Water Park here would look Good!

Price-Stubb Dam on the Colorado River

12-5-05:  Town of Palisade receives $175,000 GOCO grant to build the whitewater park.  Construction will begin in Fall 2006.

5-27-04: Grand Valley River Park web site established

01-28-04:  The town of Palisade agreed to co-sponsor a GOCO application for $200,000 for the whitewater park.  Daily Sentinel article

08-04-03

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Slowly but steadily we're making progress towards convincing local and
federal agencies and property owners that a whitewater park and safe
boating channel at the Price-Stubb dam just above the I-70 bridge over the
river in Palisade is feasible.  We have the support of the River Front
Commission, the US Bureau of Reclamation, US Fish & Wildlife Service,
Jacobsen Hydro-West and possibly the cities of Grand Junction and Paliside
and the Mesa County and Palisade irrigation districts.  We're also working
with the Grand Junction Visitor and Convention Bureau and the Colorado West
Tourism Council.

We're making a second presentation to the Mesa County Commissioners on
August 18 and hope to gain their support for an application for Great
Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) lottery funds.

We've retained McLauglin Water Engineers to do the design work.  They
designed the slalom course for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics on the Ocoee. The
first draft plan for the project is displayed at Whitewater West at 418 S.
7th.  It's really impressive - well worth a visit.  A sketch and link to
MWE's background is at
http://www.shangri-la-river-expeditions.com/grandvalleywhitewaterpark/WATER.html.

If we're successful, we should have final designs and lottery funding by
December of this year and a whitewater park and safe boating channel by
March of 2005.  We need your help to succeed.  We're seeking donations to
cover the cost of design and letters of support for the GOCO grant which
will go towards construction.

We're having a fundraiser at the Palisade Community Center, Saturday Aug 9
from 2 pm to 10 pm.  Music, dutch oven cookoff, other food, lots of goodies
- boats, pottery, Chaco's etc.  Contact Monica at Whitewater West, 241-0441
if you want to donate something.  Call Cindy Appel at 245-8770 if you want
to cook something.

In your letter (on your businesss letterhead if possible) please mention
some or all of these advantages using your own words:

1.  The site will provide for a safe boating passage for canoes, rafts, and
kayaks from Island Acres State Park to Palisade and points beyond.

2.  It will have a biking, jogging, roller blading and walking trail that
will ultimately connect the river front trail system in the Grand Valley to
trails to be completed upstream in the future.

3.  It will become a site for training high school and college kayak teams
and for their competitions.  Teams already exist in Glenwood, other towns
on the Colorado and its tributaries and in the Front Range area.  We live
on the namesake river for our state yet we don't have any school kayaking
teams because we don't have a site for training and competing.

4.  If an in-stream recreation water right can be perfected at the site,
water cannot be diverted by Front Range communities before it reaches the
Grand Valley, providing for flows for fish, recreation and other uses in
the future.

5.  It will become a site for competitive whitewater events.   Events in
Durango (Animas River Days), Salida (FIBARC), Steamboat Springs (Yampa
River Festival), Golden, Boulder, Breckenridge, Lyons, Aspen, Vail, Fort
Collins, Pueblo, Gunnison and other river towns draw boaters and spectators
from all over the world and provide millions of tourism dollars to their
economies.  Because the Colorado has water when smaller rivers are too low,
our site will be functional over a much longer period of time than other
sites.  Owners and employees of businesses such as campgrounds, grocery
stores, gas stations, banks, restaurants, motels, coffee shops, wineries,
bakeries, bike shops, sporting goods stores, rafting companies all benefit.

6.  Once this site is completed and the general public in the Grand Valley
begins to see these benefits, we'll be able to develop additional river
parks at River Bend Park in Palisade, near in Clifton, at Las Colonias and
Watson Island parks in Grand Junction and near the new state park Fruita,
complimenting existing efforts to develop a riverfront trail system.  As
these sites are developed, the entire Grand Valley community will benefit.

Your help today is essential to jump start this process.  Please make
checks out to W.A.T.E.R. and address letters to the GOCO Board and mail
them to P.O. Box 2151, Grand Junction CO 81502 as soon as possible.  The
deadline for letters is August 15, and the sooner we have funds the sooner
we can complete the design.  We're trying to raise $20,000.   We'll make
sure the letters are included with the lottery application and that funds
are used efficiently for this project.

Pete Winn
Whitewater Park Committee Chairperson

http://www.shangri-la-river-expeditions.com/grandvalleywhitewaterpark/WATER.html.

02-25-03:  Price-Stubb Progress Report

by Pete Winn

Whether you're a kayaker, canoeist or rafter, there's a possibility you'll be able to float from Island Acres State Park near the I-70 exit to Powderhorn all the way to Westwater in 2005.  The US Bureau of Reclamation has plans to construct an in-channel fish ladder at the Price Stubb Dam, just upstream of the I-70 freeway bridge in the winter of 2004-05.  The fish ladder will be on river left, along the freeway and is expected to allow 100 cfs at average low summer flows of 900 - 1000 cfs to flow through a shallow cut in the top of the eight foot high dam.  The rock fill channel will be 800 ft long and 5 feet wide at the base where it will be about a foot deep. Including the tapers and berm on the right side of the ladder, the channel will occupy 50 feet of the 300 foot wide dam.

To discourage boaters from using the fish ladder at higher flows, the Bureau is willing to allow the recreation community to make another cut in the dam that would allow about 500 cfs at average low summer flows. To reduce costs, this cut would ideally utilize the right (outside) berm of the fish ladder as its left side, so it would be located in the middle of the channel.  Tentatively, the cut would be deep enough to allow a twenty foot wide,  two foot deep channel, tapering such that the total width of the cut would be about 50 feet - easily big enough for a raft with ten foot oars.  The rock fill channel  would be about 350 feet long and the bottom would be sufficiently smooth enough so open touring canoes could pass safely through the chute at non-flood water levels.

This plan also has the support of the River Front Commission.  However, it will take some modification for whitewater enthusiasts.  We’d like to divert  water from the main channel to a smaller channel to the right side which contains an "rougher" bottom that will produce waves and play holes.  This side channel may only be suitable for kayaks at low water, but could be a great ride for rafters during spring and early summer high flows.

To make the site a world class white water park, we will not only need to make the side channel modification but will also need access to the bank on river right.  Currently this property is owned by Eric Jacobsen.  Jacobsen applied for a hydro-power license in 1982 with plans to divert 1100 cfs for about 500 yards, essentially drying up the river for this distance during low flow.  Due to issues with the Endangered Species Act (ESA), his application was stalled for 18 years. In 1995, US Fish and Wildlife asked for revisions to Jacobsen's plan, which he submitted in 1996.  This involved returning water to the base of the dam to avoid dewatering fish spawning areas below the dam, which made it difficult to justify economically because there are an additional four feet of drop in the 500 yards below the dam.

About the same time, Congress allocated funds to build fish ladders at dams so endangered fish could migrate upstream like they did before the dams were built.  The first fish ladder built in this area was the out-of-channel one at the RW&P diversion dam on the Gunnison a few miles upstream from the confluence with the Colorado.  The Bureau  first requested public input for a fish ladder at Price Stubb in 1998 and issued its first draft Environmental Assessment in 1999.  This draft recommended an in-channel fish ladder.  The final supplemental EA was issued in August 2002 and incorporated results from a 1:20 working scale model study completed in 2001.

In 2000, the US Fish & Wildlife (USFW)  finally completed its review of Jacobsen’s 1996 amendment to his 1982 application.  He then had two years to commence construction.  However, without the extra drop below the dam, his project wasn’t economic and he failed to meet the conditions of his application so it was terminated.

His only recourse now is an act of Congress.  He has approached Representative Scott McInnes about this, and was told if he gets the support of USFW, the Bureau and the recreation community, an renewal may be possible.  USFW and the Bureau have already agreed that if the hydropower plant is built to the specifications agreed to in 2000 (which satisfy the ESA), they won’t object.  The recreation community has an incentive to work with Eric if it wants access to the right bank to develop and operate a whitewater park.  However, if there’s no water at low flows, there’s no need for a whitewater park.

Jacobsen must provide 100 cfs for the fish ladder under his license.  We’ve proposed that he provide 500 cfs for a boatable channel plus access to the right bank below the dam for boaters and spectators. He can take the next 1100 cfs above the first 600 cfs for his hydropower plant (the amount allowed by his license).  Over the past 70 years, the average daily flow has been 1700 cfs or higher about 80% of the time, including last year’s very low water.

We’re waiting to see if Jacobsen will accept this proposal, and if so whether Rep. McInnis will submit legislation.  Of course, this proposal affects Jacobsen’s project economics, which are already marginal.

It would be best if we could finalize everything this year, including obtaining any extra funding necessary for a boatable channel, so we’re all working together when the Bureau builds the fish ladder next year.  If you’re interested, the Bureau’s drawings of the  fish ladder can be seen at Whitewater West. Pete can show you the plan for a boatable channel and explain the access issue.

If we’re successful at Price Stubb, we can push for construction of another whitewater park in town, such as near Watson Island or below the 5th Street Bridge.  If you want to help in any way, let me know (242-7108 or [email protected]).

08-02-02: Two articles appeared recently in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel indicating that current plans are to retain the dam and build a fish ladder on river left.  The articles indicate that the possibility of building a river kayak park are looking good.  Eric Jacobson the owner of the FERC license to generate electric power on the right side of the river and the owner of the land on the right side of the river indicated that he is interested in working with local boaters to build the kayak park.  Local boaters are getting organized and will be working with the Bureau of Reclamation and others to make the kayak park a reality.  

9-24-99: The removel of the Price-Stubb dam is on hold for a couple of years due to Ute Water District's concern about their emergency water intake upstream of the dam. Their concern is that if the dam is removed the water level will drop below their intake and render it useless. They are currently building a new pipe that will be finished in two years. When completed they will no longer need the emergency intake.

The two year wait will also allow the FERC license to expire.

The two year wait will also allow an opporunity for local boaters to find funds for the construction of a whitewater course at the site that would be both fish and boater friendly.