The challenges are already plenty for the Ouray Hydroelectric Power Plant and Ouray Ice Park.

For the plant, it’s operating a 131-year-old facility in treacherous terrain and with acidic runoff eating away at old pipes.

For the park, it’s pulling together enough funding to sustain a nonprofit operation while navigating climate change and the uncertainty of a once-a-century pandemic.

In 2021, the two entities who share infrastructure in the Uncompahgre River Gorge were thrown another curveball i...