Whitney Ridge, where Whitney Creek begins. Campaign photograph.
In this evidence
Chapter 01
What Whitney would build
A reservoir is only part of the footprint.
The Homestake Partners, the cities of Aurora and Colorado Springs, have studied four potential Whitney dam alignments. Utility officials said in 2019 that they had found no fatal flaws in the project. Each option would flood the heart of Homestake Valley. Explore them below. While no final configuration had been selected as of July 28, 2026, the threat looms.
The dam holds water over existing habitat. Creek intakes remove water that would otherwise continue downstream. Pumps move it toward storage, and pipes or other water-carrying works move it onward. Roads, power and construction disturb land and access beyond the shoreline. Their combined construction and operating effects belong in one review.
Gold numbered pins: 1 Whitney Creek Trailhead approach; 2 and 3 Lone Rock Fen roadside approaches.
BioBlitz areas of interest 4 · Wetlands above Aurora’s property 5 · Wetlands above the proposed Whitney D dam location
Use Homestake Road and public land; respect private parcels and posted boundaries.
Habitat: CNHP wetlands and fen mapping retrieved September 18 and October 10, 2026. Violet shows confirmed fens; teal shows potential fens; amber shows confirmed peat-accumulating wetlands. Ownership: COMaP land-management inventory, with Eagle County parcel detail at Whitney. Blue dot and ring: your GPS position and reported accuracy when Locate is on.
Red dots locate the 13 drilling sites proposed in the 2019 application.
The wilderness outline reproduces Aurora Water's 2019 combined Whitney and Blodgett boundary-change concept, up to 497 acres. Toggle it in Layers to see them together.
Drag with one finger to move. Pinch to zoom, twist two fingers to rotate, or slide two fingers up and down to tilt. On desktop, drag to move, scroll or right-drag to zoom, and Ctrl-drag, Shift-drag or middle-drag to rotate and tilt. Double-click or double-tap terrain to move closer.
With the map focused, arrow keys move, + and − zoom, Shift + arrows rotate or tilt, N faces north, and Home resets. Reservoir comparisons preserve your view.
On the website, tap the map on a phone to open it full screen; close it to scroll the page again. The companion map is already interactive. Pause 3D releases map gestures.
Sources and context
Mapped habitat and ownership extend through the full valley and upper basins. Confirmed fens and peat-accumulating wetlands follow CNHP’s current inventory classifications, retrieved October 10, 2026. Potential fens combine that inventory with CNHP potential-fen mapping retrieved September 18, 2026. Overlapping areas appear once, and confirmed classifications take precedence. Wetland mapping uses 1983 and 2011 imagery; land-management records have varying dates. Unmapped features may exist. Follow posted boundaries.
Historical reporting places the potential Homestake Road relocation on the wilderness side of the valley; its alignment remained undecided in July 2026.
The model uses USGS terrain and approximate dam locations from the partners’ 2019 map to estimate connected ground that could flood and the water held above it. Changing Pool height recalculates the flooded area and storage. The displayed volume is rounded to the nearest 10 acre-feet; Pool height describes water level, not the percentage of storage filled.
10 m terrain: USGS 3DEP. Satellite / aerial: USDA and USGS The National Map; the sharper Whitney-area texture is 0.6 m source NAIP acquired September 22, 2019. Topo: USGS. Concept map: Aurora Water, 2019 draft. Lakes: USGS GNIS. Existing road, trail and trailhead: USGS / Forest Service mapping.
Whitney D starts at its modeled full pool of 19,970 acre-feet.
Compare Whitney D at modeled full pool with Existing valley, then explore habitat layers and other options. Open the explorer for a full-screen view.
The collection system reaches into other valleys.
Whitney's proposed supply reaches beyond Homestake Creek. The utilities' March 2022 concept describes collection from Fall, Peterson and Resolution creeks through gravity pipelines and tunnels, followed by pumping into existing Homestake Reservoir. The July 2019 concept instead shows an Eagle River intake below Resolution. These dated alternatives leave the final intake locations and routes unresolved.
Our October 8 whole-watershed inventory maps 223.8 acres of emergent and woody wetlands, plus 15.6 acres of ponds, across those three creek basins. This is the mapped resource in the source landscapes; the acreage affected by a selected diversion depends on its location, operation and water connections.
Water removal can change habitat along each donor creek and farther down the Eagle. Roads, tunnels, excavation and power add disturbance beyond the lake. A creek's wild character and ecological value extend beyond formal Wilderness boundaries. Fall Creek's willow and sedge wetlands have a documented conservation history, including a Colorado Natural Heritage Program warning about diversion impacts.
The existing system already exports a substantial share of the water measured here.
Save Homestake opposes Whitney Reservoir and any new or expanded interbasin diversion from Homestake Valley. Today’s Homestake system collects water from five tributaries, stores it in Homestake Reservoir and sends it through a tunnel across the Continental Divide to Aurora and Colorado Springs. The existing diversion is already a major compromise. Protecting what remains is a reasonable place to draw the line.
Gold Park is the stream gauge on Homestake Creek below the existing reservoir and five collectors. It measures water continuing down the creek, while tunnel water leaves the watershed for the Front Range.
On average, 8.7% more water was exported to the Front Range than flowed past Gold Park.
Water years 2007–2024. On average, about 23,400 acre-feet per year was exported through Homestake Tunnel to the Front Range. Less water from the same upper Homestake watershed remained flowing down Homestake Creek: about 21,500 acre-feet per year, measured at the Gold Park gauge.
Of the combined recorded tunnel exports and creek flow at Gold Park, 52.09% was exported and 47.91% continued downstream. Water years 2007–2024.
Most recorded collection happens during spring runoff.
About 88% of recorded capture at five existing collectors occurred in May and June during water years 2014–2024. That measured timing overlaps the season when runoff can connect channels and wet ground.
Flooding and additional water removal would affect different parts of one living system.
Established wetlands with a documented healthy baseline.
Homestake Creek winds through fens, ponds, wet meadows, willow and forest edges below the Holy Cross Wilderness. Fens are among the rarest ecosystems in the Rocky Mountains. These groundwater-fed wetlands have peat soils that form over thousands of years. Together, these habitats offer wildlife food, shelter and routes through the valley.
Homestake has field-confirmed fens with a documented healthy baseline. CNHP’s 2011 surveys near Gold Park recorded two groundwater-fed fens with deep saturated peat, established wetland vegetation and no disturbance. Explore the confirmed fen record.
Water connects them differently through spring runoff, summer low flows and drought. People come here to fish, camp, learn and return to places woven into their lives. These are the water and habitats Whitney would change forever.
Aurora and Colorado Springs have studied four possible dam alignments, labeled A–D. Each creates a different reservoir footprint. These maps compare them at their modeled full water level, or full pool.
Every modeled Whitney option puts the same 81.4 mapped acres underwater at full pool.
These are mapped wetlands and areas classified “Potential Fen” in the source inventory, shared by all four full-pool options. Total modeled overlap ranges from 85.4 to 134.8 acres.
The shared core is the same ground in every option. Each option also covers additional ground. Homestake’s fens and connected wetlands form a living network across the valley. Potential fens are mapped areas awaiting confirmation of their fen classification.
Whitney D shown at modeled full pool: 81.4 shared acres + 53.4 additional acres = 134.8 acres of mapped wetlands and potential fens. The same shared ground is included in every option; additional ground changes with each waterline. Colorado Natural Heritage Program inventory snapshot, September 18, 2026, and USGS mapping.
Every option starts with the same 81.4 acres
Whitney B
+ 4.0 = 85.4 acres
Whitney C
+ 13.5 = 94.9 acres
Whitney A
+ 46.0 = 127.4 acres
Whitney D
+ 53.4 = 134.8 acres
Taking additional water from Homestake Creek reduces downstream flow and the water available to wetlands connected to it.
The connected wetland landscape
Follow the water across the valley.
Homestake Creek feeds a branching landscape of wetlands, side channels and beaver ponds through Whitney, Blodgett and Hornsilver to the Eagle River near Red Cliff. Beaver dams spread water across the valley floor, while creek levels help sustain the shallow groundwater beneath adjoining wetlands.
Green shows linked wetland complexes, amber marks unresolved valley connections and pale shading retains other mapped wetlands. Hatching identifies mapped potential fens. Open full-size map · Sources and methods
Reduced flow reaches beyond the channel banks. It can reduce pond and side-channel replenishment and lower adjoining water tables. Even where springs or seasonal creeks contribute water, lower creek levels can draw groundwater out of connected wetlands faster.
Across the Whitney-to-Eagle assessment, 36 linked complexes contain 362.1 acres of mapped wetland and potential-fen habitat. All downstream wetland ecosystems connected to Homestake Creek would ultimately be impacted to varying degrees by additional removal of water from Homestake Valley. The timing and severity of drying depend on changes in streamflow, pond levels and groundwater.
Spring runoff connects channels and wet ground. As summer water falls, lasting ponds, cold streams and sheltered routes become refuges. Severe drying can remove those options.
Reduced flows and destroyed wetlands or streamside vegetation can remove food, shelter and breeding places across the ecosystem. The damage can also cascade: harming a species that helps sustain habitat can affect many others.
Beavers are a keystone species because their dams can hold and spread water, sustaining ponds and wet ground. Reduced flows or lost vegetation can limit their food, shelter and dam maintenance. Less beaver activity can then weaken water retention in connected ponds and soils, further reducing breeding habitat, food and refuges for amphibians, aquatic insects, waterbirds and other wildlife.
Groundwater-fed fens have distinct water needs; flooding and disruption of their groundwater supply can damage them directly. These direct impacts and reinforcing losses threaten different parts of the same living valley.
Whitney would add a second reservoir and more water collection to a watershed already altered by Homestake Reservoir. Flooding would remove living wetlands, add reservoir-related carbon and water-quality risks, and place more pressure on remaining habitat through storage and additional exports. Understand the combined ecological cost.
Breeding water, food and connected habitat have to last through the seasons.
Observations, field surveys and photographs document the animals using Homestake. Their habitat depends on water, shelter and passage through the valley across seasons.
Young frogs and toads need their breeding ponds to stay wet long enough to reach metamorphosis. Fish need connected habitat and food carried by the current. A spring full of water can still give way to a difficult late summer.
CNHP documented boreal-toad breeding and Colorado River cutthroat trout in upper Homestake tributaries in 2000. These historical records put breeding pools and cold-water streams in the valley’s conservation story.
The reservoir scenarios push the easiest modeled down-valley route onto the valley sides. With the same endpoints, the route climbs about 191-192 metres in total, compared with 73 metres under current conditions.
Current terrain: the modeled route climbs about 73 metres in total.Whitney D at modeled full pool: the route climbs about 191 metres in total.
The terrain model tests 200 possible paths between the same endpoints. Flooding reduces the choice of relatively easy routes and pushes the easiest route onto the valley sides. Routes remain connected through steeper or more difficult terrain.
A BioBlitz is a community effort to find and record the life of a place. Eagle River Coalition and Wilderness Workshop lead Homestake’s ongoing record of plants, insects, birds, mammals, frogs and toads. Observations across seasons make the habitat at stake visible to the public and decision makers.
The valley carries public access, livelihoods and living relationships.
“The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us.”
John Muir
Homestake Valley has a way of connecting people, growing memories, and healing something intangible.
A child’s first night under the stars becomes the beginning of an annual tradition. A moose and her calf appear on the drive in. A crisp fall morning is spent alone among the changing aspens.
These moments become part of the place, and part of us. It’s why Homestake keeps calling us back, year after year.
The river carries that connection downstream.
Homestake Creek flows to the Eagle near Red Cliff and then to the Colorado. Healthy habitat, fishable water and usable access sustain family visits and the guides, shops and lodging businesses of Red Cliff, Minturn and downstream communities.
The Southern Ute Indian Tribe describes seasonal journeys to nearby Pando Valley and enduring ties along the Eagle River. Nearby Camp Hale also preserves the 10th Mountain Division’s mountain-training history. Protecting this wider landscape, including Holy Cross Wilderness, keeps the places that carry living relationships, memories and choices for future generations. Explore the cultural history and sources.
In 2019, Whitney planning included relocation of portions of Homestake Road and a request to Congress to redraw the Holy Cross Wilderness boundary. The draft boundary-change concept covered up to 497 acres across the Whitney and Blodgett concepts. These are public-land choices with lasting consequences for access, recreation and the landscape.
Save Homestake opposes any change to the Holy Cross Wilderness boundary.
Permanent damage would buy a water supply exposed to drought and competing demands.
Chapter 07
The cities have choices
Conservation, reuse and lasting demand reduction must lead the cities’ water plans instead of Whitney.
The planning choice
Conserve water. Protect Homestake.
Aurora’s proposed water-saving landscape changes are a welcome step.October 14, 2026 reporting describes a proposal to require all trees in industrial developments to be low-water, up from 75 percent, and make curbside shrubs and ornamental grasses optional. Council supported advancing the proposal to a future vote.
Aurora and Colorado Springs have already reduced demand through conservation and expanded reuse. Aurora reports reductions in water use; Colorado Springs reports lower use per person. That progress deserves recognition and a stronger commitment to reducing demand.
This is the direction the cities must pursue instead of Whitney Reservoir: lasting conservation, reuse, system efficiency and enforceable limits on demand. Aurora should adopt and build on these water-saving measures. The cities must plan within the water available, protect Homestake’s connected wetlands and keep more water in Western Slope rivers.
Water rights and agreements do not replace the approvals the project needs.
The decision ahead
Whitney must meet the County’s standards.
A water right gives a right to use water under its terms; construction still requires independent approvals. Eagle County’s land-use and 1041 standards govern the resources a future project would affect. Deny Whitney if the applicable standards cannot be met.
Today’s County code-revision proceeding concerns the rules for review. A future Whitney application would be a separate project decision. See the current action context.
The valley has been defended before
Homestake II had water rights. The project was still stopped.
Homestake II was an earlier proposal to expand diversions into the existing Homestake system. Eagle County denied its permit in 1988, and that denial survived years of court challenges. The valley was protected through local standards, documented impacts and sustained public opposition. That history gives today’s Whitney fight a practical precedent: water rights did not override the County’s protections.
The specific approval fight becomes finalFinal review
Test drilling authorized; Whitney remains unapprovedInvestigation
Whitney plans remain active; no construction approvalCurrent record
The complete consequences belong in County review.
Approval standards are requirements a project must satisfy to receive a permit. The October 27 package addresses the flow and groundwater that sustain Homestake’s wetlands and the downstream habitat that depends on them. Its effective date turns on a separate enacting resolution. The watershed bears the loss of another diversion even if a city can demonstrate demand. Save Homestake seeks denial wherever significant degradation would remain under an applicable standard after enforceable conditions.
A right to take water does not settle whether that water should be taken.
Homestake Creek is already working on a deficit. Existing diversions have reduced the water available to sustain its wetlands, wildlife and downstream communities. An undeveloped entitlement does not make that water surplus. When water is exported across the Continental Divide without return, 100 percent of that exported volume is consumed from its flows of origin, however often it is reused elsewhere.
Future growth should not carry automatic moral priority over existing life, downstream communities and future generations. It is time to draw the line and protect what remains.
