After decades of planning and four years of work, construction at the Chimney Hollow Reservoir, just west of Loveland, is now on pause. That’s after Northern Water, the operator of the project, discovered uranium in the granite used to build the dam.

“We determined that the source of the uranium was the granite rock at the site, which had been quarried to provide material to build the (dam) embankment,” she said. “Meaning the embankment is now filled with these granite rocks that contain uranium.”