Colorado River Update: Should We Fight To Stop Aspen’s Billionaires From Further Draining the Roaring Fork River?

Hi Friends of the Colorado River!

Today we turn our attention to Aspen, Colorado, and the Roaring Fork River running through it. Over the last six years, a heated debate has occurred about proposed new dams in wilderness areas near Aspen — dams that would provide water to fuel and subsidize more growth and greed in Aspen.

Other environmental groups have previously intervened in the legal water rights process and convinced Aspen to move the dams out of the wilderness areas, but the water would still be taken out of the local Creeks which feed the local Roaring Fork River (which flows into the Colorado River). For more information, read this recent story in Aspen Journalism, “Aspen Reaffirms Plans For New Reservoirs With Water Court Filing.”

At this juncture, nothing has been built yet and the water rights are up for their routine “diligence filings” with the state water court system, and any person or group in Colorado can intervene and “oppose” the water rights filings.

We ask this: Does Aspen really need more water?

In fact, Aspen freely admits that about 45% of local residents’ water use occurs in the summer primarily for lawn watering to keep the grass green. Aspen also argues that as the climate gets hotter and dryer, more and more lawn water will be needed.

Further, Aspen Journalism, also reported last week that Aspen and surrounding Pitkin County have one of the “highest concentration of billionaire” homeowners in America, with likely over 100 billionaires among just 17,000 residents. Even further, the report argues that many of these homes are “second, third, or fourth” homes. Further, as of this writing, Zillow reports that the median home price in Aspen is $3,649,831.00 — that’s right, over $3.5 million dollars.

And so we ask again: Does Aspen really need more water?

We’re making a decision about whether to intervene in these state water court processes, which will cost us $384 for court filings and some of our time over the next year, and we want to know your opinion. Click through to Facebook and answer the question: “Should We Fight To Stop Aspen’s Billionaires From Further Draining The Roaring Fork River?”

The Facebook link is here: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1165950888896075&set=a.252916200199553  Answer “yes” or “no” in the comments.

If you answer yes and want to help us raise the $384, click here to our website to donate: https://savethecolorado.org/donate/

Thank you for your support!