Slow but steady progress being made on Mt. CB reservoirs

Continuing dialogue

While state officials talked this week about the future of water needs across Colorado during the annual Western Water Workshop and Interbasin meetings in Mt. Crested Butte, local officials were busy discussing the future of water needs locally. 

Both the Mt. Crested Butte Water and Sanitation District and Crested Butte Mountain Resort have plans for reservoirs to be built in Mt. Crested Butte, and both in nearly the same location, on the northwest side of town.  But the plans were developed separately, and now the two groups must decide if the two reservoirs are compatible together—or if there could simply be one.  
The Water and Sanitation District discussed the reservoir during a meeting on Monday, July 13.
“There was talk at our last meeting about having a meeting with CBMR, because we both have an interest in water there,” says district manager Frank Glick.  “Our board wants to move forward and continue dialogue with them.”
Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) is planning a 60-million-gallon reservoir called Crescent Lake that would be located near the center of North Village, a proposed 1,100-unit development. Crescent Lake would have a surface area of approximately 8.7 acres, roughly larger than the resort’s main parking lot. The new North Village plans were unveiled in the spring of 2008.
The Water and Sanitation District has been planning to build a reservoir in the North Valley since the early 1980s.
A conditional water rights decree was issued in 1984, granting the district the right to build a reservoir primarily for municipal needs, but also for fire suppression and snowmaking. The decree, granted by the Gunnison District 4 Water Court, allowed a total water storage capacity of 228 million gallons and a surface area of 35 acres.
The decree also approves the general location of the reservoir near the proposed North Village site. The district is calling the reservoir the North Village Reservoir. Last winter the district obtained an easement to conduct geological tests to determine if the site will be suitable for a reservoir, but only after settling out of court on a controversial temporary condemnation hearing.
Glick says the district is still awaiting the results from the geotechnical studies that have been taking place at the North Village reservoir location. The district has stated before that the site may not be the final location for a reservoir.  
Meanwhile, CBMR is moving forward with permitting for their reservoir. 
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved a 404 Wetlands permit for the Crescent Lake reservoir and North Village development earlier this spring.  
“At this point we still haven’t submitted an application for our dam or reservoir design with the state,” says CBMR planning director John Sale.  “We’re just holding off at the moment.  We’re kind of waiting to see what the district is going to do before moving forward.  They’ve been putting a lot of effort and energy in looking at the North Village Reservoir.”  
Sale says CBMR will continue to keep a close eye on the district’s progress, especially as the resort’s proposed Snodgrass expansion undergoes a Forest Service review.  In order to develop snowmaking on Snodgrass, or any additional snowmaking on the main mountain, Sale says the resort first needs to build some type of storage pond.  
District board president Bill Racek says CBMR has sent the district a list of questions about the North Village Reservoir, but the board hasn’t formed any official answers.  “CBMR gave us a list of questions.  We are talking about what a response might be.  What they’re interested in are things like: what would the impacts be, what are advantages and disadvantages, what is the estimated project cost, whose lands would the facilities be on,” Racek says.  
Racek and district board member Melanie Rees are working on a draft set of answers that he will present to the board by the next meeting in August.  
Racek says based on the coming dialogue between CBMR and the district, the two groups may decide to build just one reservoir to serve both needs.  “Or we may get to a point where there’s still two reservoirs and we can’t agree, but hopefully not.”