Second Wettest Fall Season on Record for Grand Junction with 5.50 inches of precipitation, wettest 5.89 inches in 1941!
— NWS Grand Junction (@NWSGJT) December 1, 2013
Day: December 1, 2013
Telluride: Snowmaking upgrade over the summer includes 16,000 feet of steel pipe
From The Watch (Gus Jarvis):
The ski area, thanks to the mind and work of Telluride Ski and Golf Company’s Director of Snowmaking Brandon Green, has taken some momentous steps this year toward reaching that goal by completing a huge snowmaking infrastructure upgrade which, combined with new snowmaking technology, will enable Telluride to open more runs earlier in the year.
Over the summer, crews replaced decrepit pipe and laid 16,000 feet of steel pipe in the ground as a start to building the foundation of the ski area’s snowmaking future. All of the pipe was painstakingly buried four feet underground, a foot below the frost line. On some portions of the system where wetlands existed, crews bored a hole for the new pipeline without having to touch the surface…
While the new, stronger pipe will eliminate down time due to breakage, the new pipe was laid in a loop system so that if a pipe does burst, the new system can still operate with the help of nearby shutoff valves.
“If something breaks on one spot,” Green said, “we can keep it running operationally and we will be able to maintain it with zero down time, which is ultimately my goal.”
The new pipe infrastructure also has the ability to bring water at a higher pressure, which is needed for the 71 new low energy Snow Logic snowmaking guns the ski area invested in over the past two years.
More infrastructure coverage here.
Boulder County flood structure tally — 337 structures destroyed, $41 million #COflood
From the Boulder Daily Camera (Charlie Brennan) via the Longmont Times-Call:
September’s historic flood destroyed a total of 337 structures on 313 properties in Boulder County, representing $41 million in market value, according to newly released data from the Assessor’s Office.
The county is waiving taxes on those ruined properties for Sept. 13 through the end of the year, meaning taxes won’t be levied against a combined total of $12,367,815 in market value. That figure counts only the value of the destroyed structures, and not the value of the land on which they stood.
Of the 313 properties destroyed in the county, 260 lay within the 100-year flood zone, while 53 did not.
Every one of the 82 properties in Lyons that were destroyed lay within the 100-year flood zone. In unincorporated Boulder County, however, while 54 of the destroyed properties sat in the 100-year flood zone, 32 did not…
Boulder has 14 tributaries, plus Boulder Creek, which flow through the city, and remapping efforts were already under way before the flood for some of them, including Two Mile Canyon Creek, Upper Goose Creek, Skunk Creek, King’s Gulch, Bluebell Canyon Creek, the Boulder Slough and Boulder Creek itself.
“Basically, because of the large number of creeks we have in town, we are in a continual cycle of mapping and mitigation. We already had various areas where we were in different stages of either studying or going through the map adaptation process, or pursuing mitigation measures,” said Jeff Arthur, Boulder’s director of public works for utilities…
The highest concentration of destroyed properties in the county, according to Roberts, was in two mobile home parks along the St. Vrain River: the 32-space Riverbend Mobile Home park in Lyons and the 60-space Royal Mobile Home Park in Longmont…
Earlier this fall, the city of Boulder released preliminary findings that the flood caused $48.91 million in damage to city infrastructure, parks and open space. Additionally, Boulder County shortly after the flood put the damage to county roads and bridges at $89 million, and damage to county buildings at $1.3 million.