Town developing plan to protect drinking water sources

Alternative source on the map—paving Kebler, not so much

By Mark Reaman

The town of Crested Butte obtains its drinking water from water sources flowing down the Kebler Pass Road drainage. There are two surface water intakes in the 24 square mile Coal Creek Watershed and is fed by Lake Irwin, Splains Gulch, Elk Creek and Wildcat Creek. The town council discussed how to protect those sources from potential contamination at its August 6 council meeting and identified the threat of wildfire as the most important thing to address.

In that vein, town has hired Wright Water Engineering to assist in the development of the Slate River Feasibility Analysis for the potential development of an alternative water supply source in the Slate River drainage. The goal of the project is to provide the town with a redundant source water supply. But the focus of the August meeting was on a Source Water Protection Plan developed by a stakeholder steering committee that identified a protection area, listed possible contamination sources and outlined best management practices to reduce risks to the water source. Still, the idea of an alternative source of drinking water was rated as the best practice to pursue even though it would probably be one of the most expensive.

“The plan was developed in the spring and through the winter of 2024 with the primary purpose to ensure clean and high-quality drinking water sources for current and future generations,” explained Crested Butte Public Works director Shea Earley at the council work session. The group determined potential wildfire is the most important issue to deal with followed by mining, metals loading, roads and transportation impacts, flooding, onsite wastewater treatment systems and recreation.

The committee determined wildfire was a very likely probability to impact the water source area in the future and depending on the severity, it could be catastrophic. That’s why developing a drinking water supply in the Slate was considered the best practice. Other ideas included improving the collection infrastructure, mitigating hill slopes that could impact the water supply and dealing with debris flow mitigation.

“Developing the alternative water source seems very important given the wildfire threat,” said mayor Ian Billick. “We’ve seen the impact in other communities. What about the water treatment plant? Is it worth creating defensible space around it?”

“We could. That facility is actually not in a high-risk area,” said Earley. “It is considered in a moderate risk area since it is primarily in an aspen grove. Additionally, this type of improvement would be identified and developed as a Best Management Practice (BMP) in the Wildfire Ready Action Plan, which is scheduled for the first half of 2025. As far as developing an alternative source, that is very important to us. Glenwood relied on its two water sources when it had to, so I agree with that pursuit 100%.” 

The second most identified threat was mining and heavy mineral impacting the water source. Earley said town works cooperatively with the Mt. Emmons Mining Company on mitigation. 

The  issue of zinc coming into the town water supply has had an impact on the town’s wastewater treatment facility. Earley said the state has required expensive treatment measures to treat the water given zinc levels that occasionally are recorded. He said ideally the town and Forest Service could mitigate one of the major sources of the zinc, a gossan on Red Lady. A gossan is defined as “an iron-containing secondary deposit, largely consisting of oxides and typically yellowish or reddish, occurring above a deposit of a metallic ore.” But the Forest Service has continued to delay the project citing a lack of resources necessary to perform the NEPA review process. The Town has offered to assist with this process in an effort to move project design forward; however, the Forest Service has declined that assistance. Earley said this particular gossan saw wildfire activity in the 1970s. As a result, natural regrowth on the site has been minimal, resulting in increased sediment transportation containing natural occurring metals.

With respect to the road and transportation threat, as Kebler Pass Road has gotten busier, the county has used more mag chloride and done more road grading to keep the dust down. That could have a continued impact on surface water sources. Some on council wondered if paving more of Kebler would help but Earley said that would likely lead to increased numbers and more speed that could result in more accidents that intensified spills and other issues within the watershed.  

“There are definitely people interested in having it paved,” said Billick. “They may not realize the potential issues and impacts to the town’s water system.” Council agreed to include a phrase in the source water protection plan that to protect water quality, Kebler should not be paved.

“Overall, this is a proactive plan, and we want to actually impact the measures in the plan,” said Earley. The steering committee will review the plan every three to six years.