{"id":804998,"date":"2020-03-07T15:13:42","date_gmt":"2020-03-07T22:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=380066"},"modified":"2020-03-07T15:13:42","modified_gmt":"2020-03-07T22:13:42","slug":"dillon-reservoir-water-monitoring-program-changing-scaling-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/dillon-reservoir-water-monitoring-program-changing-scaling-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Dillon Reservoir water-monitoring program changing, scaling back"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Upper Blue Sanitation District Chief of Plant Operations Earl Picard walks past advanced tertiary wastewater treatment equipment in the Farmers Korner plant on Dillon Reservoir. Improved wastewater treatment and extension of plant service lines have helped protect the reservoir\u2019s water quality from additional phosphorus pollution even as wastewater loads from surrounding communities have grown significantly. <\/strong>
Tom Lotshaw \/ Aspen Journalism<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

SUMMIT COUNTY \u2014 A long-running collaborative program that protects the Dillon Reservoir from the excessive phosphorus levels and algae growth associated with wastewater and stormwater discharge is undergoing some changes and scaling back its monitoring.<\/p>\n

The Summit Water Quality Committee\u2019s monitoring program is losing the lab services of a longtime partner, University of Colorado Boulder professor William Lewis. Lewis, who is also the director of the Center for Limnology, said he doubted he could reorganize and modernize his lab as needed to keep up with university requirements for such programs, given his age and the lab\u2019s budget. Limnology is the study of freshwater bodies.<\/p>\n

CU officials said a review of the Center for Limnology\u2019s administrative practices identified aspects that needed improvement and developed options for continued operations with improved practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe university continually works to develop and maintain best practices to ensure proper stewardship of equipment, personnel and resources,\u201d CU spokesperson Deborah Mendez Wilson said. \u201cSubsequent to that review, Professor Lewis decided to close the service center and lab that performed analyses for various entities.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to an April 24, 2018 memo obtained through a Colorado Open Records Act request, the Campus Controller\u2019s Office reviewed the Center for Limnology\u2019s financial activities after a whistleblower complaint about the relationship between the center and Western Environmental Analysts, a private consulting company Lewis owns, which was using university employees and equipment to fulfill its contracts.<\/p>\n

In the memo, the Campus Controller\u2019s Office recommended an investigation to determine if financial misconduct occurred, as well as improved controls and oversight.<\/p>\n

Lewis has helped the committee analyze water quality in Dillon Reservoir and its tributaries for four decades. He also helped lead a major two-year study, published in 1983, of Dillon Reservoir and the threats facing it.<\/p>\n

As a result of the 1983 study, local governments and wastewater treatment plant operators in the watershed formed the Summit Water Quality Committee in 1984 to work together to monitor and reduce their phosphorus loads into the reservoir and its tributaries. Committee partners include Summit County; the towns of Breckenridge, Dillon, Frisco, Montezuma and Silverthorne; Copper Mountain Consolidated Metro District; Dillon\/Silverthorne Joint Sewer Authority; the Snake River Wastewater Treatment Plant; and the Frisco and Upper Blue sanitation districts.<\/p>\n

The program has succeeded in preserving Dillon Reservoir\u2019s water quality, Lewis and committee partners said.<\/p>\n

Summit County Commissioner Karn Stiegelmeier said the closure of Lewis\u2019 lab is an immense loss for the committee and the end of an era at Dillon Reservoir.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to see some documentary done of all those years,\u201d Stiegelmeier said. \u201cJust the fact that we have maintained this clean lake here because of this committee\u2019s work and Bill Lewis\u2019 work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
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A snow-covered arm of Dillon Reservoir as seen from Sapphire Point overlook. Measures to prevent phosphorus pollution have protected the reservoir\u2019s water quality for drinking and recreation, despite extensive development in the watershed over the past 50 years, according to the Summit Water Quality Committee.<\/strong>
Tom Lotshaw \/ Aspen Journalism<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Phosphorus and algae concerns<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the time of the 1983 study, communities around Dillon Reservoir were growing rapidly and discharging more phosphorus-laden wastewater and stormwater into the watershed. A long list of towns and utility districts discharge wastewater and stormwater into Dillon Reservoir, which is Denver Water\u2019s largest storage site for drinking water and a major recreation site in Summit County.<\/p>\n

The concern was that the additional pollution would cause harmful algae growth that impaired the reservoir\u2019s water quality for drinking and recreation.<\/p>\n

The study jumpstarted coordinated measures to protect Dillon Reservoir from growing phosphorus pollution, which would trigger excessive algae growth in its waters.<\/p>\n

After the study, state regulators limited the amount of phosphorus allowed to be discharged into Dillon Reservoir\u2019s water and set a 7.4 microgram-per-liter phosphorus standard for the reservoir from June through October, the season for algae growth.<\/p>\n

Denver Water owns Dillon Reservoir, which the agency built in 1963 with a dam on the Blue River. The reservoir, which can hold up to 257,304 acre-feet of water, provides 40% of the storage capacity for Denver Water\u2019s 1.4 million customers, sending water to the Front Range through the 23.3-mile Roberts Tunnel under the Continental Divide.<\/p>\n

The reservoir \u2014 with its sparkling-blue water, marinas, beaches, hiking trails, campgrounds and bike paths \u2014 is also a major summer-recreation site for the towns of Frisco, Dillon and Silverthorne.<\/p>\n

Lewis said he plans to stay active with the Summit Water Quality Committee, which remains focused on limiting phosphorus pollution and the excessive algae growth caused by eutrophication, when the nutrient accumulates in a body of water.<\/p>\n

Lewis is also helping to investigate trout-fishery declines in a formerly Gold Medal stretch of the Blue River downstream of Dillon Reservoir. He recently published a study on climate change\u2019s effects on the high-elevation reservoir, finding that its surface waters have warmed by 2.5 degrees Celsius over the past 35 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll probably be part of the evaluation process as long as the committee wants me to be part of it. I\u2019m very interested in it,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n

\n
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William Lewis, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and director of its Center for Limnology, has studied and helped monitor Dillon Reservoir\u2019s water quality for four decades. Lewis closed his water quality lab at the university Dec. 31, prompting the Summit Water Quality Committee to change its watershed monitoring program. <\/strong>
Courtesy University of Colorado Boulder<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Scaling back<\/strong><\/p>\n

Confronted with the closure of Lewis\u2019 lab, the Summit Water Quality Committee\u2019s watershed-monitoring program is continuing but scaling back, at least for now.<\/p>\n

Partners are contracting with the U.S. Geological Survey to sample and analyze Dillon Reservoir six times a year from June through October, as well as contracting with High Sierra Water Laboratory in Tahoe City, Calif., to help analyze samples, according to Lane Wyatt, the Summit Water Quality Committee administrator and watershed-services director for Northwest Colorado Council of Governments.<\/p>\n

That monitoring will show whether Dillon Reservoir\u2019s phosphorus standard is being met, Wyatt said. But the program will no longer monitor the reservoir the rest of the year and no longer monitor Green Mountain Reservoir, which is downstream and not subject to the stringent phosphorus regulations.<\/p>\n

About two dozen tributary sites will be monitored monthly for phosphorus, nitrogen, algae and other measures, down from 15-17 times a year, with samples sent to ACZ Laboratories in Steamboat Springs for analysis. The monitoring sites are on the Blue and Snake rivers, Tenmile Creek, Soda Creek and Straight Creek. Miners Creek will no longer be monitored as part of the program.<\/p>\n

The changes will not result in additional costs for Summit Water Quality Committee partners, Wyatt said. The total annual cost will remain at $80,000-$90,000. Denver Water and Climax Mine also help pay for the monitoring program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have 30 years of data, we have a sense we don\u2019t need to collect those samples at this time, a higher level of comfort,\u201d Wyatt said of the committee\u2019s decision to scale back the monitoring program for now. \u201cSo we\u2019ll do this for one to three years and see how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dillon Reservoir\u2019s phosphorus standard has been exceeded only twice, in 2002 and 2004. Both exceedances were in drought years with low water flows, and the committee\u2019s monitoring data helped show state regulators that they were anomalies and not a sign that programs to limit phosphorus pollution in the watershed were not working, Wyatt said.<\/p>\n

Lewis said there is less phosphorus pollution reaching Dillon Reservoir today than in the early 1980s and algae growth is less than half of what it was at its peak. He called the partnership to protect Colorado\u2019s seventh-largest reservoir from eutrophication \u201ca textbook example of the way things should be done in anticipating and preventing damage to an aquatic resource.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe monitoring will probably not be quite as comprehensive but sufficient to prove that the lake is complying with the standard and there isn\u2019t any creep in algal populations,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cI think it\u2019s in good hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Committee partners have worked to protect Dillon Reservoir even as Summit County\u2019s population and wastewater loads have continued to grow significantly.<\/p>\n

The county grew from 2,700 residents in 1970 to 8,800 residents in 1980 and to an estimated 30,600 residents in 2017. The number of people in the county can top 150,000 during times of high visitation, said Dan Hendershott, Summit County\u2019s environmental health manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually decreased our (phosphorus) loading \u2014 despite the increased quantity of wastewater generated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Improving wastewater-treatment plants helped reduce phosphorus loads early on, and extending their service lines has helped remove some of the oldest and most-polluting septic systems in the watershed, according to Hendershott.<\/p>\n

Management of septic systems remains a concern, with an estimated 3,000 systems in the county, Hendershott said, adding that modern systems the county approves are more effective at treating wastewater and are set back from watershed conduits such as creeks, wetlands and groundwater.<\/p>\n

Other measures aimed at reducing erosion and stormwater runoff from roadways and construction sites have also helped keep phosphorus pollution in check, Hendershott said, adding, \u201cIt\u2019s really been a team effort from all the stakeholders and been a very cooperative process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denver Water representatives say they agree the program has worked to limit phosphorus pollution and prevent excessive algae growth in Dillon Reservoir.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see the collaborative partnership as a resounding success, one that has been critical in nutrient control in the watershed,\u201d utility spokesman Todd Hartman said. \u201cThe partnership has protected the reservoir not only for drinking but also for recreation and the general health of the water body.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work of Dr. Lewis has been of tremendous value, and it\u2019s unfortunate that the CU lab is closing,\u201d Hartman said. \u201cHowever, we\u2019re confident the Summit Water Quality Committee will continue to conduct a high-quality monitoring program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aspen Journalism collaborates with the Summit Daily News and other Swift Communications newspapers on coverage of water and rivers. For more, go to AspenJournalism.org<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Upper Blue Sanitation District Chief of Plant Operations Earl Picard walks past advanced tertiary wastewater treatment equipment in the Farmers Korner plant on Dillon Reservoir. Improved wastewater treatment and extension of plant service lines have helped protect the reservoir\u2019s water quality from additional phosphorus pollution even as wastewater loads from surrounding communities have grown significantly. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-804998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-19 18:48:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804998\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}