Littleton preservation panel presses to stabilize Slaughterhouse Gulch flume as Englewood moves forward with City Ditch piping

City and Englewood utilities staff told the Littleton Historic Preservation Commission at a study session that the City Ditch piping project will place a new pipeline beneath Slaughterhouse Gulch and that a steel flume there, built in the 1940s, is structurally degraded and faces safety risks.

The presentation, given by Stephanie Ellis, an engineer with Englewood Utilities and project manager, and by Littleton public‑works staff including Ryan Grimroth, deputy director of Littleton Public Works, described project goals, schedule and a consultant condition assessment of the Slaughterhouse Gulch flume. "Our goal is to have a fully piped system between Chatfield Reservoir and the Allen Water Treatment Plant," Ellis said, describing benefits that Englewood expects from piping the ditch: better source water quality, reduced pumping and chemical treatment, and fewer stormwater inflows into drinking‑water supply.

The nut of the commission's concern is the future of the Slaughterhouse Gulch flume and adjacent, now‑abandoned sections of City Ditch. Staff presented three broad options and a lower‑cost stabilization alternative: (1) remove the flume as part of Englewood's project (Englewood would cover most removal costs under the current intergovernmental authorization); (2) repair and maintain the flume so it can remain functional; (2a) stabilize the existing structure in place (a lower‑cost preservation‑minded option); and (3) dismantle and relocate sections for display or museum conservation. Roy (city staff presenter) summarized the consultant's repair estimate: "the work ... $640,000 over 10 years was to get the flume back into full working order. So water flowing through…