A state water quality commission says it won't step in to try to help water clarity issues in Grand Lake near Rocky Mountain National Park.
David Krause, team editor at The Colorado Sun , told KUNC that the area is popular with tourists because of its natural beauty but has been cloudy lately.
In the late 1930s, the Bureau of Reclamation started work on the Colorado Big Thompson Project. It was built to move water from the west side of the Continental Divide over to the east side through a 13-mile tunnel. The water pumping process interferes with the lake’s famed, crystal-clear waters.
“Algae and sediment from Shadow Mountain Lake get carried into Grand Lake,” Krause said. “It clouds up the water, causes algae blooms and weed growth and really, it comes at a bad time because it's really during their tourism season.”
Before the Big Thompson system was built, visitors could see about 30 feet down into the water. The federal clarity requirement is 12 feet.
Years of studies and work group sessions have failed to produce a solution. For now, the state Water Quality Commission is leaving the search for solutions to the Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the Big Thompson project, and Northern Water, which operates the water pumping system.
“Northern Water is continuing to look at kind of changing the pumping patterns when it's pulling water up,” Krause said. “They say they've gotten better at managing the clarity. Almost 50% of the time, they can see 12 feet down during the summer.”
The Bureau of Reclamation is looking into harvesting the weeds from the lake, or introducing more oxygen into the water through aeration at Shadow Mountain Lake. Researchers have determined repairing or replacing the current water pumping structure is not feasible. Any new equipment will be in addition to the existing structure.
“(Northern Water and the Bureau of Reclamation) have got advocates who say they're going to go to the legislature next year and see if they can get a little more support from the state capital,” Krause told KUNC.
