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Council hears water and public-health updates: bat exposures, Lincoln Creek copper, record-low river flows
Summary
City staff and council members reported bat exposures prompting testing guidance, ongoing copper contamination in Lincoln Creek likely from a mineralized tributary affecting aquatic life, and dangerously low river flows across the basin with record-low reservoir levels.
Council received multiple board reports addressing public health and watershed stress. A board-of-health representative said there have been multiple bat exposures and advised residents that if they are exposed they should keep the bat for testing to avoid the expensive and invasive rabies vaccine series.
"If you do have exposure to a bat, you wanna keep it so it can be tested," a board representative said, adding that failure to capture and test would likely lead to a prophylactic vaccine series. The council asked staff to continue public education on capture and testing procedures.
In water updates, councilors said the Roaring Fork watershed flows remain well below normal: one speaker noted flows of 11% to 43% of normal in parts of the watershed and the Roaring Fork at Aspen flowing at 20 cubic feet per second compared with a norm near 114 cfs for the season. Speakers warned of continuing drought conditions and record-low reservoir storage in Blue Mesa and Green Mountain Reservoir, with potential minimum power pools anticipated in upcoming months.
Staff also briefed council on Lincoln Creek copper contamination and said a work group has narrowed the source to a mineralized tributary. That tributary contributed copper that affects aquatic life; staff said mitigation would be expensive and that human health impacts are not currently evident, though fish mortality has been observed.
