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Feds plot recreation work at Lake Nighthorse

The boat dock has already been built on the northwest side of Lake Nighthorse.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has plans to build an entrance station and boat-decontamination station at Lake Nighthorse, according to Brent Rheese, the bureau’s Upper Colorado River regional director, who last week attended a meeting in Durango of the four-state Upper Colorado River Commission.

Lack of recreation access has been a sore point and a source of snarky jokes for area residents since the reservoir filled.

Rheese mentioned recreation at all of Bureau of Reclamation reservoirs in the region.

Someone in the audience mumbled, “Not all,” drawing chuckles from other audience members.

Rheese cited plans for the entrance and boat-decontamination station.

“The boat ramp is built.” He also quipped, the lake “has a really nice fence.”

Mark Chiarito, from the Durango bureau office, and Kathleen Ozga, from the Grand Junction office, later clarified the plans.

“We are shooting for a boat-inspection station area to be constructed later this summer, along with improvements to the entrance area,” Ozga said. “Summer or early fall at the latest. We have the contractor almost in place to start, and we are finishing the NEPA documentation” for environmental impacts.

She added: “We still need to sign a recreation-management agreement with Durango. That’s not ready to be signed yet. We’re doing an environmental assessment for that. We hope to get that out for public review later this summer or early fall as well. ... The city has plans for other improvements like another parking area and other improvements at the entrance area.”

Chiarito said one of those improvements will be a courtesy dock where someone can tie up their boat after it’s in the water, while they go park their vehicle.

The city applied for and was awarded a grant from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, but it can’t get the money until it sign the lease with the bureau.

At river commission meeting held last week, Rheese implied the target is to have the lake open for recreation in 2016. Ozga later said, “I don’t know how realistic 2016 is.”

On the Net

Animas-La Plata Project updates: www.usbr.gov/uc/progact/animas/index.html



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