suffered from the drought, now in its fifth year. That popular lake is down to 38 percent of its useable capacity.
The reservoir is crucial to meeting the water deliveries required by the Colorado River Compact of 1922.
"As Lake Powell levels drop, its ability to deliver that water to the downstream states of California, Nevada and Arizona diminishes," Roessmann said. "At the same time, dropping water levels increase the possibility that water use could be restricted in Colorado to meet those demands."
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