{"id":2450934,"date":"2019-11-10T19:36:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T02:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/monitoring-will-make-sure-aspen-snowmaking-doesnt-harm-creeks\/"},"modified":"2019-11-10T19:36:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T02:36:00","slug":"monitoring-will-make-sure-aspen-snowmaking-doesnt-harm-creeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/monitoring-will-make-sure-aspen-snowmaking-doesnt-harm-creeks\/","title":{"rendered":"Monitoring will make sure Aspen snowmaking doesn\u2019t harm creeks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Aquatic ecologist Bill Miller, left, and chair of the Pitkin County Healthy Streams Board Andre Wille stand on the banks of Castle Creek as Miller prepares to take macro-invertebrate samples. The county hired Miller to collect baseline data to ensure increased snowmaking on Aspen Mountain won’t harm the health of the stream.<\/strong>
Heather Sackett \/ Aspen Journalism<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

On a recent snowy morning, aquatic ecologist Bill Miller dipped what\u2019s known as a Hess sampler into the frigid waters of Castle Creek near Aspen.<\/p>\n

Miller stirred up the streambed with his hands, funneling the rocks, sediment and leaves \u2014 along with macro-invertebrates such as insects and worms \u2014 into the collection container.<\/p>\n

After putting the organic material into smaller jars and giving each one a squirt of alcohol as a preservative, heferried them to a lab in Fort Collins. Scientists there will count the number and types of bugs in each sample.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the different species that are there, you can get a good indication of stream and water quality, and overall ecological function,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

Miller\u2019s work is part of a program that will monitor the health of Castle and Maroon creeks, ensuring that Aspen Skiing Co.\u2019s increased water use for snowmaking on Aspen Mountain won\u2019t harm the aquatic environment of the creeks. The stream-monitoring program was set out in September as a condition of Pitkin County\u2019s approval<\/a> of Skico\u2019s Aspen Mountain Ski Area Master Plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the idea of this is we don\u2019t want the snowmaking to cause significant harm to the creeks,\u201d said Andre Wille, chairman of Pitkin County Healthy Rivers board.<\/p>\n

As part of its planned expansion, Aspen Mountain will use an additional 57 acre-feet of water per season, bringing the total average snowmaking water use to roughly 257 acre-feet. For context, Wildcat Reservoir, which is visible from the Snowmass Ski Area, holds about 1,100 acre-feet of water.<\/p>\n

Skico is expanding its snowmaking for the 2020-21 season on 53 acres near the summit<\/a> of Aspen Mountain, which will make it easier to have reliable and consistent snow coverage to ensure a Thanksgiving opening. Skico draws its water for snowmaking on Aspen Mountain from the city\u2019s treated municipal supply, which is from Castle and Maroon creeks.<\/p>\n

When Skico makes snow in November and December, the upside is there are fewer municipal water users pulling from local streams \u2014 outdoor irrigation season is over and holiday crowds have yet to arrive \u2014but snowmaking uses water when natural streamflows are at some of their lowest points of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were definitely concerned with the possibility of too much water being taken out in those early months of the winter,\u201d Wille said.<\/p>\n

Miller collected samples from above and below the city\u2019s diversion dams on both lower Castle and Maroon creeks. His samples will act as a baseline against which the condition of the streams in future \u2014 and perhaps drier \u2014 years will be measured.<\/p>\n

According to the resolution approving Aspen Mountain\u2019s master plan, if the county\u2019s aquatic ecologist determines, in future years, that the additional water usage is having a negative effect on stream health, the county could limit Skico\u2019s water use to historical levels \u2014 about 200 acre-feet a year.<\/p>\n

There is another safeguard to keep water in the river, but some say it may not go far enough to ensure stream health.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Water Conservation Board, a state agency, holds instream-flow water rights on both Castle and Maroon creeks. And the state has determined that it requires at least 12 cubic feet per second of flowing water to protect the environment to \u201ca reasonable degree\u201d on lower Castle Creek and 14 cfs on lower Maroon Creek.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t feel it\u2019s advisable to look at what the CWCB may have decreed in the past for a minimum instream flow,\u201d said John Ely, Pitkin County attorney. \u201cThat\u2019s not necessarily indicative from a scientific point of view of what is actually needed to maintain a healthy stream.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the county hired Miller \u2014 who also is the longtime consulting biologist for the city of Aspen \u2014 to do its own assessment of stream health.<\/p>\n

Ely said stream samples may not need to be taken every year \u2014 just in dry years when snowmaking could exacerbate already low flows. He estimated the annual cost of the monitoring program at about $5,000 to $10,000.<\/p>\n

Jeff Hanle, Skico\u2019s vice president of communications, said the company is taking steps to increase the efficiency of its on-mountain storage for snowmaking, such as adding two new ponds on Gent\u2019s Ridge, so it won\u2019t need to pull as much water from the city\u2019s supply during the early season.<\/p>\n

Although Skico and Pitkin County still need to work out the details of the stream-monitoring program, Hanle said the company is on board with preserving the ecological health of Castle and Maroon creeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would not make snow if it\u2019s harming the stream, even if it could shorten a season,\u201d he said. \u201cWe aren\u2019t going to damage our home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aspen Journalism collaborates with The Aspen Times and other Swift Communications newspapers on coverage of rivers and water. For more, go to aspenjournalism.com.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aquatic ecologist Bill Miller, left, and chair of the Pitkin County Healthy Streams Board Andre Wille stand on the banks of Castle Creek as Miller prepares to take macro-invertebrate samples. The county hired Miller to collect baseline data to ensure increased snowmaking on Aspen Mountain won’t harm the health of the stream.Heather Sackett \/ Aspen […]<\/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":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2450934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 07:22:46","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":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2450934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2450934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2450934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2450934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}