LARIMER COUNTY — For such important infrastructure, this section of the Michigan Ditch on the east side of Cameron Pass near a culvert that saved Fort Collins’ water supply seems pretty vulnerable.
It’s relatively shallow, although the exact depth is unstated. It lies at around 10,000 feet alongside a service road in State Forest State Park where hikers, runners, mountain bikers and backpackers frequent. It’s a smallish part of the 5.2-mile-long transmountain diversion system originally constructed in the 1900s that transports water from the western side of Cameron Pass at Lake Agnes to the Cache la Poudre watershed on the east and now provides up to 11% of the Fort Collins water supply.
But unlike stretches of the ditch that are protected from the elements and other dangers by wood or concrete pipe, the stretch in question is uncovered. That means it’s at the mercy of all kinds of things, including landslides that rip loose from the steep mountainside above it. And that’s why a couple dozen water, fire, land, parks and city officials were gathered around it one day in early August…