Ruedi Reservoir

Ruedi Reservoir is a reservoir on the West Slope of the Continental Divide on the Fryingpan River. It sits about 15 miles (24 km) upstream of the town of Basalt, Colorado, near Aspen.[1] The reservoir is located within the White River National Forest, and straddles the county line between Pitkin County and Eagle County.

The reservoir and its Ruedi Dam 39°21′48″N 106°49′08″W / 39.36333°N 106.81889°W / 39.36333; -106.81889 were built from 1964 through 1968. They're both owned and operated by the United States Bureau of Reclamation. One purpose of the reservoir is to help compensate for diversions to Colorado's East Slope, taken further up in the Fryingpan Basin as part of Reclamation's federal Fryingpan-Arkansas Project. Another purpose of the reservoir is to provide water for West Slope interests.[1] The dam is located in Eagle County.

Ruedi stores approximately 102,000 acre feet (126,000,000 m3) of water.[1] Water in the reservoir is released through Ruedi Dam down the Fryingpan primarily for municipal, industrial, and agricultural interests. A side benefit of the reservoir is recreation. Boating, fishing and camping are popular at the reservoir itself, while the downstream portion of the Fryingpan River has become well regarded as a Gold Medal fishery.

In the 1980s, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the presence of four endangered fish in the Upper Colorado River Basin. After a lengthy public process, it was decided that Ruedi Reservoir would become one of the sources of water in the recovery efforts of the fish and their habitat.

Typically, releases from Ruedi follow a seasonal pattern. The USGS page for streamflow below Ruedi Dam provides up-to-date information for water released to the Lower Fryingpan in cubic-foot -per-minute measurements.

Before the construction of the dam, this portion of the Frying Pan River, especially the three miles that flowed through Red Nelson's farm, was by far the best fly water in the state, with exquisite feeding channels and boulder pools. While the reservoir offers a playground for watercraft enthusiasts, you should have fished the Frying Pan before the BLM put in the dam. World class fly fishermen regarded that section of stream as one of the best in the world, exceeding the lower Rio Malleo in Patagonia, before developers punched a new road into the Mapuche reservation, or the Upper Rio Grande on the Chilean side of Tierra del Fuego.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 U.S Department of the Interior: "Water and Power resources Service, Project Data." U.S. Government Printing Office, 1981

Coordinates: 39°21′47″N 106°47′05″W / 39.36306°N 106.78472°W / 39.36306; -106.78472

External links

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