Summit County officials went to court Friday demanding that Denver Water reopen the Dillon Dam Road after it was closed last week for security reasons.
The complaint filed in Summit County District Court states that Denver Water closed the road without providing specific details, and it asks for the road to be reopened.
The complaint is signed by several agencies, including Summit’s Board of County Commissioners, three towns and Lake Dillon Fire-Rescue.
Denver Water closed the road across the dam to vehicles at the end of the day Tuesday, saying the dam was vulnerable to terrorist attack. The agency has been mum on details, saying only that federal and state security agencies found the dam to be at risk.
Denver Water said Friday that it had not reviewed the complaint and declined to comment.
The closure could be life-threatening, said Brandon Williams, a spokesman for Lake Dillon Fire-Rescue. Williams said the barriers delay the department’s reaction time.
Williams said the closure has had negative consequences. The department tried responding to a call Friday that required passing through the road to help a cyclist who had crashed.
Rescue vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists are still allowed to cross.
The barriers delayed the department by several minutes, Williams said.
“Regardless of what (the situation) is, if it was a heart attack, a stroke, any number of situations, seconds could mean lives,” he said. “And today we were slower than we would have been.”
Williams said the barriers can make operations difficult because they don’t allow access for firetrucks.
But Denver Water said Friday that it would soon install new barriers that would allow firetrucks.
