Conservation Corner

South Boulder Creek Flood Mitigation and CU-South Annexation

City efforts for flood mitigation on the neighborhoods around Frasier Meadows, as well as the retirement community, would almost certainly have to utilize the property known as CU-South which lies to the west and south of the intersection with Table Mesa and Highway 36 in Boulder. Residents in the Frasier Meadows area were seriously affected by the 2013 flood and are understandably anxious to move forward with flood mitigation as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, the City Utilities Division has made a number of egregious errors in preliminary planning, and CU, the owner of the land, has been more interested in exploiting the situation than in being helpful.

The area was historically exploited for gravel mining. When the gravel mining ended, Boulder’s Open Space and Mountain Parks attempted to purchase it for open space, but CU-Boulder outbid the city and purchased the property. While the mining was ongoing, a berm had been permitted as a temporary structure around the gravel pit. The permit required that the berm be removed at the conclusion of the mining. After purchasing, instead of removing the berm as required, CU-Boulder illegally reinforced it, and was able to get a FEMA mapping that showed it as a “natural feature” — a categorization most looking at the actual terrain cannot possibly arrived at. The end result was quite serious: if you look at the reconstructions of the 2013 flood, the berm keeps the old gravel pit high and dry, and the floodwaters are diverted across US 36, into Frasier Meadows and the surrounding neighborhoods. CU-Boulder’s actions are partially responsible for the flooding that those neighborhoods experienced.

Now CU-Boulder wants the property annexed to the city in order to obtain city utilities in order to construct housing on the site. The impacts on the surrounding neighborhoods: Martin Park, Majestic Heights, and Tantra would be major. However, there has been no outreach to those neighborhoods by either CU-Boulder or the city. Discussion of annexation without neighborhood outreach and without any serious site review would violate all the principles of government the Boulder values.

It is important to recognize that CU-Boulder is a state government entity. It can be bound by provisions in an annexation agreement, but once annexation occurs the City of Boulder would have absolutely no regulatory authority that is not specified in the annexation agreement. Rushing to annexation would be truly foolish.

Boulder County Oil & Gas Regulation

Legislation passed in the last session of the state legislature gave local governments broader authority to regulate oil and gas developments. (Note, however, that the authority is still limited and it does not allow local governments to “ban fracking.”) The Boulder County Commissioners have been carefully working on a new set of regulations that would pass legal muster and would reduce the adverse impacts to the environment and human health.

Proposed Gross Reservoir Expansion

This project by Denver Water would be the largest construction project ever undertaken in Boulder County. It would raise the height of the dam 131 feet to a total of 471 feet and increase the capacity of the reservoir by 77,000 acre-feet. This additional diversion from the Upper Colorado Basin would further stress the already over-allocated Colorado River. Locally, there would be major environmental impacts around the reservoir and Coal Creek Canyon residents would have to deal with unbearable truck traffic for years—using the railroad for most of the construction hauling would be more expensive.

The project was permitted by the Army Corps of Engineers, but not yet by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The Corps permit is being challenged in court by environmental groups.

Boulder County ruled that Denver Water would have to comply with county land use rules and obtain a permit from the county under its so-called 1041 authority (granted by a 1974 state law). Denver Water went to court to challenge this authority, but on December 27 a district court judge upheld the county’s authority. There is no indication yet whether Denver Water will appeal the decision.

The Boulder County Commissioners seem to be on a solid legal footing.

Prairie dog mothers give birth to litters of 1 to 8 babies in April or May. Photo by Rich Keen/DPRA.

Prairie Dog Management on City Open Space & Mountain Parks Agricultural Properties

Black-tailed prairie dogs once occupied a territory hundreds of miles wide, stretching from Mexico to Canada. We have now converted nearly all of that grassland to cropland for wheat, corn, other crops; pastures of European grasses; or paved it over for homes and shopping centers. We also introduced sylvatic plague (bubonic plague in humans), a disease that did not exist in North America and for which prairie dogs are not evolved to deal with.

On both the cities' and county’s open spaces, the best locations for prairie dogs and the many species dependent on them (e.g., burrowing owls, raptors, foxes, coyotes) are the areas we have preserved as native grasslands, though even there, fragmentation results in challenges that sometimes include overpopulation, overgrazing, and other issues. Within Boulder County, the cities and county’s management groups do the best job they can in maintaining viable prairie dog populations in the native grassland parcels they have.

What is more problematic is dealing with prairie dogs on properties that were purchased to preserve local agriculture (one of the designated purposes of both open space programs), particularly irrigated properties. Prairie dogs and irrigated agriculture do not coexist well. The county designates these as no prairie dog areas and uses lethal control to remove the animals by pumping exhaust into the burrows. (The county does not always manage to keep up with the problem, and it is often incomplete.)

The Open Space and Mountain Parks department is currently trying to deal with this problem, particularly in its properties north of Jay Road, where the prairie dog population has exploded, is damaging the soils, and is making some areas economically non-viable for the lessees. At the direction of Boulder City Council, the department is trying to develop a new set of policies. OSMP is soliciting your input. You can learn more on the County website.