SUMMIT COUNTY - Water experts from both sides of the Continental Divide think a long-simmering notion to pump water back from the Lower Blue River into Dillon Reservoir could provide at least a partial solution to looming water shortages in Summit County.

"It's not a new idea," said Boulder water attorney Glenn Porzak. "It's been around a long, long time."

At this stage, it's realistic enough that Summit County has committed $10,000 to help fund a nine month, $200,000 study that might reveal the economic and environmental costs and benefits of such a project.

The project would require a massive amount of energy to move the water uphill, as well as construction of an extensive pipeline, most likely along the Highway 9 right-of-way. Water quality issues could also crop up, especially with any version of the plan that would introduce Lower Blue water into Dillon Reservoir.

"Apparently, it holds some promise," said county manager Ron Holliday, outlining a scenario in which water would be pumped back from as far downstream as Green Mountain Reservoir back up into Dillon Reservoir.

Holliday said that under Colorado's complex system of administering water rights, the yield from the pipeline would be considered "new" water, available for a variety of purposes including enhanced stream flows, more storage in Dillon Reservoir and more water available for development in the Upper Blue.

Under a scaled-back version of the plan, water could be pumped a much shorter distance, from the vicinity of the L.G. Everist gravel pit ponds to the base of the dam, Porzak said. At that point, there is significant inflow from side tributaries such as Willow Creek, making more water available for the scheme.

In either version, the idea is to meet or enhance instream flows in the Blue River below the dam, where a Gold Medal trout fishery is under pressure. Additionally, the re-circulated water could also help maintain water levels in Dillon Reservoir and in the Blue River for boaters, Porzak explained.

Environmental concerns

But not everyone is thrilled about the concept. In fact, the state's environmental community said the only thing that could make a project like the Green Mountain pump back look good is something like the discredited and abandoned Two Forks Reservoir plan. The pump back would reduce flows from Kremmling down to the state line and in the end, produce water as costly as a "bottle of Perrier," Dan Luecke wrote in a letter submitted to The Denver Post.

Luecke said the focus should be on more efficient use of existing water supplies, including recycling of all existing water from trans-mountain diversions. Front Range water providers should also work toward linking their supply and distribution systems to maximize use of existing supplies.

The most ambitious version of the pump back could free up a substantial amount of water. Porzak said there is an "unused" 10,000 acre-foot pool of water in Green Mountain Reservoir that belongs to West Slope entities but can't currently be used for a number of reasons, primarily because the Bureau of Reclamation (which operates Green Mountain Reservoir) won't drop the reservoir below a certain level while it studies potential landslide issues that could affect the town of Heeney.

"That 10,000 acre-feet is sitting in Green Mountain unused. Denver is getting it for free," Porzak said. "We West Slope users have to find a way to get it back and use it."



How it works

Porzak explained the way the pump back could work with a hypothetical example. If the proposed pipeline carries 100 cubic feet per second (cfs) back up the valley, 25 cfs could be used to supplement flows below the dam, while the rest could be stored in Dillon Reservoir. The idea is to get some of that "unused" water from Green Mountain Reservoir back up to Dillon Reservoir.

"Since we'd be giving Denver more water in Dillon Reservoir, we get more from Clinton Reservoir (between Copper Mountain and Fremont Pass), making more water available for everybody in Summit County," Porzak said.

"I'm a big fan of pump backs," said Porzak, who represents some of the West Slope interests in ongoing discussions with Front Range water agencies. "It's just something we're going to have to do," he said, explaining that several similar pipelines already function beneficially in Eagle County, including a pump back from Avon to Vail that helps keep water in Gore Creek during the low-flow winter months.

Another pump back has been proposed for the Upper Blue, from just upstream of Dillon Reservoir back to Breckenridge.

The Green Mountain pump back, as it's being called, would be part of a comprehensive settlement between West Slope and Front Range interests, and as envisioned now, would be linked to construction of a proposed reservoir at Wolcott in Eagle County. That new reservoir would be needed to replace part of the water that now comes out of Green Mountain Reservoir to satisfy downstream rights, including irrigation water in the Grand Valley.



Bob Berwyn can be reached at (970) 331-5996, or at bberwyn@summitdaily.com.