Saying a big new dam “no longer fits today’s needs or values,” the St. Vrain and Left Hand water district in Longmont agreed to give up a 55-year-old right to build an on-channel reservoir on the relatively undisturbed South St. Vrain Creek, pleasing environmental groups and local elected officials.
The St. Vrain and Left Hand Water Conservancy District said it had reached a deal with nonprofit Save the World’s Rivers to store a large water right by other methods, such as old gravel pits, rather than the 350-foot-high Coffintop Dam holding 84,000 acre-feet it has studied since 1971.
“This is something we and our communities have contemplated for decades,” said water district board president Christopher Smith, in a statement announcing the agreement. “The Coffintop project, as envisioned more than 50 years ago, no longer fits today’s needs or values.”…