The Crystal River Valley has a special place in our hearts. The following are several current items in the Crystal River Valley that we want to bring awareness to and keep our citizens updated on. These are action items that the Sierra Club Roaring Fork Group will continue to stay involved in as we advocate for wildlife, water, and wilderness.
Crystal River Augmentation Supply Feasibility Study:
Sometime prior to September 2019, the West Divide Water Conservancy District based in Rifle and the Colorado River Water Conservation District (CRWCD) based in Glenwood Springs applied to the Colorado Water Conservation Board and the Colorado River Basin Roundtable for funding to support a Crystal River Augmentation Feasibility Study. It states that the study supports the goals of the Colorado Water Plan by “addressing the supply-demand gap as well as addressing the feasibility of storage to address the gap”, while conceding that Crystal River water users are not facing a physical gap, but rather a legal supply gap. The application points out that the Division 5 office of the State Division of Water Resources has directed users to come up with a plan to address this water supply issue and stated that if progress is not made, the Division will start issuing cease and desist orders and curtailing domestic well usage during drought periods when higher priority calls are being made. The application was not shared with either the Crystal River Caucus or the Pitkin County Healthy Rivers and Stream Boards at the time it was submitted. In a November 2018 letter to West Divide in support of the application, the Division Engineer Matellaro stated clearly “I must emphasize that storage must be a part of the solution…”
The Crystal Caucus passed a resolution expressing concern at its November 14, 2019 meeting, affirming both its support for current users and for Wild and Scenic designation of the Crystal River. The Crystal Caucus Board sent a letter to the Basin Roundtable to be presented at their 11/25/19 meeting in advance of their vote on this grant application. The letter indicated that the Caucus Board did not support a Water Supply Fund grant to fund a study of the feasibility of a storage project on the Crystal River, which was the study which the West Divide and the CRWCD had applied for funding to support. The Caucus Board’s letter to the Basin Roundtable indicated that it would support a feasibility study that would evaluate a range of alternatives, other than traditional storage, to address the risk of a legal water supply gap in the future. Current status: A majority of Colorado River Basin Roundtable members did vote to approve the West Basin and CRWCD Crystal River augmentation plan feasibility study grant request on 11/25/19, despite the concerns expressed by the Crystal Caucus and its Board and the opposition of the Pitkin County BOCC to grant approval. At the March 2020 meeting of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, the CWCB approved their funding of the study. West Divide and the River District are considering (or may have already retained) an outside consulting firm to begin the feasibility study work.
Carbondale to Crested Butte Bike Trail:
The ongoing Pitkin County Open Space and Trails project is slowly moving forward, and the paved bike trail up the Crystal River Valley is continuing through its public process. The US Forest Service closed its scoping comment period on the initial stage of its federally required environmental review of the County’s bike trail project on March 20, 2020. The County had only requested Forest Service environmental review of a portion of its full Carbondale to Crested Butte trail project, approved by the County BOCC in December 2018, that portion being Redstone to McClure Pass. The Forest Service was seeking input from the public to assist them in determining the scope of the project and the environmental analysis it should conduct and the range of alternative courses of action it should consider to the project proposed by the County. The Crystal Caucus Board, on behalf of the Crystal River Caucus, submitted comments on March 16, requesting that the Forest Service evaluate all of the potential environmental effects of not just the Redstone-McClure segment, but of the County’s planned construction of its entire Carbondale to Crested Butte trail. If that review identifies any potentially significant impact to any resource in the Crystal River valley, riparian, wildlife, river, or any other, the Caucus Board urged the Forest Service to conduct a full environmental review, as required by Federal law (NEPA).
Current status: The Forest Service Project leader, Shelly Grail, confirmed on April 8, that Service staff were actively reviewing the public comments received and hope to release a draft Environmental Assessment (EA) for public review and comment later this summer/early Fall. The EA will present the Forest Service’s determination whether to prepare a FONSI (finding of no significant impact) or an EIS (environmental impact statement) for Pitkin County’s project, and will describe the evidence that the Forest Service considers and the analysis it conducts concerning the environmental impacts of the proposed action in making that determination.
Mining Violations by Colorado Stone Quarries on Yule Creek:
History: In the fall of 2018, Colorado Stone Quarries (CSQ), owned by an Italian company, redirected 1500 feet of Yule Creek, a tributary of the Crystal River just outside of Marble, from its natural channel to the other side of a ridge, and filled the original streambed with fill material, including marble blocks. Because this was done without proper permits or oversight by the Army Corps of Engineers, the Army Corps district office based in Grand Junction cited the company for a violation of the Clean Water Act on March 5, 2020. The Army Corps wants Yule Creek returned to its original alignment, but is waiting for a response from the quarry company before deciding what further action to take. The company has indicated that it will likely apply for an “individual” Clean Water Act permit, which it should have done before undertaking the dredging and filling of the creek that it already did in October of 2018.
The company was also cited by the Colorado State Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety for an October 2019 diesel spill on their property, for an unauthorized release of pollutants into groundwater and for a failure to minimize disturbance to water quality. The spill resulted from CSQ’s unapproved re-location of generators and diesel-fuel tanks that were not put in secondary containment structures in their new locations. The state agency fined the company $18,600, and is requiring that quarry operators continue to clean up the site, including removal of hydrocarbons from the soil, and to conduct long term water quality monitoring. Current status: The Army Corps District Office and Army Corps project manager Ben Wilson are waiting for a submission from CSQ to address the CWA violation it has been cited for, which will initiate a 30 day public notice, review and comment period. The District Bureau Chief, Susan Nall, has also indicated that if any members of the community have information to share regarding the quarry company’s violation (before, during or after records/ photos of the dredge and fill activities re-directing Yule Creek), she would appreciate that information being provided to herself or Ben Wilson.