{"id":47918,"date":"2021-03-18T12:25:27","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T18:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tumbling-rock-destroys-bridge-to-ouray-ice-park-pipeline-to-power-plant\/"},"modified":"2021-03-18T18:25:27","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T18:25:27","slug":"tumbling-rock-destroys-bridge-to-ouray-ice-park-pipeline-to-power-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tumbling-rock-destroys-bridge-to-ouray-ice-park-pipeline-to-power-plant\/","title":{"rendered":"Tumbling rock destroys bridge to Ouray Ice Park, pipeline to power plant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A boulder destroyed the penstock and bridge inside the Ouray Ice Park. The pipeline supplied water to the country\u2019s oldest, continually operating hydroelectric power plant.<\/span>Eric Jacobson\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Workers arriving early at the Ouray Ice Park on Tuesday found a disaster.<\/p>\n

A boulder the size of a pool table had sheared off the canyon wall and destroyed the metal walkway accessing the park\u2019s popular ice climbs. And it ripped out the penstock that ferries water to the oldest operating hydropower plant in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust water squirting everywhere and the access bridge, laying at the bottom of the canyon,\u201d said Eric Jacobson, who owns the hydroelectric plant and pipeline that runs along the rim of the Uncompahgre River Gorge.<\/p>\n

The rock tore through the penstock, its trestle and the decades-old steel walkway in the park\u2019s popular Schoolroom area late Monday. There was no one in the gorge and no injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are incredibly fortunate it happened at night,\u201d said the park\u2019s executive director Peter O\u2019Neil.<\/p>\n

Ice farmers stopped sculpting routes about a week ago as overnight temperatures climbed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this had happened at the start of the season, we would have lost half the ice park,\u201d O\u2019Neil said, describing how pipes from the destroyed penstock supplied the water to build as much as 70% of the park\u2019s routes. \u201cIf this had happened earlier in the season, we would have been up the creek.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacobson, who has leased 60 acres along the gorge to the City of Ouray for ice climbing for a dollar a year since he bought the property in 1992, has dealt with rock fall for 20 years. But those were smaller rocks and pipe damage was easy to access and fix. Monday night\u2019s rockfall ripped out an entire section of pipe in an area where vehicles cannot reach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is probably the worst spot for replacing pipe in the gorge and certainly the biggest rockfall we\u2019ve had,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"There
There used to be a walkway on top of the penstock inside the Uncompahgre River Gorge so ice climbers could access the southern portion of the Ouray Ice Park. Rockfall destroyed it Monday night.<\/span>Eric Jacobson\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When the overnight temperatures are cold enough in December, January and February, a team of ice farmers use as much as 200,000 gallons of water a night trickling from the penstock to create internationally renowned ice-climbing routes. More than 15,000 climbers flock to Ouray every winter to scale the 150-foot fangs of ice, supporting the city\u2019s winter economy. And Jacobson generates about 4 million kilowatt hours a year from water flowing into his antiquated but updated Ouray Hydroelectric Power Plant. He sells the power to the San Miguel Power Association.<\/p>\n

The plant generates about 5% of the association\u2019s power needs, which has a robust collection of green power sources, including several small hydropower plants and a solar array in Paradox.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ouray hydropower plant, while unfortunate, it\u2019s not going to have a huge impact on our power or profile,\u201d San Miguel Power Association spokesman Alex Shelley said. \u201cWe are really pulling for Eric to get it repaired and we will help in any way we can. None of us wants that plant to fall into disuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ouray Ice Park opened in mid-December and is set to close Sunday.<\/p>\n

In January, thousands watched the 26th annual Ouray Ice Festival online, with the world\u2019s top ice climbers competing in the only ice climbing contest in North America this winter. The online event was supported by the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office, the Colorado Office of Film, Television and Media, the Colorado Lottery, the Colorado Tourism Office and the City of Ouray. The first-of-its-kind collaboration also supported the creation of a half-hour documentary detailing the 2021 event and the history of the park.<\/p>\n

Jacobson is preparing a report for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on the power plant shutdown. And he\u2019s hoping he can work with the nonprofit Ouray Ice Park Inc.board to scrape up funding to rebuild the trestle that accesses the park\u2019s busy Schoolroom.<\/p>\n

\"Owner
Owner and operator Eric Jacobson inside the Ouray Hydroelectric Power Plant with his dog, Cora. The electric plant was built in 1885 and is one of four of the oldest working hydroelectric power plants in the world.<\/span>Nina Riggio\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When his contract with San Miguel Power expires soon, Jacobson will make 2.2 cents for every kilowatt hour of electricity he produces with water-powered turbines that have been delivering power to Ouray since the 1890s. That will provide about $100,000 in gross revenues. It costs more than that to operate, he said, so he\u2019s got little capacity for pricey repairs.<\/p>\n

The main access to that part of the park was on a metal grate atop his penstock. A budget fix likely won\u2019t be as climber-friendly and likely will not have the access bridge and pipes to feed the ice farmers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can figure out a cheap repair but I\u2019m not sure it will be a purpose-built structure like the old one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neil met with the park board on Wednesday night. They have a lot of work ahead, he said.<\/p>\n

A structural engineer is estimating the cost of replacing the penstock, the climber\u2019s walkway and the trestle that supports the steel pipeline, all of which is a mangled mess in the bottom of the gorge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be $1.98,\u201d O\u2019Neil said. \u201cThis is going to be expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the repairs need to happen this summer if the park hopes to open next winter. \u201cOtherwise, literally half the park will not open,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Volunteers, members and industry sponsors keep the Ouray Ice Park afloat. Like public radio, O\u2019Neil said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to have to put a call out to our members,\u201d he said. \u201cThe park is free, but we need your support. Especially this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/em><\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rockfall destruction challenges green-power provider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[233,28,1489,3363],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-47918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-headlines","tag-ouray","tag-ouray-ice-festival"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47918","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=47918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47918"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=47918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}