Pitkin County approves $442,500 appropriation to buy Twin Lakes shares to boost Roaring Fork flows

Pitkin County commissioners on July 8 approved a $442,500 supplemental appropriation from the Healthy Rivers and Streams Fund to acquire 4.68 shares in the Twin Lakes Reservoir and Canal Company and authorized the county to move forward on the acquisition on first reading.

Connie, the county staffer who presented the item, told the board the appropriation is an off-cycle budget request so the county can sign a purchase agreement. "This is a budget resolution, to appropriate $442,500 in the Healthy Rivers and Streams Fund for the purpose of the acquisition of 4.68 shares of Twin Lakes," she said, and noted the fund’s five-year plan and projected impacts to reserves.

Staff projected a 2026 drawdown of roughly $3,700,000 with an estimated year-end Healthy Rivers fund balance of about $1,400,000 and said future annual debt service could be around $525,000 depending on an August bond sale. Commissioners discussed the trade-offs between buying expensive, headwaters water and preserving fund balance to support other projects.

Deputy county attorney Anne Marie McPhee answered technical questions about how much "wet water" the shares produce and the program’s goals, saying the per-share yield is slightly under one acre-foot and that county staff can time releases for greatest benefit. "The decreed minimum in stream flow … for this stretch of the river, it's 32 CFS," McPhee said; staff and several commissioners noted current flows were far lower (about 6 CFS on a local gauge) and described 25 CFS as a ballpark intermediate target and roughly 350 acre-feet as a longer-term accumulation goal.

Commissioner Poschman and other members expressed support for continuing water-rights purchases as a way to incrementally improve river health; other commissioners asked that representatives from the Healthy Rivers and Streams board attend a future joint meeting to explain concerns after that board expressed opposition to at least one recent small purchase.

Separately, finance director Liz Woods told the board the county received a "AA-" rating for bonds to reimburse the Healthy Rivers fund for prior purchases. The board approved the bond resolution on second reading later in the meeting to permit pricing and sale steps with underwriters.

The appropriation motion and the ordinance authorizing acquisition were approved by voice vote. The ordinance’s second reading and continued public hearing were set for Aug. 12. Commissioners and staff said the county will continue to report on how incremental purchases translate to measurable increases in flow downstream.