BOULDER’S WATERWORKS

costs would rise to $999,000. Hartman told the Council that he might have to charge a
two-cent-per-1,000-gallon surcharge in order to pay for the more expensive route.
City Council members realized that few citizens would stand for pipes running through
Enchanted Mesa, even underground. Council member George Boland spoke of previous
“scars” nearby. To avoid going through the greenbelt, the two-cent surcharge was adopted.
Council member Greg Lefferdink dubbed it an “environmental surcharge.” After peace had
returned to civic matters, at least for a time, Hartman found out that the pipeline estimates
were high, and he did not have to charge extra after all.
Protecting Boulder Creek Streamflow and the 1988 Raw Water Master Plan
When Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. published his beautification plan for Boulder, in 1910, he
envisioned a park running the length of Boulder Creek through the City. With the creation
of the Greenways Plan in 1984, this vision was finally on its way to being realized. Unfortunately,
as pathways and parks were built along the banks of Boulder Creek, the lack of any
significant flowing water in the creek during most months of the year became apparent.
Irrigation diversion structures, such as the huge Boulder and White Rocks Ditch head gate,
located in Central Park at Broadway, pulled most of the water out of the creek during the
mid-and-late summer months. The City’s diversions far upstream pulled off much of the
water in the winter months.
In 1973, Senate Bill 97 had given the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) the legal
right to acquire water to be used for stream flows to preserve the natural environment
and to own water rights that are specifically decreed for instream flow use. Water that is
left in a stream under a decreed instream flow right can’t be taken by other downstream
water users. The CWCB made one of its first filings for an instream flow water on Boulder
Creek and was granted a 1973 year-round right for 15 cfs for flow in the creek. Unfortunately,
a 1973 water right on a creek with rights dating back to 1859 is a very junior right.
All that this water right could do was prevent the Boulder Creek instream flow situation
from getting worse under new water rights filings. Fortunately, however, the CWCB was
also given the right to acquire senior water rights for instream flow through donations or
purchase. The CWCB began discussions with the City on what more could be done to provide
streamflow on Boulder Creek. Some temporary water trades were done with irrigation
ditch companies until more permanent solutions could be found.
At this time, the City had an increasing number of questions about the adequacy of its
water rights portfolio. How far toward meeting impending water demands had all of the
efforts at increasing Boulder’s water supply gone? How much more water was needed to
secure Boulder’s future? The City hired Lee Rozaklis through WBLA (later Hydrosphere,
then AMEC) as a consultant to do a Raw Water Master Plan and received some surprising
answers. All the while that the City had been striving to meet water demands based on the
worst case population projections, Boulder had been taking growth control measures and
buying open space to make sure that the worse case didn’t happen.
Somewhere along the way, the amount of water acquired by the City had surpassed the
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