After two decades of pushing paper, Jeff Drager says he is finally getting down to some serious engineering work on the coming 350-ft-high Chimney Hollow Dam and its accompanying 90,000-acre-ft reservoir in Northern Colorado.
Not that the administrative tasks have been trivial. Begun in 2003, Chimney Hollow’s complex permitting process created consensus on issues ranging from local land uses to stream flows for fish and other wildlife. In the end, the $650-million project—of which nearly $500 million will go toward building the dam—is expected to help meet the region’s population growth while maintaining a reliable water supply for many of Eastern Colorado’s farmers and ranchers.