Wolford Mountain Reservoir is a reservoir in
Grand County, Colorado
Grand County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 15,717. The county seat is Hot Sulphur Springs, Colorado, Hot Sulphur Springs.
History
When Grand County was ...
. The reservoir and associated dam are part of the Wolford Mountain Recreation Area, which is managed by the
Colorado River District, headquartered in Glenwood Springs. The reservoir dams
Muddy Creek and is part of the
Colorado River
The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...
watershed. Construction of the reservoir was completed in 1996.
[Colorado River District]
Wolford Mountain Reservoir
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Recreation area
The Wolford Mountain recreation area offers lake and stream fishing, boat rentals, boat ramps, picnic areas, and 48 campsites. The reservoir is stocked with trout and kokanee salmon
The kokanee salmon (''Oncorhynchus nerka''), also known as the kokanee trout, little redfish, silver trout, kikanning, Kennerly's salmon, Kennerly's trout, or Walla, is the non-anadromous form of the sockeye salmon (meaning that they do not migrat ...
.
Dam problems
The Colorado River District revealed in early 2015 that there are some structural problems with the dam, specifically settling and movement of the earthen dam structure. The Ritschard Dam, as it is called, is 122 feet in height and 1,910 feet wide. The dam has also moved horizontally.
In 2016 Colorado River District officials and consulted experts determined that the dam is safe and does not require extensive rehabilitation.
In late 2020, a comprehensive dam safety evaluation prepared by the firm HDR Engineering for Colorado's Division of Water Resources indicated that the dam's risk of internal erosion from cracking had increased since the 2016 evaluation. The earlier report found a one in one billion chance of the dam failing in any given year, but the 2020 evaluation put the risk of a dam failure at 1.5 in 10,000. The Colorado River Water Conservation District has engaged HDR Engineering to deal with the dam's worsening condition.
See also
* List of largest reservoirs of Colorado
References
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Reservoirs in Colorado
Lakes of Grand County, Colorado