Laserfiche WebLink
<br /> <br />.J <br /> <br />", <br /> <br />~ <br /> <br />C:ENTRAL COLORADO PROJECT 7'! ~ <br />formerly UNION PARK PROJECT ~"\ <br />." "t. <br /> <br />..#~ <br />~r1' <br />~~ UNION PARK VISTA <br />DAM & RESERVOIR <br /> <br /> <br />",""TAYLOR PARK <br /> <br />CRESTED <br />Bum <br /> <br /> <br />[, <br /> <br /> <br />GUNNISON RlVE:R <br /> <br />~~ <br /> <br />in Palmer Lake. <br />Miller has his eyes on Union Park, a glacial bowl near <br />timberline a mile or rwo east of Taylor Park Reservoir, <br />He'd like to build a big reservoir in Union Park - some- <br />where around a million acre-feet - and run a tunnel <br />under the Sawatch Range to a siphon under the Arkan- <br />sas north of Buena Vista, The water would cross Trout <br />Creek Pass to South Park and Antero Reservoir, where <br />there's plumbing to send it to either Colorado Springs <br />or the Denver suburbs. <br />Initially, it would gather water from the TaylQr River <br />basin, but it could be expanded to reach Blue Mesa Res- <br />ervoirwest of Gunnison, where Miller argues that there <br />is at least 240,000 acre-feet, in an average year, avail- <br />able for use anywhere in Colorado. <br />This was originally known as the Union Park project; <br />Miller is now promoting it as the Central ColQrado Pro- <br />ject. He points out that it is an off-stream site, so it <br />won't trash any river valleys. Further, its centralloca- <br />tion means that it could serve most ColQrado basins, in- <br />cluding the Rio Grande. And at an elevation above <br /> <br />ANTE:RO RESERVOIR <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />N <br /> <br />W~E <br /> <br />s <br /> <br />10,000 feet, evaporation losses would be minimal. <br />In 1986, he filed for this project in state water court <br />in Montrose, and in 1988 he sold his interest to <br />Arapahoe County, (but continued to,promote the pro- <br />ject). <br /> <br />IN THE BEGINNING, the City of Gunnison was also <br />interested, since Union Park offered some upstream <br />storage, even if it also proposed to take up to 330,000 <br />acre-feet a year out of the basin. Local activists, how- <br />ever, who ranged from hard-core environmentalists to <br />fifth-generation ranchers, were against the project; <br />they formed POWER (People Opposed to Water Export <br />Raids) and quickly changed Gunnison's political cli- <br />mate. Local candidates who did not support the "Not <br />One Drop" anti-export policy did not win elections. <br />Local gQvemments hired lawyers tQ oppose the wa- <br />ter filings by Arapahoe County when it went to water <br />CQurt, It was a long battle, complete with an appeal to <br />the state supreme court and a new trial in local water <br />court, but the Qutcome was that Union Park lost, <br /> <br /> <br />, tc <br /> <br />Let us pray that the River runs high <br />. .. but not as high as gasoline prices <br /> <br />.~~"Id, <br />" )~~"~~ <br />;~~,'~ <br />Fresh Gas, Hot Coffee, and Nutritionally-Challenged Edibles <br /> <br />1iravLan Conoco Solida's Only locally owned <br />(conoco) convenience store <br />.".::~;;'"" ,946 E. Hwy 50 . Salida . 719-539-7427 . Next to KFC ( 4:0n04:0 ) <br />Locally Owned and Operated by Lanning & Daria Andrews HOTTEST BRAND GOINS. <br /> <br />June 2003. Colorado Central Magazine' 23 <br />,001782 <br />