As Colorado faces a major snow drought, Aurora said it has selected a site for a large new reservoir in Park County.
The Wild Horse Reservoir would be located southwest of Spinney Mountain Reservoir in Park County near the town of Hartsel.
At a media briefing Tuesday, city officials said the proposed reservoir would allow it to reroute existing water supplies, storing them at higher elevations to reduce evaporation and allowing the city the flexibility it needs to expand its far-reaching recycled water program.
Equally important, with its own reservoirs standing at just 60% full now and snow levels registering at just 39.5% in some watersheds, the storage pond would give the fast-growing city another tool to stave off water shortages as droughts become more common.
“This project allows us to have that accessible emergency reserve and better use our existing water rights,” said Sarah Young, an Aurora Water assistant general manager who is overseeing the project.
But given this year’s dismal water forecast, and as Colorado and the West continue to dry out, will there be enough water to fill this new pool assuming it gets built? Yes, according to Shonnie Cline, a spokeswoman for Aurora Water.
“We are being very realistic and pragmatic about how long it will take to fill,” Cline said. “If we have a couple of wet years, that will be tremendous. … If we have a bunch of very dry years, it could take three to eight years to fill. It is going to be up to Mother Nature.”
A similarly sized project, 75,000-acre-foot Rueter-Hess Reservoir in Douglas County, was completed in 2012 and is still filling, according to Parker Water and Sanitation District Manager Ron Redd. It is now less than half full.
“We have a ways to go,” Redd said.
The $600 million-plus Wild Horse Reservoir project would store 93,000 acre-feet of water and be nearly twice the size of the city’s existing Park County storage pond, Spinney Mountain Reservoir, which holds 53,651 acre-feet of water. An acre-foot equals nearly 326,000 gallons of water, enough to serve at least two to four urban households for one year.
City officials said the reservoir is an important tool in its water security plan, serving as an emergency supply of water even as the city employs an aggressive turf ban, strict outdoor watering rules and two recycled water plants to reduce overall water use.
Like most new reservoir projects, Wild Horse is expected to take several years to complete with federal permitting analysis now underway. Young said the city expects to file for construction approval from Park County, in what’s known as a 1041 review, next month.
Wild Horse would be filled with existing water supplies that Aurora now pulls from the Upper Colorado and Arkansas rivers.
Gary Wockner, a river advocate who heads Save the Colorado, said his group isn’t formally opposing Wild Horse at this time, but it is tracking the permitting process as it proceeds.