The U.S. Forest Service is considering draining the body of water atop Red Mountain Pass. Local leaders worry that could harm tourism and recreation

The fate of Crystal Reservoir is up in the air.

Ouray County officials are concerned that the U.S. Forest Service, which owns the dam, will tear it down and return the area to wetlands, hurting the area’s recreational opportunities and negatively impacting the area’s tourist economy. In addition, the city of Ouray has water storage rights in the reservoir, and an operations and maintenance agreement with the Forest Service to store the city’s water.

The Forest Service says the dam has been classified as a high or significant hazard, which means there could be major damage downstream of Ouray to structures, bridges and infrastructure should a dam break or flood occur.

It plans to start an environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, to look at alternatives on how to address the dam, including analyzing its removal and restoration to the area.

County officials want to be involved in discussions regarding the dam’s fate early in the analysis process and would like the city or county to take over ownership of the dam site.

The reservoir is stocked with fish for local anglers by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and it is a popular spot for visitors. It is estimated that part of the dam, also known as the Full Moon Dam, was built in the 1800s, and it was rebuilt for safety reasons in 2012. The reservoir holds about 80 acre-feet of water and is about 8 feet deep in the middle.

“This process is feeling really messy,” Ouray County Commissioner Lynn Padgett said at a Feb. 27 meeting. “There are disagreements between the Forest Service, the Ouray Ranger District, the Colorado Division of Water Resources and the city of Ouray. … This is a very big deal and there are multiple levels of (government) involved, and nobody has come to a consensus on the dam or the hazard level.”

Commissioner Jake Niece said at a Feb. 20 commissioners’ work session that a letter the county received from the Forest Service in January was the first he had heard about the dam situation.

“It sounds like the Forest Service has already made a decision,” he said. “It wants to offload any potential liability … and be damned with the consequences as long as the Forest Service has no liability.”

Lindsey Binder, lands and minerals specialist with the U.S. Forest Service, countered that the Forest Service has not decided what to do with the dam, though the agency has set 2027 as the tentative time frame for implementation.

“(Removing the dam) is the only option we see,” she said. “If the county or city said, ‘Let’s do a land exchange,’ we are open, but we don’t want the liability of a high-hazard dam. … We are not set in stone on anything. This is pre-NEPA, pre-decision, pre-everything.”

Neil Perry, acting district ranger for the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison national forests, said when contacted on Tuesday that he didn’t have enough information to comment on the Crystal Reservoir issue. Perry is acting this week for Ouray District Ranger Dana Gardunio, who was out of the office.

Both the city and the county have sent letters to the Forest Service in response to a request for comments about the dam and reservoir.

U.S. Forest Service position

Federal and state officials have known about a crack in the dam for several years, and an August 2023 operations and maintenance inspection report by the Forest Service confirmed it.

The Forest Service’s current direction is to remove non-hydropower federal dams across the country or make changes to mitigate public-safety concerns, according to a letter sent to city, county and state officials.

The dam has been classified as a “significant hazard dam” because of the potential for major damage to structures, bridges and infrastructure downstream of Ouray should a dam break or flood occur, the letter states.

The Forest Service is considering releasing water from Crystal Reservoir this summer and starting an environmental analysis to look at alternatives to address the dam, including analyzing the removal of the dam and restoration to the area, Binder told county commissioners.

“Our thought is to remove the dam,” she said. “There’s a trail across the dam, so we’d have to reroute it or put in a bridge. The long-term plan would be to restore the area to natural wetlands.”

County concerns, ideas

County officials have asked for a meeting of all of the agencies involved to keep everyone on the same page.

“We want to communicate more robust alternatives to the Forest Service,” Padgett said. “We don’t want them to drain the reservoir until we have a chance to think about this. It sounds like we need to get the range of experts in the room.”

Padgett suggested that an electricity- generating component could be added to the dam to make it more beneficial to the community and wondered whether that would change the Forest Service’s stance on the dam. That component was requested in a letter the county sent to the Forest Service.

The letter also asked for dam ownership to be transferred to a local entity, and Binder said if an entity wanted to buy the reservoir and dam, it could be done through a land swap or by purchasing the property at its appraisal price per U.S. Forest Service policy.

Padgett expressed concern about the negative impacts to the local economy, wildlife and environment, and the letter asks for a socio-economic impact study and an environmental impact study the Forest Service could use as part of its decision-making on dam removal.

“This is a scenic byway and one of the most photographed areas in the state of Colorado,” Padgett said. “It brings a lot of positive attention to the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison national forests. To drain (the reservoir) without a plan in place for restoration, it’s going to dry up and displace moose and other species.”

County Manager Connie Hunt and Padgett reminded commissioners that several years ago, the Forest Service had planned to put an ADA-accessible fishing pier in the northeast corner of the reservoir, and the commissioners have asked that the Forest Service install the pier as well as provide additional access for other forms of recreation at the site, including hiking and landscape photography.

Commissioners indicated they really would like the dam and reservoir to stay, with Commissioner Michelle Nauer adding, “I really love this little reservoir.”