PRESS RELEASE: Save The Colorado Wades Into Sweetwater Lake Controversy

July 11, 2024
For Immediate Release
Contact: Gary Wockner, Save The Colorado, 970-218-8310

SAVE THE COLORADO WADES INTO SWEETWATER LAKE CONTROVERSY

Sweetwater Lake, CO: Today, Save The Colorado* submitted a comment letter to the White River National Forest about the proposed management plan for the proposed new Sweetwater Lake State Park in Garfield County. The natural lake is one of the larger and more pristine natural lakes in the state of Colorado with Sweetwater Creek flowing into and out of it, all of which is tributary to the Colorado River downstream.

Save The Colorado’s comment letter is posted here.

The 488-acre lake and the ~800 acres around it was purchased by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in 2021, and is now proposed to be developed and managed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) into a larger recreational “state park” complex. The proposal has stirred intense dissent among locals in the area (see Vail Daily story here), as well as garnered statewide attention, because it could hasten dramatically more environmental impacts due to increased visitation and tourism.

Save The Colorado’s short comment letter requests that the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process moving forward by USFS include analyses of impacts to the Creek and the Lake water quality and quantity, identification of water rights that will be used in the development, and impacts to all environmental resources including wetlands, fish, plants, and wildlife.

“The health of the water and watershed is bellwether for the health of the ecosystem, and we want to make sure the USFS EIS focuses on water resource impacts,” said Gary Wockner who directs the Save The Colorado program. “We don’t yet support or oppose the project, but we are keenly aware that recreational and tourism impacts are dramatically escalating across Colorado, and this near-pristine creek and lake may now be in the path of similar degradation.”

The public comment “scoping period” for the project — “Sweetwater Lake Recreation Management and Development Project (SLDP #64047)” — closes on August 5th.

This press release is posted here.

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* Save The Colorado is a program of Save The World’s Rivers