New Approaches For Protecting The Water-Dependent Natural Environment In Boulder Valley
Doherty, Todd 1
1 City of Boulder
Boulder Valley?s natural environment that is an asset critically important to the community for its intrinsic ecological values as well as for the recreational opportunities provided through activities such as wildlife viewing, hiking, fishing and boating. Through the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan (BVCP) and other planning documents, wetlands, riparian habitat and instream flows are all critical components to a healthy environment. The discussion will focus on two initiatives that relate to improving Boulder Valley? water dependent natural environment.
The first initiative involves the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) proposal to develop strategies for using its water rights portfolio to enhance the multiple values held by its citizens, including agriculture and the environment. OSMP owns approximately 12,000 acre-feet of water rights which are almost entirely all irrigation water rights. While many incidental environmental benefits accrue to the environment such as wetlands, wildlife habitat and maintenance of base stream flows through lagged return flows, many of these incidental benefits may not have the same legal protections afforded to a decreed water right. Realizing this, OSMP applied and received a Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) grant to compile existing environmental information on its watershed, identify streams and riparian areas with existing protections, ones lacking such protections, and then evaluate OSMP?s water rights and physical structures to identify potential opportunities to repurpose some of its water rights to improve its watershed?s health while meeting other citizen-held values.
The second initiative relates to Denver Water?s Moffat Firming Project (Project) and its associated enlargement of the Gross Reservoir dam. The City of Boulder is a party to an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with Denver Water (City and County of Denver) and Lafayette. The IGA specifies that if and when the Project is permitted, the City of Boulder and the City of Lafayette will acquire 5,000 acre-feet of storage for a permanent, year-round environmental pool that can be released to augment stream flows in South Boulder Creek and thus provide significant ecological and environmental benefits to the creek and surrounding habitat.