The climate is always changing, whether the current shift in climate is man-made, man-influenced or purely natural, our infrastructure, economy and society as a whole are not ready for those changes when we consider the impacts on the current way of life.
Aspen, Colorado is a small town with an outsized economic impact, a roughly $2 billion per year GDP that employees almost 13,700 people directly in the local tourist industry, with an even greater number employed in the adjacent industries that provide equipment, food and beverage, maintenance, basic services, housing, etc throughout Pitkin County and beyond. Add to that, the invested capital in their primary and vacation homes by full time residents as well as some of the world’s richest people. Thus, the 2025 Stage 2 drought experienced by Aspen does not just have local impact but certainly a regional impact and beyond. This proposal introduces a practice for Aspen to maintain sufficient water supply to meet the needs of its industries and residents to maintain a healthy regional economy and address water rights issues for parties that Aspen shares the water resources of the Roaring Fork Valley with. Storing water in aquifers is not a new idea, but now it is a necessary one for resiliency. Las Vegas, Nevada has actually spearheaded this concept by storing excess treated waste water in a series of aquifers along the Nevada and Arizona border that is intended to last 8 years should the unthinkable happen to Lake Mead. Enabling the practice proposed in this document is intended to provide resiliency to Aspen, Colorado as seasonal precipitation increases its variation and unpredictability.
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