News: Smart Water
A “Smart Water” Strategy for Snowmass
Op-Ed by Tim McFlynn, Aspen Daily News, May 28, 2003
Smart Water campaigns are underway throughout Colorado. City and
"town officials everywhere are immersed in water conservation, reuse,
storage and other aggressive measures as the entire region wises
up to the perils of persistent drought amidst robust growth.
Because Base Village and Snowmass Center are of unprecedented scale,
Snowmass Village has an unprecedented opportunity this year. It
must accurately assess future water demands and then pass on system
improvement costs to insure that residents and burgeoning numbers
of visitors have a reliable water supply. The system must be sized
for peak demand and times of extreme drought, sufficient for occasional
structure or wild fires as well as for fully-occupied lodging.
The Snowmass Water and Sanitation District directors acted wisely
in selecting new Manager Kit Hamby -- he is thoughtful, cautious
and knowledgeable. A long-time local, he is respected by the community.
As a 27-year Ski Company employee, he was responsible for utilities
on all four mountains. After only three months on the job, Mr. Hamby
and his consulting water engineers from McLaughlin Rincon completed
the first serious Water Availability Study in decades.
At their April Board meeting, District directors began to examine
the sufficiency of water for Base Village. The study -- a “work
in progress” -- confirms that in winter months, District diversions
from Snowmass Creek -- without adding in Base Village demand
-- already infringe upon on the scientifically established
minimum instream flow. This is the flow needed to reasonably preserve
important aquatic and riparian ecosystems of East, Main and West
Snowmass Creek which drain several 14’ers and wrap around behind
the Town and Ski Area. Instream flow is a water right held by the
Colorado Water Conservation Board to protect the environment, but
under arcane principles of water law, it is “junior” to
the District’s legal right to deplete the creek.
Yet despite senior rights, District Board members acknowledge their
desire to protect instream flow. They would far rather preserve their
namesake creek, while insuring a reliable water supply for build-out
of the resort. Likewise, the Aspen Skiing Company is renown for conservation
leadership, acknowledging that the natural environment is their biggest
asset.
Lightening the footprint of the resort on the surrounding wild
lands and wildlife makes for good business, good marketing and good
neighbors. And the District’s new Water Availability Study
is very good news. A vibrant resort and a viable creek ecosystem can co-exist.
Just this week, water engineers from Hydrosphere in Boulder concluded
that District officials can harmonize the complete protection of
the Creek with the completion of all planned and projected development.
All that is required is 90 acre feet of raw water storage (that’s
9 acres 10 feet deep), plus automating the East Snowmass Creek pipeline
and main Snowmass Creek pump station so that water can be withdrawn
during days or even hours of excess flows. Even during critical winter
months, when natural streamflow drops below minimum during certain
hours, there are hours of excess flow.
Only a “bucket” is needed to store the excess and buffer
hours of demand, eliminating harmful “direct draws” from
critically low flows. And such raw water storage gives insurance
in the form of a few weeks supply, in the event of a catastrophe
like a landslide or rupture or toxic contaminant interrupting supply,
instead of the two days currently available.
The District can also mine vast additional supplies in coming years
without taking another drop from any creek. The menu of
demand-side options includes more aggressive leak detection and management
programs. Losses into the ground from the pressurized grid in recent
years approach 40% of treated water, sent out but never reaching
customers. And treated water would serve many more customers following
a serious campaign to retrofit fixtures in the 80% of Village buildings
constructed before 1994 and not yet remodeled (including Town Hall).
The latest water efficient fixtures are wisely mandated on all new
construction -- the Timbers, Sanctuary and Base Village -- and are
now much improved, widely accepted and affordable.
Thanks to great strides by the District’s Board in recent
months, there is a bridge of common ground that all stakeholders
could cross. Ziegler Pond is the perfect spot for sufficient raw
water storage, above the treatment plant and near both pipeline sources,
and the Ziegler family and the District are talking. With adequate
storage plus automation, Snowmass Creek’s instream flow right
could be respected, without the District forsaking its senior water
right in event of emergency. A technical win/win resolution could
replace a decade of expensive and bitter win/lose litigation.
With the leadership of the Aspen Skiing Company and Town officials,
coupled with the educational efforts of such river conservation groups
as Roaring Fork Conservancy, demand-side improvements could be incentivized
and phased in on the same 10-year schedule as Base Village construction.
The Rocky Mountains have much to teach us about abundance and extinction
and our tendency, as a species, to stumble like bulls through nature’s
china shop. Perhaps at least in Snowmass, the lesson can be one of
leadership.
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