Colorado is facing a water gap — a big one. The State Water Supply Initiative estimates that by 2050, municipal water demands fueled by population growth could exceed supplies by 500,000 acre-feet.
The significance of the “gap” is compounded by the fact that most of the water in Colorado falls on the West Slope while most of the water is used on the other side of the Continental Divide on the Front Range.
Colorado’s first Water Plan, to be completed by December 2015, aims to address the state’s water challenges, and conservation will be the first order of business in securing the state’s water future. Indeed, in his 2013 State of the State address, Gov. John Hickenlooper underscored its importance in Colorado’s future when he said, “Every discussion about water should start with conservation.”
The town of Snowmass Village in western Colorado has been taking conservation seriously for at least a decade. The Snowmass Water and Sanitation District (SWSD) has made significant investments in a water conservation program that secures the water supply for current and future municipal customers while protecting healthy minimum stream flows in the local Snowmass Creek, the source for most of the town’s water. The centerpiece of their program is Ziegler Reservoir.
Following the surprise discovery and subsequent excavation of skeletons from dozens of Ice Age animals in 2010, Ziegler Reservoir came online in 2012. Originally, the 252-acre-foot reservoir was to store water for an emergency. But SWSD district manager Kit Hamby saw the opportunity to use Ziegler Reservoir to improve sustainability and make operations more efficient.
“Ziegler is a balancing act,” said Hamby. “We fill the reservoir when water flows in the Creek are high and then use that (stored) water when flows are low. Because of the efficient refill of the reservoir, during the 2012 drought the district was able to deliver over 50 percent more water to the Snowmass Ski Area for snowmaking than if using direct flows from the stream.”
This “buffering” of the creek is critical because the town and ski area are not in the Snowmass Creek basin. They are ” over the divide” in the Brush Creek drainage. So all water diverted by SWSD, while legal, is lost to the Snowmass Creek drainage. These transbasin diversions have been a source of contention between residents in the Snowmass Creek Valley and the SWSD — particularly in the winter.
In the 1990s, the Snowmass-Capitol Creek Caucus, representing the residents of the Snowmass Creek Valley, challenged the state to do more to protect minimum stream flows for the Creek. In 1996, the Colorado Water Conservation Board established a “stepped” minimum instream flow right in an attempt to balance human and environmental demands for the water. Recently, through the use of Ziegler Reservoir, the SWSD has been able to preserve the state’s minimum instream flow right without compromising service or security.
Ziegler Reservoir helps protect the Creek in other ways, too. Historically, the Aspen Skiing Company has relied on direct diversions from Snowmass Creek to make snow for the Snowmass Ski Area. With the construction of Ziegler, the company now takes up to 80 million gallons of water for snowmaking out of the reservoir, without impacting the creek.
Auden Schendler is the Aspen Skiing Company’s vice president of sustainability. “If you are going to make snow, it’s more efficient to make it all at once,” explained Schendler. “In the past we couldn’t do that because we were limited on how much water we could take out of the stream when temperatures were the lowest. Now, we can fire on all cylinders and pump out as much snow as efficiently as possible during a cold snap. Using Ziegler saves energy and therefore money. And using Ziegler buffers Snowmass Creek because not as much water is withdrawn when the flow of the creek is at its lowest.”
With a focus on conservation, the SWSD has adopted over 30 new water efficiency measures like more efficient water fixtures, appliances, water loss controls and a capital replacement program for old and aging infrastructure. As a result, since 1999 the district has reduced water treatment plant production by 26 percent while the community has grown by over 22 percent.
As demand for water continues to grow, new water management assets like Ziegler Reservoir will be analyzed. Communities will be asked to balance consumption with conservation, and development with sustainability. Snowmass Village is already well along that path and is a model for other water users across the West.
Steve Alldredge is a Roaring Fork Valley writer. Chelsea Congdon is a writer/filmmaker focused on environmental issues with her filmmaker husband James Brundige. They have collaborated on two documentary projects, “Wild for Good” and “Forever Wild.”
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