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White Water Ambitions Presented on a Smaller Scale |
Bill Hudson | 12/19/08
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The Town of Pagosa Springs’ ill-fated white water feature, the Davey Wave, was built in 2005 and has served as a focal point over the past three years — a focal point of tourist and local water sports activities, and a focal point of controversy.
Earlier this year, the Army Corps of Engineers ordered the Town to have the feature removed by December 31 this year, due mainly to erosion and flood level problems it has caused. It appears the Town is going to miss that deadline, but the hydrology firm hired to oversee the project hopes the ACOE will be satisfied, if not with the Wave’s actual removal, at least with a plan to re-engineer the feature in March, 2009.
 Meanwhile, the Town Council, so far has been satisfied to continue working on the river enhancements without conducting any public workshops to find out what the residents of the community want. That public participation aspect of the project looks like it may change as well — but apparently not until after much of the additional planning and design work has already been completed.
As presented at yesterday’s Town Council meeting by hydrologist Chris Philips of Riverbend Engineering, the once extensive white water park plans, which originally extended from the Hot Springs Boulevard Bridge to the Apache Street almost a mile downstream, have been extensively modified and now include only three white water features: a modified Davey Wave in its original location, plus two U-drop features upstream in the Town Park area of the San Juan River.
The original plans, drawn by Recreational Engineering and Planning (REP), included a dozen new white water or fishing mitigation features on a downtown stretch of the San Juan which had already been “restored” with numerous fishing enhancement structures in 1995. The REP design called for those grant-funded fishing structures to be removed and replaced with kayak-oriented features similar to the Davey Wave. The Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) had demanded that the removed fishing enhancements must be mitigated by installing new fishing structures somewhere downstream.
The REP designs were intended for a stretch of the river owned by the Springs Resort, but the owners of the Resort — the Whittington family — became disenchanted with the idea of a white water park in front of their resort, and were additionally displeased by the erosion and flood stage problems created by REP’s Davey Wave design. The Whittington’s have indicated that the Resort is not willing to give the easements necessary to allow the REP design to be built.
Davey Pitcher, president of nearby Wolf Creek Ski Area, had donated the labor and equipment for the creation of the Davey Wave in 2005 — hence the feature’s name — and has also continued to express his willingness to fund the work on any future white water enhancements and fishing mitigation. That means the costs to the Town will be limited to the engineering work and the cost of the boulders and any necessary concrete.
The Town has already spent over $90,000 on the REP designs, which have now proved basically worthless due to the lack of easements. The Town has budgeted additional funds to pay for new engineering work from Riverbend Engineering.
Philips and his assistant Chris Pitcher showed the Council some Powerpoint slides of the new proposed design — in a rough draft form — showing a modified Davey Wave and two new U-drop structures. The Davey Wave currently extends completely across the San Juan River and is fastened on the west side near Tequila’s Restaurant and on the east side attached to the corner of the Springs Resort property. In its new iteration it is shown as three smaller U-drops, attached in the same place on the west side, but then making a tall “S” shape and fastened on the east side near the Chamber Visitor’s Center.
Philips explained that completely removing the Davey Wave would entail rebuilding the entire west bank of the river, which was hardened with stacked rocks during the 2005 construction. Philips said he hoped a modified Davey Wave would satisfy both the ACOE and the Springs Resort.
The two new U-drop structures would be located between the Town Park’s existing W-weir fishing structure, built in 1995, and the Hot Springs Boulevard bridge. Philips said that, due to the height of the bedrock in the river, the new white water structures may require breaking out sections of the bedrock. The completion of the project will apparently have to await some public participation, however.
"These two new structures can be accomplished as an amendment to the permit that you have now," Philips promised, "provided they meet all state requirements — which they will — but there is a public notification process that must take place. Plus, we have made a commitment — this Council has made a commitment — that the planning process will be more open, more transparent. We have to schedule at least one public involvement meeting to get citizens' input. That's going to take some time as well."
Philips envisioned completion of the three-phase project by next fall.
“Have you come up with anything that indicates there might be more costs involved in this than what we thought might be involved?” asked Councilor Jerry Jackson.
“The short answer to that is, No,” replied Philips. “We haven’t identified any additional costs. We’ve identified additional challenges. But since the construction work is being generously donated by the [Wolf Creek] Ski Area, that’s not a cost increase to the Town at this point. Unless the Town has a big, rock breaker hammer — that is something that will have to be rented.”
Councilor Mark Weiler picked up on the use of the word “challenges.”
“Every time I have had a professional tell me ‘This is going to be challenging,’ I’ve found the costs increase by a multiple of two. It’s my recommendation to Council that, if that does indeed occur, then we bail on this.”
“I think we can meet those challenges without any additional engineering costs,” Philips responded. “If the Ski Area is willing to undertake this challenge — which they’ve indicated they are — that would not be a direct economic impact to the Town since they are volunteering their services.”
Councilor Stan Holt asked if the stash of boulders already stockpiled by the Town would be sufficient for the new designs Philips is envisioning.
“We have more than enough rock to accomplish the designs you have been shown today,” Philips assured the Council.
At the end of the discussion, developer Bob Hart stepped up to the microphone with an offer to make the project even more affordable.
“I know Davey Pitcher has already done quite a bit of work [on the project] and has volunteered to do more — but should it prove to me more than he wants to do or if he wants any assistance to get it done quicker, Hart Construction will volunteer their services at no charge also.”
The Council expressed its thanks for the generous offer.
“Do you have a concrete breaker attachment for an excavator?” asked Philips. |
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