DENVER -- Twenty million dollars. That's how much Denver Water estimates it will cost to remove sediment from Strontia Springs Reservoir. The sediment washed into the lake after the Buffalo Creek and Hayman fires.

"One might expect that the problem is getting better since it has been 11 years since the Buffalo Creek fire and five years since the Hayman fire," said Brian Good, the utility's Director of Operations and Maintenance, "but it's actually getting worse."

He said it's getting worse because the South Platte River basin is getting more rain. That rain is washing more sediment and debris into the streams that feed Strontia and Cheesman Reservoirs.

"During the drought there was very little runoff," Good said.

It's not just Strontia Springs that Denver Water is worried about. There is growing concern about the fire danger on the other side of the Continental Divide near giant Dillon Reservoir.

"We're very concerned," Good said.

The concern is elevated because of the pine beetle infestation that has killed numerous trees in Summit County, many of them around the lake itself.

"I've seen the watershed from the air recently. There are tens of thousands of acres that are dead standing timber right now. At this point you've got to pray for rain, snow and no lightning."

A major fire near Dillon Reservoir would degrade water quality and hurt business at the marina.

"I think sediment affects fish gills and their ability to translate oxygen out of the water into their systems," said Lake Dillon Marina Manager Bob Evans.

The once solid green canopy of pine trees around the lake is now turning reddish brown.

One nearby resident told 7NEWS, "I'd like to see colder winters, wetter winters and in about five years, I think we'd be in pretty good shape."

He's keeping his fingers crossed.