Bolts Lake Reservoir project moves forward, with planned 2032 completion date
Project will begin undergoing NEPA review next month
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The project to create a reservoir on the Bolts Lake Reservoir site is moving forward as planned, with a tentative 2032 completion date for the potentially $100 million project. The reservoir will be located south of Minturn, on the site of the long-drained Bolts Lake.
The Eagle River Water & Sanitation District and Upper Eagle Regional Water Authority boards received updates from the project leadership team during a joint meeting on Thursday, Aug. 22 and then again separately during their regular meetings on Thursday, Sept. 26.
The construction engineering company Black and Veatch is serving as the project manager for the project, with Ben Johnson leading the team. Johnson presented to the boards in the August meeting.
Why build a new reservoir?
When completed, the Bolts Lake Reservoir should hold up to 1,200 acre feet of water, or enough to cover 1,200 football fields in one foot of water, to serve as additional water supply due to the risk of water supply shortage in the future.
In 2020, the boards adopted a strategic reserve and system policy to guide water planning efforts and mitigate climate uncertainty.
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“Our previous approach to water supply was, essentially, whatever we didn’t use in a 2002-type drought was available for new service commitments. That approach didn’t really take into account the impact of a warming climate on our available supply,” or a drought worse than 2002 or consecutive drought years, said Jason Cowles, director of engineering and water resources with the water district.
In 2021, district entered into an agreement to purchase Bolts Lake from Battle North, closing on the property in 2022.
The reservoir will be fed by diverting flows from Cross Creek (1,085 acre feet per year) and the Eagle River (995 acre feet per year). Cross Creek is located within the Holy Cross Wilderness, and will be transferred by a gravity feed that will parallel the original Bolts Ditch. The Eagle River diversion will need to be pumped uphill to fill the reservoir.
The Bolts Lake Reservoir will have two dams — one facing U.S. Highway 24 that will be 1,600 feet long and 55 feet high at its highest point, and a smaller, southwest-facing dam that will be 600 feet long and 30 feet tall. The material makeup of these dams is currently being assessed, with the project engineer suggesting creating an effaced dam with asphalt facing.
The reservoir will also need a liner of some kind, with the decision between a clay or a synthetic liner still yet to be determined. A clay liner would require clay to be mined and trucked through the town of Minturn.
Why is the project timeline so long?
Construction is slated to begin in April 2029. But many processes must be completed before construction can start. Creating a reservoir that uses federal funding and diverts an actively free-flowing water source must undergo a complex permitting, design and construction process.
The project has federal, state and local stakeholders. Federal stakeholders include the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Recreation and the Army Corps of Engineers. At the state level, stakeholders include the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment, the Colorado Department of Transportation and the State Engineer’s Office.
The first step in environmental analysis, and one of the most important for the project to progress, is for it to undergo a NEPA — National Environmental Policy Act — review, which will analyze all possible environmental impacts of the project.
Of three main kinds of reviews — categorical exclusion, environmental assessment and environmental impact statement — the Bolts Lake project will be aiming to achieve the middle option, with a finding of “no significant impacts” after a full analysis of the project and its impact mitigation measures that mitigate impact.
The size of project, the majority of the project being based on private land, the consistency with historical use and community support for the project all keep Bolts Lake in the environmental assessment category. Certain elements, like a potentially large number of trucks rolling through Minturn for a year, could push the project into the third NEPA category, but the goal is to mitigate these risks by keeping the town updated.
Field studies, including a cultural impact assessment, an assessment of the planned pump site and another of the existing flora and fauna, were completed in September, and the results should come in soon.
Last month, the project team selected the project’s design engineer, AECOM. The company’s team will prepare comparative cost estimates, evaluate everything and look at constructability to help understand the complete life cycle costs of decision. “They have a wealth of experience on their team, and you could see it in their interview,” Cowles said.
Having the project engineer team on board also allows the project to begin the NEPA process in November and start the next phase — getting to 30% design — in October.
The 30% design is “a key element,” Johnson said. Planning for this begins this month and is scheduled to culminate in May 2025. The 30% design planning is scheduled to take place simultaneously with the NEPA review to allow designers to alter the project’s impacts as they receive feedback from the review. This “allows us the flexibility to add those mitigating activities as we need to or alter the design,” Johnson said.
At the moment, the project team is looking for funding for the design work and construction permitting, which should amount to up to 25% of the project budget.
