Steve Beckley, owner of Iron Mountain Hot Springs in Glenwood Springs, describes himself as “very bullish on geothermal bathing culture in the U.S.” In other words, he’s really into hot springs. And his actions back that up.
Beckley opened Iron Mountain Hot Springs and started pumping water through its 25 mineral pools in 2015. Last year, he opened the 10-acre World Springs in Dallas, a global sampler of hot springs featuring 46 pools sorted into four global regions. His third resort, outside of Zion, Utah, is slated to open later this year.
He’s well-positioned to weigh in on House Bill 1165 which would establish a fund to maintain underground carbon storage and — importantly for Beckley — clean up the language around geothermal resource regulations.
“We just don’t want willy nilly drilling to stop our hot springs from flowing,” Beckley said. “The good thing is the (Department of Natural Resources) is very receptive to our comments, it’s a win-win. Geothermal should be developed in Colorado, but our hot springs need to be protected.”
Receptive, maybe. But not reassuring.
On Thursday, Beckley, along with other hot springs operators, appeared at the legislature to oppose the bill until they could get stronger protections.
Kevin Flohr, CEO of Glenwood Hot Springs, said his property draws from an origin spring fed by multiple sources, many of which have never been mapped. The bill currently requires the state to notify hot springs and other geothermal operators if a developer applies for a permit within one mile of an existing site.
Thomas Warren, general manager of Mount Princeton Hot Springs, emphasized the long history and important economic role that his resort plays in Chaffee County. The county has been “ground zero” for geothermal electrical projects, Warren said, likely referring to a development that recently received funding after more than a decade eyeing a site beneath Mount Princeton the fourteener.
“Please, look out for this very important sector of the Colorado economy that goes back a century and a half,” Warren told lawmakers.
The operators worry that geothermal energy developers, if presented with a streamlined regulatory process that the state hopes to create with this bill, will suck water from the same aquifers that feed their hot springs.
“If we don’t have our mineral water coming to the surface, it would shut our business down,” Beckley said.
Efforts to expand geothermal energy in Colorado have picked up steam over the past few years. Bipartisan bills paved the way for more aggressive research and development, and created a state grant program and investment tax credit.
Gov. Jared Polis has been especially eager to welcome the renewable energy source. During a discussion last week in Washington, D.C., Polis told an audience at the Atlantic Institute think tank that Colorado has “one of the most expedited, reliable permitting (processes) for geothermal in the country.”
Polis also made geothermal energy his platform issue as chair of the Western Governors Association in 2023, launching the Heat Beneath Our Feet initiative to expand research and development throughout the western states.
“You look at something like nuclear and it’s years away,” Polis said, citing its costs to develop and controversies over radioactive waste. “But generally speaking, geothermal plants are good neighbors, and nobody is out to get them.”
The bill still has a long journey before it can head to the Senate. One of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Matt Soper, a Republican from Delta, promised that it wouldn’t leave the House until appropriate safeguards are put in place to protect the hot springs industry.
During Thursday’s committee hearing, Soper said that they’d essentially run out of time to iron out all of the hot springs industry’s concerns. “There’s a lot of back and forth, and usually what happens is then we come together and have the big ‘kumbaya’ moment,” Soper said. “That part has not yet happened.”