Colorado Parks and Wildlife is inviting the public to a pair of open house meetings tomorrow in Salida to discuss its plans to remove a “low-head dam” on the Arkansas River located 1.5 miles upstream from the Mount Shavano State Fish Hatchery.
CPW will host the open houses from 11 am to 1 pm and again from 5 pm to 7 pm tomorrow, to explain plans for dam removal and to solicit public feedback. The meetings will take place in the Scout Hut in Riverside Park.
Removal of the dam—first built in 1956 to collect water for the hatchery downstream and then rebuilt in 1988 with an adjacent boat ramp—will eliminate a deadly threat to the thousands who boat on the Arkansas River each year. Water spilling over the dam churns at the bottom, creating a powerful suction that can capsize and trap boaters and swimmers.
The dam has not been used as a water supply for the fish hatchery since 2000. CPW spent $1.5 million at the hatchery to convert it to clean spring water to raise its fish.
