Click the link to read the article on The Aspen Times website (Regan Mertz). Here’s an excerpt:
September 22, 2024
Pitkin County’s Healthy Rivers Board voted unanimously to approve a $28,000 grant request from the Roaring Fork Valley Wildfire Collaborative to fund a project that will produce a wildfire action plan for the valley’s watershed. The project will identify high-risk areas and potential post-fire hazards in the Roaring Fork Valley’s water systems to create an action plan in the event of a wildfire. Several town and city water sources come from single streams. In the event of a wildfire, ash could contaminate stream water, degrading the quality of the water system, and potentially making it undrinkable, said Roaring Fork Valley Wildfire Collaborative Executive Director Angie Davlyn during her Thursday presentation to the board in Basalt…
While the Roaring Fork Valley is at significant risk for wildfires, a state evaluation also noted the high susceptibility of the Roaring Fork Watershed’s water infrastructure in the event of a wildfire. This leaves residents, property, and natural resources vulnerable to this disaster but also to other post-wildfire hazards, like flooding and mudslides, Davlyn said…Davlyn also said that the region has been pro-active in performing wildfire mitigation tasks, but there is a lack of a data-driven approach to identify the most critical threats and most opportune areas for a wildfire…To bridge this gap, the Wildfire Collaborative applied for funding from several sources, including Pitkin County. Last week, Wildfire Collaborative signed a contract with the Colorado Water Conservation Board for $224,000 and more than $150,000 in technical assistance for this project, which Davlyn said is the first of its kind in this area. These funds, however, require a 25% match before work can begin. The Wildfire Collaborative will provide half of the match through staff time, but the organization needs Pitkin County’s $28,000 to complete the match. Fire Adapted Colorado also awarded $5,000, the town of Carbondale awarded $3,000, Roaring Fork Conservancy awarded $500, Holy Cross Energy awarded $3,000, and other municipalities, counties, and the Colorado River District awarded $5,000. These funds, along with Colorado Water Conservation Board’s $374,000 and Pitkin County’s $28,000, totals $446,500.