Ralston Dam (National ID # CO00205) is a dam in

Jefferson County, Colorado Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 582,910, making it the fourth-most populous county in Colorado. The county seat is Golden, and the most populous city is Lakewood. ...

. The earthen dam was constructed in 1937 by the Denver Board Of Water Commissioners, with a height of 204 feet, and a length of 1170 feet at its crest. It impounds Ralston Creek for municipal water supply for the city of Denver. The dam is owned and operated by the Denver Board Of Water Commissioners. The reservoir it creates, Ralston Reservoir, has a normal water surface of 160 acres, has a maximum capacity of 15,900

acre-feet The acre-foot is a non- SI unit of volume equal to about commonly used in the United States in reference to large-scale water resources, such as reservoirs, aqueducts, canals, sewer flow capacity, irrigation water, and river flows. An acre-f ...

, and a normal capacity of 13,200 acre-feet. In 2010 officials discovered that the defunct Schwartzwalder uranium mine was contaminating groundwater near the reservoir, threatening the Denver water supply with concentrations of uranium some 1000 times the human health standard. The owners of the mine, Cotter Corp., rerouted the Ralston Creek around the mine site after uranium levels of between 40 and 50 parts per billion were discovered in the creek, greater than the 30 ppb federal drinking water standard. Cotter hopes the rerouting will be temporary while it cleans the contaminated mine using

bioremediation Bioremediation broadly refers to any process wherein a biological system (typically bacteria, microalgae, fungi, and plants), living or dead, is employed for removing environmental pollutants from air, water, soil, flue gasses, industrial effluent ...

References

{{authority control Dams in Colorado Reservoirs in Colorado United States local public utility dams Dams completed in 1937 Buildings and structures in Jefferson County, Colorado Bodies of water of Jefferson County, Colorado