PRESS RELEASE: Save The World’s Rivers Opposes Eldora Ski Area Water Rights Expansion

For Immediate Release
2/28/2024
Contact: Gary Wockner, Save The World’s Rivers, 970-218-8310

Save The World’s Rivers Opposes Eldora Ski Area Water Rights Expansion

Nederland, CO: Today, Save The World’s Rivers (formerly named “Save The Colorado”) filed a statement of opposition to the water rights application of Eldora Ski Area.

Save The World’s Rivers’ statement of opposition is here.
Eldora Ski Area’s water rights application is here (page 28-31).

Eldora’s water rights application appears to be asking for 3 new small dams, 3 small enlargements of existing dams (including at Lake Eldora), and 2 new/enlarged storage ‘structures’, as well as increased water diversion rates out of Jenny Creek. The application further states, “Uses: In-house potable and commercial uses, snowmaking, domestic, irrigation, stock watering, fire protection, wildlife, piscatorial, industrial, recreation, augmentation, replacement, and exchange, with the right to use, reuse, and successively use to extinction, including recapture and reuse of return flows.” 

“Through this opposition process, we are not necessarily trying to stop Eldora from claiming these new water rights, but we will seek as much information as possible to help inform the local community,” said Gary Wockner of Save The World’s Rivers. “Water rights are generally a backroom dealmaking process carried out by highly specialized water attorneys. More transparency, as well as community engagement, will serve the public’s interest in Nederland and Boulder County.”

The deadline for filing opposition is Thursday, February 29th at 5:00pm. So far, only one other entity, the “Water Users Association of District No. 6” has filed a letter of opposition (posted here).

Save The World’s Rivers has worked in the Nederland area over the past few years by:

• Helping the Nederland Town Board pass a Rights of Nature for the Boulder Creek Watershed resolution, the first of its kind in Colorado.
• Legally intervening in the State permitting process to support local citizens who have concerns about the Caribou/Cross Mine Expansion.
• Helping the Nederland Town Board pass a resolution to appoint “guardians” for Boulder Creek under the Rights of Nature resolution, the first of its kind in the U.S.

“Nederland and western Boulder County are special places that deserve more attention and protection,” said Wockner. “We will stay engaged to support that protection through this Eldora Ski Area water rights process.”

This press release is posted here.

***end***