Phase 0

Just want to make sure everyone is clear that the Bald Eagles are NOT causing  any delay in the project as a whole.  Work is being done on the section from Lake Nighthorse to CR 210 and will continue.  The Eagles only affect a short section near Lake Durango and it can be dealt with having no real effect on Phase 0.

Winter weather has slowed the work on the Raw Water Construction Project but clear skies and warmer weather are drying up the mud and work resumed on the 210 pipeline at the end of Feb.  Work will soon begin on the 125 pipeline which means the public will see even more activity that visible now.  The Raw Water Construction Project is on schedule and should be completed in the fall of 2017.

Pictures below show work on 8″ pipe near Lake Durango.  ONLY this part of the project has been stopped due to 1 Male and 2 Female Bald Eagles occupying a nest that had been abandoned for the last couple years.  Construction can’t occur within  1/2 mile radius of the nest.  We may not get back to work in this area until after the nest is vacated by the eaglets if in fact there are eaglets.  The following is a quote from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding the disturbance of bald eagles.

“Disturb” means: “to agitate or bother a bald or golden eagle to a degree that causes, or is likely to cause, based on the best scientific information available, 1) injury to an eagle, 2) a decrease in its productivity, by substantially interfering with normal breeding, feeding, or sheltering behavior, or 3) nest abandonment, by substantially interfering with normal breeding, feeding, or sheltering behavior.”

Eagles shown are not the actual eagles but were taken at Pastorous Lake by Dan Bender just a few days ago.