Running one of the oldest power plants in the country comes with its inherent hassles.

The level of difficulty is elevated when that 131-year-old plant is located in Ouray, where snow measured in feet, not inches, and infrastructure clinging to steep canyon walls limits access and highly acidic runoff from mine-dotted Red Mountain constantly eats away at the old pipes.

But in his 29 years of owning the Ouray Hydroelectric Power Plant, Eric Jacobson has yet to face a challenge as daunting as the on...