OURAY — After years of visiting Crystal Lake, Danielle Boutin of Florida was excited to finally show more of her family the beautiful alpine views. Only this time, the lake was missing.
“We really thought that was something we were going to be able to experience with them,” Boutin said. “It was so heartbreaking when we got there to see it was all dried up.”
The U.S. Forest Service decided to drain the small mountain reservoir near Ouray this spring after finding a concerning crack, signs of seepage and other issues at the aging dam. Locals are left wading through conflicting information and trying to understand the economic and environmental impacts.
Ouray Mayor Ethan Funk said the whole situation has been baffling. The city had an agreement with the Forest Service to store water in the reservoir. Now the lake’s future is entirely unclear.
“Why? Why is this all the sudden an issue? We don’t understand,” he said.
This Fresh Water News story is a collaboration between The Colorado Sun and Water Education Colorado. It also appears at wateredco.org.
For decades, spring snowmelt has filled Crystal Lake, which sits at about 9,600 feet in elevation in Ouray County and releases water into Red Mountain Creek. The creek flows northward — far below the cliff-hugging road of Red Mountain Pass — before joining the Uncompahgre River and passing Canyon Creek in Ouray.
It’s a popular spot for photographers, hikers, tourists and anglers. Families go there for after-school walks. Marriage ceremonies have taken place on its banks. One person said they spread a friend’s ashes there.
“If you catch it on the right day, when the water is calm and the leaves are changing, you’re just surrounded 360 with beautiful views,” Boutin said.
What is wrong with the dam?
But the lake’s dam, called Full Moon Dam, was showing signs of seepage, like an iron-colored staining on part of the dam, according to the Forest Service.
In May 2023, Forest Service staff saw a thin, 46-foot crack running along the surface of the earthen embankment, but it wasn’t visible three months later. This year, Forest Service staff said the crack was even longer in May, but again, it wasn’t visible in June during a visit with the Bureau of Reclamation.
Part of the dam showed possible instability, according to a Colorado Division of Water Resources inspection in June. Although other areas of the dam were in acceptable condition, the state inspector said, overall, the dam was in unsatisfactory condition.
The dam is rated as a high-hazard dam, which means there would be a probable loss of life if the dam fails or malfunctions. A Forest Service hazard assessment found that, if the dam failed, the resulting flooding in Ouray could impact about 35 structures and potentially be fatal.
“It’s just potential based on modeling. It doesn’t mean it would happen. If the water were to rise (to) a certain level, that could wipe out some bridges, roads, potentially homes built within the floodplain,” said Dana Gardunio, Ouray District Ranger for the Forest Service.
In early spring, the Forest Service met with local officials to update them on the hazard rating and the reservoir drawdown planned for April. By May, the only water left was too low to flow through the drain.
The impact of an empty reservoir
For the city of Ouray, the main concern is the lost storage.
Ouray is looking for more water supplies to provide for future population growth and to secure water for the city’s hot springs — a major draw for locals and tourists, and a big economic generator for city coffers.
But upriver water demands often end up cutting off the hot springs’ water supply early, which means the venue has to close or cut its hours. If the closure lasted for an extended period of time, then Ouray could lose millions of dollars in revenue and be on the hook for paying for an unusable facility, Funk said.
Already, Ouray mixes municipal water with the naturally heated supply to refill the pools several times a year. If it can augment its municipal supply, it could stabilize the water source for the springs and other local water uses, like the Ouray ice-climbing park.
In 2014, Ouray stopped pursuing water rights in the Animas River Basin because the Forest Service said the city could store water in Crystal Lake.
In an area where snow melts fast, the storage would provide water even in the late summer, when the hot springs might otherwise have to close.
Now?
“We don’t have storage, and we don’t have the water right that we could have pursued,” Funk said. “It’s going to be complicated, and whether it’s an immediate problem depends on what next summer is going to be like.”
Tanya Ishikawa, executive director of the Uncompahgre Watershed Partnership, is worried about the environmental impact.
The drawdown exposed peat on the lake’s bottom, and damaged peatlands are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. The lake protected fens that have been in the area for millenia, she said.
It means one less place where fishing is easily accessible, including for people who use wheelchairs, said Ouray County Commissioner Lynn Padgett.
Since 2014, the lake has been stocked with about 22,500 Colorado River cutthroat trout, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The site was inspected and no fish were found this year, Gardunio said.
Padgett said she was surprised to learn this spring that the Forest Service had a dam safety concern for a year before talking to the county.
The county filed a public records request with the Forest Service. The records showed the agency did not like the liability of owning an earthen dam, Padgett said. Forest Service staff were talking with Ouray about options to offload it, and there was a plan to abandon the water rights, breach the dam and restore the wetlands.
Padgett was left questioning the inspection findings, the hazard rating and the timing of draining the reservoir.
“Part of it is just understanding, is there really a health and safety issue that is imminent like a dam failure? Because for the county, of course we are concerned for public safety because we would be the first responders,” Padgett said. “If there is a public safety issue, why weren’t we notified prior to this?”
What’s next for Crystal Lake?
The Forest Service has not decided what to do with the dam and reservoir, nor does it have a timeline for when it expects to make the decision, Gardunio said.
They’re waiting for the hazard assessment, technical analysis and risk assessment. At that point, they’ll know more about their options.
“Do we want to repair the dam? Does it need to be completely redone, or are we removing it?” Gardunio said. “I’m not saying those are the options. Those are just sort of the three potentials we might be analyzing or looking at design for.”
Restoring the natural wetland would be great if it happened right away, Ishikawa said. So would refilling the reservoir, if it’s done correctly. Mainly, she said she wanted to see a decision made fast instead of waiting years for a restoration effort while the peat dries out.
Funk plans to ensure the reservoir is refilled. The city is exploring several avenues for making it happen.
“At the moment, it’s not working out. But one way or another, we’re going to get that storage back. That is our goal to rectify this,” he said.
Now back in Florida, Danielle Boutin hopes to see the reservoir again.
“I think it’s a really iconic spot and another hidden gem that’s in the Ouray area,” she said. “I would hope that they could find a way to one day refill it, even if it takes a little while.”
