Click the link to read the article on the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel website (Sam Klomhaus). Here’s an excerpt:
Grand Junction City Council approved Wednesday a 25-year lease of Vincent Reservoir No. 2, a currently unused reservoir on Grand Mesa which the city owns, to Snowcap Coal Co. According to a staff, Snowcap plans to rehabilitate the 40-acre reservoir and dam while using the reservoir to augment any stream depletions in Rapid Creek caused by the Roadside Portals Mine, an abandoned mine-owned by Snowcap. The mine causes limited impacts to Rapid Creek, according to the lease, which by Colorado law are required to be augmented by Snowcap.
“Snowcap has identified the reservoir as a source for the storage of augmentation water to remedy the Stream Depletions,” the lease states. “Snowcap has investigated the Reservoir and Dam and has determined that rehabilitation of the Dam would benefit its efforts to comply with the Consent Order and its legal obligations under Colorado law.”
The augmentations will help keep the water rights for Rapid Creek and the Colorado River whole, according to Snowcap legal counsel John Justus. Snowcap has never operated the Roadside Portals mine and does not have any plans to re-start operations at the mine, Justus said.