BOULDER’S WATERWORKS

More documents

Recommendations

Info

ly Camera) featured Carlson in a cartoon and also praised the members of the City’s water department in an accompanying article. “Cartoonist Charlie Smith, storekeeper for the City of Boulder, has caught members of the water department in characteristic poses. Attempting to get the women to listen to him is Carl G. Carlson, superintendent, who ordinarily has no trouble in handling the gentler sex. Below Carlson is Jim Pulliam, and in the trench are Ole L. Quam and Lonnie L. Shepherd. At the base of the cartoon to the left is Ernest E. Bierbaum; holding the compass, Clarkson P. ‘Jerry’ O’Brien; putting on the boot, Michael E. ‘Pike’ Shanahan, and with the pick Danoto ‘Dan’ Carmosino.” 121 UNSUNG HEROES: STAFF OF THE BOULDER WATER DEPARTMENT (Daily Camera, February 27, 1936) Working in the high wind, in sub-zero weather, in wind, snow, sleet, and sunshine may be found members of Boulder’s water department. Day and night–– sometimes all night––may be found the unsung heroes––making repairs, improvements, and emergency replacements. 58 They may be found in the shadow of Arapahoe [sic] Glacier; along the transmission line from Blue Bird Falls to the City Reservoirs, in the far extremities of the city, and at the outlet of the city sewage. They are charged with the upkeep and cleaning of reservoirs; with perfect maintenance of miles of trans-
mission lines which, in places, has to be anchored to precipitous cliffs with heavy cables. At places, the transmission line has to be embedded in cement, with steel and stone reinforcements to keep the water from blowing the pipe skyward. There are miles of distribution lines traversing every street in Boulder. The lines have to be kept in perfect condition. Fire hydrants have to be kept in good working condition, and because of the efficiency of the department, a hydrant has never failed the fire department at a critical time. There are hundreds of water meters to be read, cleaned, repaired, and kept from freezing in the winter time. Air has to be removed from the water through the operation of valves. The air gets into the pipeline and when not released charges the water effectively as bromo seltzer. Overflow from the two reservoirs have to be watched to prevent waste of water. Turn-on and turn-off orders as people leave or move into houses or buildings keeps members of the staff busy. Roads have to be built, tons of rock have to be blasted away, dams have to be reinforced! Outlets of reservoirs have to be kept free of debris. Bridge trestles and buildings are constructed by the members of this department. Hundreds of miles of sanitary and storage sewers have to be kept repaired and clear. The city’s new sewage plant has to be kept in efficient operation. The above are only a few of the many jobs that fall upon the well-staffed water department. 122 The City continued to buy additional parcels of land in the Silver Lake Watershed area from private owners until it owned approximately 6,500 acres that included 13 reservoirs and natural lakes. Almost all of the water supply from the area came from melting snows, with only a fraction of a percent from the melting of Arapaho Glacier. This high-quality source of water supply was sufficient to meet all of Boulder’s water needs until the 1950s. 123 Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District Along with the financial hard times of the 1930s came serious drought conditions throughout the West. The trading of water and storage supplies became serious business in Boulder and elsewhere. While the WPA was at work in the mountains helping municipalities repair dams, farmers and ranchers on the plains formed the District Six Water Users Association. It acted as a “watchdog” group to assure that transfers of water rights to the City of Boulder and other municipalities did not harm the association’s water rights. The Great Depression was characterized by a series of dry years and, in 1937, more dry years were predicted for the 1940s. At the time, the United States Bureau of Reclamation joined forces with farmers, ranchers, cities and towns in northern Colorado, located within the Platte River drainage, to form the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District 59
Page 1 and 2:
BOULDER’S WATERWORKS PAST & PRESE
Page 3 and 4:
BOULDER’S WATERWORKS -- PAST & PR
Page 5 and 6:
• Water System Security Improveme
Page 7 and 8:
INTRODUCTION The story of Boulder
Page 9 and 10:
SETTLEMENT& DITCHES Boulder City To
Page 11 and 12:
1859, they dug small ditches from B
Page 13 and 14: “Shovel diplomacy,” however, di
Page 15 and 16: state senator. In January 1873, the
Page 17 and 18: PUBLIC WATERWORKS & PROBLEMS • 18
Page 19 and 20: Above, the Town of Boulder Reservoi
Page 21 and 22: BOULDER’S EARLY WATERWORKS PRESEN
Page 23 and 24: Ditch laterals paralleled 12th Stre
Page 25 and 26: A few weeks later, the City Council
Page 27 and 28: Silver Lake Ditch had five wooden f
Page 29 and 30: NEED FOR NEW RESERVOIRS • 1891, O
Page 31 and 32: Continued population growth in Boul
Page 33 and 34: In Boulder, laborers replaced pipes
Page 35 and 36: INTO THE 20TH CENTURY Discovery of
Page 37 and 38: In 1904, glacier hikers even includ
Page 39 and 40: The Maxwells also made a similar pr
Page 41 and 42: LAKEWOOD, LAKEWOOD RESERVOIR & TUNS
Page 43 and 44: In addition, the City acquired ease
Page 45 and 46: The Act that conveyed the first gra
Page 47 and 48: BOULDER HYDRO SYSTEM, 1910 The twen
Page 49 and 50: The dam was photographed on April 1
Page 51 and 52: producing 5,000 kilowatts (KW) of p
Page 53 and 54: On August 4, 1910, a ceremony was h
Page 55 and 56: This drawing of the original two ge
Page 57 and 58: ADDITIONAL WATERSHED DEVELOPMENTS A
Page 59 and 60: Silver Lake Pipeline In the years p
Page 61 and 62: pieces, are we justified in denying
Page 63: The WPA built much of Boulder’s w
Page 67 and 68: older clay tile pipe on the pipelin
Page 69 and 70: NEW WATER SUPPLIES & GROWTH, 1950s-
Page 71 and 72: One of the surge chambers for the p
Page 73 and 74: At this time, Boulder was beginning
Page 75 and 76: The City entered into an agreement
Page 77 and 78: Beginning in 1947, CBT Project wate
Page 79 and 80: The next water rights used to fill
Page 81 and 82: Atmospheric Research’s proposed b
Page 83 and 84: BETASSO WATER TREATMENT PLANT, 1964
Page 85 and 86: A new raw water pipeline was constr
Page 87 and 88: In 1976, the Betasso Water Treatmen
Page 89 and 90: 83
Page 91 and 92: BOULDER RESERVOIR WATER TREATMENT P
Page 93 and 94: Throughout the 1970s, employees of
Page 95 and 96: WATER AND POWER FOR THE FUTURE, 198
Page 97 and 98: In 1989, roller-compacted concrete
Page 99 and 100: pressure zone into the lower zone.
Page 101 and 102: costs would rise to $999,000. Hartm
Page 103 and 104: DEVELOPMENTS IN THE 1990s From the
Page 105 and 106: Reconstruction of Silver Lake Pipel
Page 107 and 108: water shortages should occur. The c
Page 109 and 110: Water Treatment Plant improvements
Page 111 and 112: The dispute escalated when the City
Page 113 and 114: TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY PROGRESS As th
Page 115 and 116:
Meanwhile, the City wanted to gain
Page 117 and 118:
Repair of the Barker Gravity Line F
Page 119 and 120:
Lakewood Pipeline reconstruction Bu
Page 121 and 122:
struction of the Lakewood Pipeline
Page 123 and 124:
the pipe manufacturer for enough mo
Page 125 and 126:
sions, City staff surprised themsel
Page 127 and 128:
Dealing with Drought In April 2002,
Page 129 and 130:
PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE Boulder is
Page 131 and 132:
Boulder Feeder Canal, and that was
Page 133 and 134:
Problem 3 - Discharging water back
Page 135 and 136:
Above, a new generator and turbine,
Page 137 and 138:
The Feeder Canal would require repa
Page 139 and 140:
APPENDIX Recent Water Utilities Wor
Page 141 and 142:
ENDNOTES 1 The word “Arapaho” c
Page 143 and 144:
35 Daily Camera, October 20, 1891.
Page 145 and 146:
71 Deed between The Cashier Mining
Page 147 and 148:
Supply, April 2009, pages 3-10. 104
Page 149 and 150:
135 Preliminary Design Memorandum,
Page 151 and 152:
167 The Windy Gap Project, Municipa
Page 153 and 154:
198 City of Boulder Utilities Repor
Page 155 and 156:
149
show all

BOULDER’S WATERWORKS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?