Save HomestakeStop Whitney Reservoir

Stop Whitney.Save Homestake.

A 2-minute overview

Whitney is a proposed new reservoir and diversion project in Homestake Valley near Vail, Colorado, pursued by Aurora and Colorado Springs. Every modeled reservoir option would cause irreversible damage to the wetlands pictured above and the entire Homestake Valley.

We are working to stop Whitney and protect Homestake Creek, its wetlands, wildlife and public lands for generations to come.

A living valley
worth protecting

Here, water winds through willow, beaver ponds, wet meadows and forest. Moose raise their calves. Birds feed along the creek. Beneath some wetlands lie deep peat soils built over thousands of years.

These groundwater-fed wetlands, called fens, hold an extraordinary living history. Their survival depends on the water that sustains them.

Homestake also holds our stories: a child’s first camping trip, a quiet morning fishing, the familiar bend where the mountains come into view. Protecting it preserves those possibilities for the people who follow us.

Borus, a bull moose, approaches a remote camera with his broad antlers framed by Homestake Valley forest.

Homestake
already gives
enough

Water already leaving Homestake

Exported to the Front Range

Continued down Homestake Creek past Gold Park

Share of the two measured water routes · Water years 2007–2024

About these figures

Damage that extends beyond the shoreline

Every modeled option would flood existing wetlands. Building the project’s roads, power supply and pumping infrastructure would disturb additional land beyond the reservoir’s shoreline.

Taking more water would also leave less flowing downstream, putting connected wetlands, side channels and the life that depends on them under greater pressure.

A new water surface cannot preserve the living valley beneath it.

Homestake Valley
Snow-dusted Whitney Ridge above forest at the headwaters of Whitney Creek
Homestake Valley

Loading Whitney D…

Reservoir

We can choose to protect what remains

A right to take water does not settle whether that water should be taken.

Conservation, reuse and living within water limits deserve priority over permanently flooding another Western Slope valley.

Homestake has been defended before. Eagle County’s rejection of the earlier Homestake II proposal survived years of legal challenges. Public opposition and a strong evidence record helped protect the valley.

Help keep Homestake whole

Learn what is at stake. Share the evidence. Speak up for the creek, the wildlife and the places that cannot speak for themselves.

What we protect now is what our children inherit.

Take action Explore the evidence

What Whitney would build

Aurora and Colorado Springs are pursuing a new reservoir on lower Homestake Creek. Four possible dam alignments, A through D, have been studied. Each modeled reservoir would flood existing valley habitat.

The project extends beyond its shoreline. The utilities describe collecting additional creek water and pumping water uphill to existing Homestake Reservoir. Pipes, roads, power and construction would add to the physical disturbance.

From the utilities’ project description and the four modeled reservoir options.

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Habitat that carries life

Homestake’s creek, wetlands, ponds and forest edges provide food, shelter, breeding water and routes through the valley. Local photographs and observations document wildlife using this connected landscape across seasons.

Beaver ponds and willow support different needs: breeding water for amphibians, habitat for birds, food for aquatic life and forage for moose. Flooding habitat or reducing its water supply affects the living connections between them.

From local wildlife records and the wetland food-web evidence.

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Wetlands thousands of years in the making

A fen is a groundwater-fed wetland with peat soil formed from slowly accumulating plant material. Waterlogged conditions slow decay, allowing these soils to build over thousands of years.

Homestake has field-confirmed fens. Colorado Natural Heritage Program surveys near Gold Park in 2011 recorded deep, saturated peat, established wetland plants and no disturbance. Protecting that water and soil preserves an ecosystem that cannot simply be recreated somewhere else.

From the Colorado Natural Heritage Program’s 2011 fen records and published fen science.

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Water already leaving Homestake

Homestake Tunnel exports water to the Front Range. The Gold Park gauge measures creek flow below the existing reservoir and five tributary collectors.

The bar compares these two measured routes over water years 2007–2024. More water was recorded leaving through the tunnel than continuing down the creek.

Matched tunnel-export and stream-gauge records.

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The same living ground beneath every option

All four modeled reservoir options cover the same 81.4 acres of mapped wetlands and potential-fen habitat at full pool. Each option covers additional ground, bringing its total overlap to between 85.4 and 134.8 acres. “Potential Fen” is the source inventory’s mapped classification.

The consequences extend beyond flooded land. Taking additional water from Homestake Creek reduces downstream flow and the water available to connected wetlands, side channels and ponds.

From the four-option wetland overlap analysis and connected-wetland assessment.

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The cities have choices

Both cities already use conservation and reuse. Conservation reduces water demand; reuse allows suitable water to serve another purpose. Their documented progress shows that these approaches can reduce the amount of new supply they seek.

Save Homestake calls for giving water savings, reuse and living within water limits priority over permanently flooding another Western Slope valley. The choice is also about how much demand to create and what places to preserve.

From Aurora and Colorado Springs conservation and reuse records, followed by Save Homestake’s position.

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Homestake has been defended before

Eagle County denied the earlier Homestake II proposal in 1988. The Colorado Court of Appeals reinstated the County’s denial in 1994, and further review was denied in 1995. That selected project was never built.

Water rights did not override the County’s protections. That history shows why public participation and a strong evidence record matter. Whitney faces its own approval process, and the valley deserves to be defended again.

From the Homestake II court record and campaign history.

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