Long overdue work on Lemon Dam is set to finish by the end of April, according to a spokeswoman with the Bureau of Reclamation.
Justyn Liff, public affairs specialist for the Bureau’s office in Grand Junction, said the $1.3 million project to replace the dam’s four high-pressure gates has been completed. The gates had not been worked on since they were installed in the early 1960s.
Crews are waiting for the ice on the reservoir to melt so that underwater work to remove the steel bulkhead from the intake structure can be completed, Liff said.
“This should be completed by the end of April,” she said. “After that, regular releases through the outlet works can resume.”
The first major maintenance project on the dam in more than a half-century also allowed the Bureau of Reclamation a chance to see what other work needed to be done, said facilities manager Tyler Artichoker.
“With the work this winter we were able to take advantage of the opportunity to do a thorough inspection of Lemon Dam’s upstream tunnel, and make necessary repairs,” Artichoker said via email. “The tunnel is in fantastic shape, and no additional work was required.”
Last fall, the city of Durango’s utilities director Steve Salka expected the city would have to rely on water intake from the Animas River – instead of the usual inflows from Florida River because of the project.
However, Salka said Monday that the Bureau of Reclamation kept flows out of Lemon Dam at a rate that allowed the city its normal winter allotment of more than 2 million gallons a day.
The city last fall finished a $1 million project that altered the flow of the Animas River near Santa Rita Park to divert more water directly into the city’s intake.
“We were ready to pump all winter if we had to,” said Salka. “But (the Bureau of Reclamation) kept water coming down the Florida River, so we didn’t have to, and we saved a lot of money.”
The Florida River is diverted through a gravity driven nine-mile pipeline into the city’s reservoir near Fort Lewis College, a cheaper option than pulling from the Animas River, where water must be pumped uphill from the intake at Santa Rita Park.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
