{"id":2451580,"date":"2019-11-25T22:30:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=316687"},"modified":"2019-11-25T22:30:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T05:30:00","slug":"aspen-moves-ahead-with-integrated-water-plan-and-moving-on-its-conditional-storage-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-moves-ahead-with-integrated-water-plan-and-moving-on-its-conditional-storage-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen moves ahead with integrated water plan and moving on its conditional storage rights"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.7750309023486\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-316687-888\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/aspenwater-atd-112619-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/aspenwater-atd-112619-1-1024x768.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Brent Gardner-Smith\/Aspen Journalism | Aspen's iconic Maroon Bells are visible from the site where the city of Aspen had proposed building a dam and reservoir. The city has hired an engineering firm to help figure out where to move its conditional water-storage rights after a water court judge in June ruled out the possibility of building dams or reservoirs on upper Maroon or Castle creeks.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10\">\n<p><strong>Aspen&#8217;s iconic Maroon Bells are visible from the site where the city of Aspen had proposed building a dam and reservoir. The city has hired an engineering firm to help figure out where to move its conditional water-storage rights after a water court judge in June ruled out the possibility of building dams or reservoirs on upper Maroon or Castle creeks.<\/strong><br \/>Brent Gardner-Smith\/Aspen Journalism<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/aspenwater-atd-112619-1-1024x768.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Aspen's iconic Maroon Bells are visible from the site where the city of Aspen had proposed building a dam and reservoir. The city has hired an engineering firm to help figure out where to move its conditional water-storage rights after a water court judge in June ruled out the possibility of building dams or reservoirs on upper Maroon or Castle creeks.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/aspenwater-atd-112619-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/aspenwater-atd-112619-1-1-1024x768.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Brent Gardner-Smith\/Aspen Journalism | The site on Maroon Creek where the city of Aspen had proposed building a dam and reservoir on a snowy day in spring 2019. The city has hired an engineering firm to help figure out where to move its conditional water-storage rights after a water court judge in June ruled out the possibility of building dams or reservoirs on upper Maroon or Castle creeks.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10\">\n<p><strong>The site on Maroon Creek where the city of Aspen had proposed building a dam and reservoir on a snowy day in spring 2019. The city has hired an engineering firm to help figure out where to move its conditional water-storage rights after a water court judge in June ruled out the possibility of building dams or reservoirs on upper Maroon or Castle creeks.<\/strong><br \/>Brent Gardner-Smith\/Aspen Journalism<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/aspenwater-atd-112619-1-1-1024x768.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"The site on Maroon Creek where the city of Aspen had proposed building a dam and reservoir on a snowy day in spring 2019. The city has hired an engineering firm to help figure out where to move its conditional water-storage rights after a water court judge in June ruled out the possibility of building dams or reservoirs on upper Maroon or Castle creeks.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/aspenwater-atd-112619-1-2-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/aspenwater-atd-112619-1-2-1024x576.jpg\" data-sub-html=\" | \" class=\"h-100\">\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/aspenwater-atd-112619-1-2-1024x576.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/aspen-moves-ahead-with-integrated-water-plan-and-moving-on-its-conditional-storage-rights\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/aspen-moves-ahead-with-integrated-water-plan-and-moving-on-its-conditional-storage-rights\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">With the clock ticking on moving its conditional water-storage rights, the city of Aspen is taking steps toward developing a water integrated resource plan, or IRP.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">City Council last month approved spending $81,674 to hire Broomfield-based Carollo Engineers as a consultant for the first phase of the IRP. A main goal of the plan will be to decide where to move the city\u2019s conditional water-storage rights after a water court judge in June approved the city\u2019s settlement with opposing parties in two water court cases. The decrees issued by the judge in those cases rule out the possibility of the city building dams or reservoirs on upper Castle or Maroon creeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The city has six years to finalize a plan to move the water rights and associated storage to new locations. That and the increasing effects of a hotter, drier climate, which means less water in streams, have the city feeling a sense of urgency when it comes to figuring out its water supply.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe do have a sense of urgency, but we also recognize we are only going to get one chance to make such a large change to our system,\u201d said Margaret Medellin, Aspen\u2019s utilities resource manager. \u201cWe want to do it right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">All 10 parties who settled with the city in water court, one of which was environmental group American Rivers, agreed not to oppose the city\u2019s efforts to change its conditional water-storage rights to different sites.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Instead of flooding two pristine valleys to create reservoirs, the city has identified five other locations to where it could possibly store water. Those sites are the city golf course; the Maroon Creek Club golf course; the city\u2019s Cozy Point open space; the Woody Creek gravel pit; and a 63-acre parcel of land next to the gravel pit, which the city bought in 2018.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe don\u2019t have any issue with Aspen\u2019s plan to move forward with those conditional water rights,\u201d said Matt Rice, director of American Rivers\u2019 Colorado Basin Program. \u201cThat\u2019s a decision for them and local stakeholders to make.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Carollo Engineers was one of five firms that responded to the city\u2019s summer request for proposals. The more than $81,000 that the City Council approved will pay for Carollo to complete only Phase 1 of the IRP, which will define goals and develop a detailed scope of work. Phase 2 would create the IRP using community input.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cNormally, when we do an IRP, we are looking at what the future looks like in terms of water needs and trying to characterize those and predict them out several decades,\u201d said John Rehring, senior project manager and vice president of Carollo Engineers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">City officials maintain that a lack of reservoir storage is a problem.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Medellin said the lack of water-storage facilities is a big weakness in the city\u2019s water system and that it is controversial to build dams and reservoirs \u201cbecause every valley up here is beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But, Medellin said, climate change may increase the need for water storage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe\u2019ve acknowledged these storage rights are very important to the future of Aspen, especially as we start to see climate-change implications,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Carollo Engineers agrees with that assessment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cClearly, the city of Aspen\u2019s system lacks the water storage it needs to reliably meet demands through a range of supply-and-demand conditions even now \u2014 before the impacts of climate change have fully taken hold,\u201d the proposal reads.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The issue of storage came to the forefront in the Aspen community in 2012 when news broke that the city was contemplating using its conditional water-storage rights to build dams and reservoirs in Castle and Maroon valleys.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Consultants have come to different conclusions about how much water storage the city actually needs. A 2017 report by Deere and Ault Consultants, which was based on conclusions in a risk analysis by Headwaters Corporation, said Aspen needs 8,500 acre-feet of water storage. But a 2016 study by Wilson Water concluded Aspen does not need any storage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Two other areas that the IRP will address is the vulnerability of Aspen\u2019s water supply to natural disasters such as 2018\u2019s Lake Christine Fire and last winter\u2019s historic avalanches in Castle and Maroon valleys, as well as how to decrease customers\u2019 demand for water. Even though Aspen has taken steps to reduce the use of water for outdoor irrigation through a landscape ordinance, those gains could be wiped out because in a warmer future, there will be less water flowing in local streams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt\u2019s almost like you are playing this game where you, on one hand, lower the level of demand but, on the other side of the equation, climate change is decreasing our supply,\u201d Medellin said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\">Aspen Journalism collaborates with The Aspen Times and other Swift Communications newspapers on coverage of water and rivers. For more, go to aspenjournalism.org.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/aspen-moves-ahead-with-integrated-water-plan-and-moving-on-its-conditional-storage-rights\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aspen&#8217;s iconic Maroon Bells are visible from the site where the city of Aspen had proposed building a dam and reservoir. The city has hired an engineering firm to help figure out where to move its conditional water-storage rights after a water court judge in June ruled out the possibility of building dams or reservoirs [&hellip;]<\/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-2451580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 04:46:20","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&#039;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\/2451580","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=2451580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2451580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2451580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2451580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}