{"id":29140,"date":"2024-02-19T16:49:49","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T23:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/city-hires-consultant-to-study-raising-lake-farmington-dam\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:49:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:49:21","slug":"city-hires-consultant-to-study-raising-lake-farmington-dam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/city-hires-consultant-to-study-raising-lake-farmington-dam\/","title":{"rendered":"City hires consultant to study raising Lake Farmington dam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A view of the Lake Farmington Dam from the water's side.<\/span>Brad Ryan<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Farmington City Council voted unanimously on Feb. 13 to award a $4.45 million contract to a Los Angeles company to complete a study and design that would raise the Lake Farmington Dam and increase the reservoir\u2019s storage capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cA large part of it (the study) will be the structural and geological analysis to see what height it can go to,\u201d said David M. Sypher, director of the city\u2019s Community Works Department.<\/p>\n

The Lake Farmington Dam is 117 feet high and allows for the storage of 8,470 acre-feet of water, according to the Office of the State Engineer. The city\u2019s original plan was to raise the dam by 25 feet after a 2015 feasibility study by Jacobs Engineering determined that to be a good height, he said.<\/p>\n

The funding for the study is coming from the city, the San Juan Water Commission and the State Water Fund \u2013 Drinking Water Fund, according to Farmington Mayor Nate Duckett.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re Looking forward to the outcome of that feasibility study to help shape our water future here in our city,\u201d Duckett said.<\/p>\n

AECOM Technical Services Inc.<\/a> of Los Angeles considers itself \u201cthe world\u2019s trusted infrastructure consulting firm, delivering professional services throughout the project life cycle \u2013 from planning, design and engineering to program and construction management,\u201d according to the company\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an opportunity here to plan for the future,\u201d Sypher said. \u201cThese types of projects take a long, long time if they turn out to be feasible to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that even if the dam raising is feasible it would be some time before construction would begin. \u201cIt\u2019s not something you start this year and build it in 10 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Farmington Lake Dam was approved by the Farmington Town Board in the early 1960s and passed by one vote, according to Sypher.<\/p>\n

\"Concrete
Concrete was poured on Sept. 11, 1963, for the Lake Farmington Spillway.<\/span>Courtesy of the Bob Maddox Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Construction began on the concrete dam in 1963, and water first flowed into the reservoir June 23, 1964. At that time, the lake was across from the Beeline Refinery, and everyone called it Beeline Reservoir, but the Farmington Town Board unanimously voted to name it Lake Farmington, according to records from the San Juan Historical Society.<\/a><\/p>\n

Construction of the dam cost $1.5 million, and was one of the city\u2019s largest projects to date.<\/p>\n

\"Water
Water flowed into Lake Farmington for the first time on June 23, 1964.<\/span>Courtesy of the Bob Maddox Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Now, 60 years later, Lake Farmington<\/a> provides water \u201csecurity for the whole region,\u201d Sypher said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dam creates a regional resource. We have contractual water spoken for about 51% of the water the city of Farmington produces \u2013 outside of the city limits,\u201d Sypher said. \u201cWe supply water to the whole regional area, even more than we use ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Water in the San Juan Basin comes from Colorado\u2019s San Juan Mountains runoff that flows into the San Juan, Animas and La Plata rivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe snow-water equivalent is the amount of water reported in inches, within the snowpack, or the amount of water that would result if the snowpack were instantly melted,\u201d according to the San Juan Basin Regional Water Plan, published in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe end of season snowpack is a good indicator of the runoff that will be available to meet water supply needs,\u201d according to the plan, which states that it is measured within a week of April 1 each year.<\/p>\n

Lake Farmington \u201cis filled by diversions from the Animas River,\u201d according to the document.<\/p>\n

Sypher pointed out when the region was suffering from extreme drought conditions two years ago, the city \u201chad the security of knowing we have at least 90 days of storage.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added there can be \u201cup to 201 days or so depending on the time of year. \u201cIt\u2019s just a great security for us today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sypher said a big part of the dam study is to meet the future needs of Farmington, when considering the population will increase. \u201cWe all understand our area will grow through the years. It\u2019s not going to be very long before we are 100,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A view of the Lake Farmington Dam from the dry side.<\/span>Brad Ryan<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Mountain runoff is the best water resource for the region, considering that we don\u2019t have available to us an aquifer that produces water that isn\u2019t full of high salinity,\u201d Sypher said. \u201cWe use the water out of the stream so we have to storage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lake Farmington Dam ranks in \u201cfair\u201d condition, but has a hazard potential classification of \u201chigh,\u201d according to the 2016 water plan, which states that the \u201chigh hazard potential is related to dams where failure would likely result in loss of human life, needed maintenance, seepage, woody vegetation and a lack of information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sypher said the city is really hoping the feasibility study will have a positive outcome for the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever the facts are or the science is, that\u2019s what we can begin planning for,\u201d Sypher said. \u201cThis is a project that needs to be done that will provide an additional 75% water for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Council unanimously approves to pay $4.45 million to California-based firm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-29140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80643,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29140\/revisions\/80643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29140"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=29140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}