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General Description
The Glenwood-Dotsero Springs Unit is located along the Colorado River in Eagle, Garfield, and Mesa Counties in west-central Colorado. The purpose of this Reclamation unit is to reduce the salt contribution to the Colorado River from mineral springs in two areas, one near the town of Glenwood Springs and the other near the rural community of Dotsero. The combined annual discharge of the springs is 25,000 acre-feet of water which contain about 440,000 tons of salt. About half of the salt contribution comes from 20 surface springs; the remainder enters as seeps and underwater springs within the river channel.
Reclamation started detailed planning investigations in 1980. Technical work included the measurement and chemical analysis of springs and groundwater in the two areas and a detailed technical study of the salt-loading mechanism. Plans were then formulated with the aid of public input. More than 33 alternatives were generated. The most cost-effective plan at the time consisted of collecting both surface and subsurface salt water at Dotsero and transporting the salt water in a gravity flow pressure line to Glenwood Springs where additional surface and subsurface salt water would be collected and added to the Dotsero salt water. The water would then be piped to evaporation ponds at the Colorado Utah border.
At $126 per ton, this plan could not compete with alternatives available in other units. Plans were deferred until a more cost-effective alternative, possibly an industrial use, could be found. A February 1986 planning report concluded that the evaporation pond alternative was not cost effective. Cogeneration and privatized desalting alternatives have been investigated under cooperative agreements with private industry. These have not proved to be competitive with other alternatives available to the program. No projects have been implemented.
See other Basinwide Salinity Control Projects. |
