{"id":18411,"date":"2025-08-01T17:42:56","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T23:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/102-year-old-flume-collapses-near-cascade-creek\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:04:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:04:36","slug":"102-year-old-flume-collapses-near-cascade-creek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/102-year-old-flume-collapses-near-cascade-creek\/","title":{"rendered":"102-year-old flume collapses near Cascade Creek"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A flume collapsed near Cascade Creek in early June, causing terrain damage and threatening power line structures. (Courtesy of San Juan National Forest Facebook page, June 13).<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A 102-year-old wooden flume near Cascade Creek collapsed in June, causing a landslide, terrain and tree damage and forest closures.<\/p>\n

Cleanup efforts by work crews were reportedly underway as of late June.<\/p>\n

The flume, one of only two wooden flumes still being used for hydroelectric uses, follows a path between Durango and Silverton north of Purgatory Resort and west of Cascade Curve on U.S. Highway 550.<\/p>\n

Water that escaped the damaged flume reportedly caused terrain erosion, which in turn caused even more of the supportive structure of the flume to collapse after the initial damage. Nearby power line support structures were reportedly also threatened by the flume damage.<\/p>\n

A report on the official cause of the damage had not been completed by Xcel as of late July.<\/p>\n

\"Water
Water from a collapsed flume near Cascade Creek in early June caused terrain damage and threatened power line structures. (Courtesy of San Juan National Forest Facebook page, June 13).<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A closure notice<\/a> for a 51-acre section of national forest near the flume was released by the San Juan office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Forest Service on June 13.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe recent failure of the flume resulted in infrastructure damage and a landslide that has destabilized the Described Area,\u201d the release said. \u201cConcerns for public safety include loose debris, continuing flume degradation, falling trees, and any potential impacts or failures to or from the adjacent LPEA power transmission line.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the release, the area closure will remain in effect until November 2026, unless rescinded sooner.<\/p>\n

\"A
A 51-acre closure has been in effect since July 13, surrounding the site of the broken flume. (Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture\/U.S. Forest Service).<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

La Plata County Electric Association Strategic Communications Officer Amanda Anderson said that while LPEA\u2019s involvement with the flume is limited to owning the transmission assets that deliver power to Xcel\u2019s facilities, LPEA has experienced some negative effects from the damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith that facility currently out of commission, we are unable to transmit power through it, which results in lost revenue,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Electra Lake water reserves have prevented the disruption of power delivery to nearby homes as of late July, but water flow to private properties below the Cascade Creek flume damage site could reportedly be impacted by the presence of debris.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re always working on the flume,\u201d said Carolyn Strong, a resident on Spruce Mesa Drive, which overlooks Electra Lake. \u201cThere\u2019s always something going on over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strong said she has not noticed an impact to Electra Lake water levels or power supply to her home as of late July.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy understanding is that the flume needs to be fully replaced now in order to get water pumping back to Electra Lake,\u201d said Benedict Stoddard, a resident on Electra North Road.<\/p>\n

The water path associated with the broken flume also works to generate hydroelectric power at the Tacoma Generating Station along the Animas River, after exiting Electra Lake.<\/p>\n

Purgatory Resort, which leases water from Xcel for snowmaking purposes, said in a summer email news release that as of June 18, Xcel was \u201cworking closely with the USFS and FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) to repair the flume and restore water flow to Electra Lake as soon as possible\u201d and that the over 100-year-old flume had \u201cmet the end of its useful life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wooden flume \u2013 which is eligible, along with the pipeline, for a spot on the National Register of Historic Places, according to the U.S. Forest Service \u2013 has experienced other instances of leakage and damage over its long operational history; but none as detrimental as the June breakage.<\/p>\n

Xcel Energy was unable to be reached for comment Friday.<\/p>\n

epond@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Terrain and tree damage, landslide, forest closures reported<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-18411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20574,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18411\/revisions\/20574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18411"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=18411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}