The U.S. Forest Service, Pitkin County Environmental Health, and state agencies are all attempting to learn why water in Lincoln Creek has turned murky in recent days.
Officials with the Forest Service and Pitkin County Healthy Rivers believe tailings and waste from old mines in the watershed have become more concentrated in the reservoir since historic storms in summer 2021 and this year's above-average monsoon season.
Eyewitnesses say the upper Roaring Fork River is also impacted. It’s unclear if the situation poses a health risk to the public, or to the lower Roaring Fork River.
Grizzly Reservoir is operated by Twin Lakes Reservoir and Canal Company, which supplies water via transmountain diversions to Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and Aurora. Glenn Schryver, a caretaker for the reservoir, sent an unsolicited email to KDNK on Friday afternoon stating that observations of a fish kill were rumors and "don’t line up with the facts."
The Independence Pass Foundation erroneously posted that "all the fish in Grizzly Reservoir died" on the nonprofit's Facebook page early Friday, and had acknowledged the error — but not removed the original post — by Friday evening.
KDNK will continue to pursue this developing story.
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