Colorado River District funds first West Slope water project after passage of 7A

Windy Gap Connectivity Channel is the first project funded by the River District’s new Partnership Project Funding Program

Glenwood Springs, CO — The Colorado River District’s Board of Directors finalized a new program that will fund West Slope water projects and approved funding for the program’s first-ever project.

The Partnership Project Funding Program will fund multi-purpose water projects on the Western Slope in five project categories: productive agriculture, infrastructure, healthy rivers, watershed health and water quality, and conservation and efficiency. Funding for the program was approved by Western Colorado voters as part of Ballot Question 7A in November 2020. These District funds will be directed to projects identified as priorities by communities, water users, and Basin Roundtables in the District.  Importantly, the funds may catalyze additional investment from state, federal and private sources.

The board also approved $1 million towards the first project funded by the program: the Colorado River Connectivity Channel near Windy Gap Reservoir in Grand County. The long-planned yet underfunded project will receive $1 million in support of healthy rivers, watershed health and water quality. The Colorado River District’s financial commitment will allow project proponents to successfully leverage additional funding sources.

“The projects supported by the Partnership Project Funding Program will protect and sustain West Slope water for all of us who rely on it,” said River District General Manager Andy Mueller. “In launching this program and funding our first project, we’re fulfilling our promise to the voters who make our work possible. This and future projects will help build a brighter water future for Western Colorado.”

“On behalf of the citizens of Grand County, we thank our partners at the Colorado River District for their decision to fund $1 toward the Windy Gap Reservoir Connectivity Channel Project,” said Grand County Commissioner Kristen Manguso.

“These funds will help leverage the remaining dollars needed to construct this much needed project that will reconnect the Colorado River around Windy Gap Reservoir and provide so many environmental and hydrological benefits to the Colorado River and Fraser River in Grand County, and downriver, said Grand County Commissioner Richard Cimino.

“Thank you to all that are working so hard to get funding for this important project. This million-dollar award is exactly the kind of project these funds are to be used for,” said Grand County Commissioner Merrit Linke.

The goal of the Connectivity Channel is to establish a reconstructed river channel around Windy Gap Reservoir to reconnect the Colorado River and eliminate the reservoir’s negative impacts. Upon completion, the project is expected to improve river health and habitat and provide significant economic benefits to Grand County communities that rely on recreation. The channel is also expected to improve water quality for agricultural irrigators downstream.

“This infusion of funding for the Colorado River Connectivity Channel is imperative to the health of the upper Colorado River and our work at Trout Unlimited to see this project to completion," said Mely Whiting, Colorado water project legal counsel for TU. "Seeing a healthy river flowing with improved habitat for trout and other wildlife and increasing the economic opportunities for this region will be a dream realized as this funding will help leverage the final push to complete this crucial project.”

Windy Gap Reservoir is a shallow, on-channel reservoir that obstructs the movement of fish and other aquatic organisms in the Colorado River and degrades downstream habitat. The health of the river below the reservoir has been in decline since the reservoir was built in the mid-1980s, with documented losses of 38% of macroinvertebrate diversity – including the complete loss of giant stoneflies (a major food source for trout), the loss of native sculpin populations and a decline in trout biomass in this Gold Medal Trout fishery.

The project consists of four components:

1. Modification of the Windy Gap Reservoir to create room for the construction of the connectivity channel;

2. A natural channel, approximately one mile long, that connects the Colorado River around the newly configured reservoir;

3. A diversion structure that will divert water from the connectivity channel into the reservoir; and

4. Removal or alternative means to improve fish passage at a weir upstream of the reservoir.

For more information, you can read Partnership Project Funding Program documents presented to the board by clicking here. You can read the Windy Gap Connectivity Channel documents presented to the board by clicking here.

January Currents: A voice for Colorado's rivers

Currents is Colorado Trout Unlimited’s monthly newsletter. We feature stories about our work, chapters, and partners. You can also learn more about upcoming events and ways to participate across the state. This month’s issue includes:

• Some ways to start your new year off right

•  New Year, new gravel mine defeated along the Colorado

• 2021 Virtual River Stewardship Gala - tickets now available!

• Fly Tying: The old becomes new again

• How conservation can save our politics and save America

• PODCAST AUDIO: Big Win for Responsible Oil and Gas Development

• NEW Winter 2021 High Country Angler and more!

New Year, new gravel mine defeated along the Colorado

Pictured: Hillside on the left is the approximate area on the Colorado River that would have been turned into a gravel mine.

by Scott Willoughby, Colorado Coordinator for TU’s Angler Conservation Program

Colorado Trout Unlimited rang in the New Year by playing a prominent role in pushing back a proposed industrial gravel mine along a section of the upper Colorado River that many anglers, hunters and wildlife watchers consider nothing short of “sacred."

“It’s an open landscape, it feels untouched,” Ben McCormick, TU member and owner of the Cutthroat Anglers fly fishing shop in Silverthorne told the Eagle County Planning Commission during a 6-hour Zoom meeting to determine the fate of the Colorado River near Dotsero on January 6. “When you think about the pressure and the crowds and everything that’s going on on the upper Colorado, it couldn’t be more important that we protect this section. It truly is sacred.”

McCormick was one of almost 40 locals who endured the marathon meeting to speak out against the plan by a newly formed company known as Rincon Materials to remove some 225,000 tons of gravel per year from a privately owned 107-acre parcel abutting the popular Dotsero Landing boat launch purchased through Eagle County Open Space tax funding and managed for recreational access by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. McCormick said that Cutthroat Anglers runs 200 float fishing trips per year down the Colorado River to Dotsero, and he is hardly alone.

Encouraged by the local Eagle Valley Trout Unlimited chapter, which submitted written comments along with verbal testimony in opposition to the mine, several members of the surrounding angling and guiding community spoke out against the plan to dig multiple pits along the river corridor adjacent to the 38-acre Dewey Park conservation easement just downstream from the mouth of the Deep Creek Wild & Scenic River nomination. Among them, Confluence Casting guide service owner Jack Bombardier, who lives and works just upstream of the proposed mine site, offered a passionate emotional plea published in the local Vail Daily newspaper noting that the Rincon Mine proposal “crosses a line.”

“Considering the outdoor recreation and agricultural value of this area, putting an industrial site at its gateway makes no sense,” Bombardier stated. “It will permanently alter the landscape while benefiting very few.”

Ultimately, the Eagle County Planning Commission agreed, voting 4-2 against awarding both a special use permit for the sand and gravel pit that would scar the hillside for decades to come and an exemption from the Dotsero Area Community Plan guiding land use in the area as part of the Eagle County Comprehensive Plan. Eagle County staff had previously recommended denial of the special use permit and exemption, stating that the proposed mine was not in conformance with the plan’s stated intention of maintaining the open nature and agricultural character of the river corridor in an effort to promote conservation and recreation over industrial uses.

Since 2011, the Eagle County Open Space program has invested more than $10 million in local property tax revenue to acquire multiple parcels of now public lands and boat launches along the Colorado River between Dotsero and State Bridge, coordinating complex deals with ranching landowners as well as state and federal agencies with the promise of enhanced recreational access and an emphasis on conservation throughout the popular trout fishery.

But it was local community activism largely led by members of the angling community that ultimately sealed the deal.

“I was not in agreement with the county staff report the last time we met on this,” Eagle County Planning Commissioner Tim Carpenter said before voting to deny the required permit. “With all the public comment I have heard, I have reevaluated my first view on this.”

PODCAST AUDIO: Big Win for Responsible Oil and Gas Development

Oil Development in Colorado. Josh Duplechian/Trout Unlimited

As the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) passed new regulations, Colorado TU and National TU worked in harmony to secure groundbreaking changes for protecting aquatic and riparian habitat. We join Barbara Sheedlo, Chair of CTU's Bull Moose Advocacy Committee and Corey Fisher, the Public Lands Policy Director for TU's Angler Conservation Program for a discussion about the COGCC's new regulations and how Trout Unlimited was involved in the process.

A Discussion about TU's Work on the COGCC Rulings with Barbara Sheedlo and Corey Fisher

Colorado Trout Unlimited & Trout Unlimited

Learn More about this Ruling:

Repost from TU.org by Kara Armano

Colorado TU and national TU worked in harmony to pass groundbreaking changes to Colorado’s oil and gas drilling regulations.  

Starting in 2014, Trout Unlimited initiated conversations with the oil and gas industry and conservation partners to establish more robust protections for Colorado’s most important fisheries. The idea was simple: prohibit stream-side oil and gas development and require spill protection measures for development within a quarter of a mile of native trout streams and Gold Medal fisheries. This effort smoldered until 2019 when a law passed the Colorado Legislature requiring a rewrite of its rules.  

Colorado Senate Bill 19-181 required the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) to expand the agency’s mission to safeguard wildlife and its habitat against potential adverse impacts of oil and gas development. This provided a once-in-a-decade opportunity to ensure strong protections for wildlife and its habitat, which include cold-water fisheries, streams and riparian zones across the state. 

Massive stakeholder input started in November 2019 and concluded last month. The rulemaking hearings spanned 180 hours of presentations, witness testimonies and deliberations. Colorado TU joined as a formal party to the hearings as part of a coalition with aligned sporting conservation groups, which included Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, the National Wildlife Federation and Colorado Wildlife Federation. CTU members provided expert witness testimony, wrote letters to publications and sent in over 500 written comments to the COGCC in support of additional protections for cold-water fisheries.  

CTU stakeholders advocated for expanded “no drill” buffer zones and spill protection measures around high priority aquatic habitat, including Gold Medal and native cutthroat trout streams. This input, aligned with voices from our partner conservation organizations, helped inform the commission’s rulemaking and resulted in significantly improved protections for valuable fisheries and aquatic habitats.  

To that end, the Commission voted unanimously to adopt revisions to its rules to:  

• Increase buffers from 300’ avoidance to 500’ protection around important aquatic habitats–––a 980 percent increase around cutthroat and Gold Medal waters.

• Create 500-foot No Surface Occupancy buffers for all aquatic High Priority Habitat streams identified by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, including designated cutthroat trout habitat, Gold Medal streams, sportfish-managed waters and native species conservation waters. Nearly all of Colorado’s trout habitat will enjoy this increased protection.

• Requires stronger spill prevention measures within 1,000 feet of aquatic High Priority Habitat.

• Mandates to bore beneath streams in aquatic High Priority Habitat areas rather than trenching across it, which will help avoid impacts to fish habitat.

Click here to view CPW map layers of protected habitat

In addition, COGCC will require operators to consult with Colorado Parks and Wildlife for locations proposed in migration corridors for elk, mule deer, bighorn sheep, and pronghorn. They also must prepare Wildlife Mitigation Plans if approved to operate in migration corridors, which should plan to minimize impacts on wildlife and habitat and offset adverse impacts through mitigation projects or fees.  

The new rule marks the end of a six-year effort to protect Colorado’s most valuable waters. Wins like this don’t come easy, but we don’t give up on good ideas, and we leverage the power of TU staff and grassroots to finish the job when we have an opportunity to succeed. We do this hard work for the fish, the streams and rivers and for anglers everywhere.