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The environment desk at Aspen Public Radio covers issues in the Roaring Fork Valley and throughout the state of Colorado including water use and quality, impact of recreation, population growth and oil and gas development. APR’s Environment Reporter is Elizabeth Stewart-Severy.

Airport expansion would damage wetlands, according to assessment

Courtesy of Pitkin County

The Pitkin County Board of Commissioners heard an update Tuesday about the potential environmental impacts from a proposed expansion at the airport.

 

Airport director John Kinney and consultant RykDunkelberg presented findings from an FAA-funded and required environmental assessment on two proposed projects, a new terminal building and a relocated runway.

The runway would be moved 80 feet to the west to accommodate larger aircraft, and that would mean damage to wetlands near Owl Creek Road. Mitigation efforts would be coordinated with the Army Corps of Engineers.

The assessment also considered air and water quality, wildlife, noise and more. These all fell within the federal thresholds for environmental impacts.

The draft document will be released for public review within a week and there will be public hearings in Aspen and Snowmass next month.

Aspen native Elizabeth Stewart-Severy is excited to be making a return to both the Red Brick, where she attended kindergarten, and the field of journalism. She has spent her entire life playing in the mountains and rivers around Aspen, and is thrilled to be reporting about all things environmental in this special place. She attended the University of Colorado with a Boettcher Scholarship, and graduated as the top student from the School of Journalism in 2006. Her lifelong love of hockey lead to a stint working for the Colorado Avalanche, and she still plays in local leagues and coaches the Aspen Junior Hockey U-19 girls.
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