State of the Watershed: Boulder Creek, Colorado Sheila Murphy.

State of the Watershed:Boulder Creek, Colorado

Sheila Murphy

• Citizens’ guide to water quality past, present, future

• Informs Boulder’s Water Quality Strategic Plan

State of the Boulder Creek Watershed report

http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1284/

South Platte River Watershed

Boulder Creek Watershed

Mississippi River Watershed

Watershed: the area of land that drains into a water body

Boulder Creek Watershed

MAXIMUMELEVATION

4120 M

MINIMUMELEVATION

1480 M

CRETACEOUS SEDIMENTARY

PRECAMBRIAN GRANITE

PRECAMBRIAN METAMORPHIC

PLAINS

Climatic/ecological zones

Geology

FOOTHILLSMONTANESUBALPINEALPINE

From USGS National land cover data set

Land cover (1992)

Precipitation

Average daily discharge of Boulder Creek at Orodell gage, 1994-2004

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200

300

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YEAR

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June 2000

Discharge

October 2000

Width of blue line represents discharge

Water quality:

The chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water, usually in respect to its suitability for a particular purpose

“Water quality” can include:

• Basic water quality variables (pH, dissolved oxygen)

• Nutrients (phosphate, nitrate)

• Bacteria

• Trace metals (mercury, lead)

• Pesticides

• “Emerging contaminants” (wastewater-derived organic compounds)

http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/cgi-bin/photos/upper//full/0509_012r.jpg

Water quality regulations

Water quality from top to bottom


Headwaters & mountains

• Best water quality

• Old mines not impacting water quality of most streams

• Atmospheric deposition of nitrogen can decrease pH & act as fertilizer

• Possible water quality concerns: Nederland WWTP, septic systems, recreation, road runoff

• Diversions remove much of the water from the creek

• High percentage of impervious surfaces

• Boulder Creek within Boulder on Colorado’s 303(d) list for E. coli bacteria

• Arsenic, lead, and copper highest in Boulder Creek during large storms


Urban

• Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) discharges ~17 million gallons per day to creek

• WWTP effluent comprises 10-75% of the flow in the creek

• WWTP contributes nutrients and organic contaminants to creek

• Pollutant concentrations in creek typically lowest in early summer


Lower Boulder Creek

Wastewater compounds found in Boulder Creek

• Metal-complexing agents (e.g., EDTA)

• Surfactants (nonylphenol)

• Plasticizers (bisphenol A)

• Antimicrobials (triclosan)

• Steroids (cholesterol)

• Natural & synthetic hormones (estrogens)

• Pharmaceutical drugs (codeine, caffeine, ibuprofen)

• Diversions remove much of water (and pollutants) from creek

• pH and dissolved oxygen fluctuate widely

• High pH and temperature causes ammonia to shift to un-ionized ammonia gas, which is toxic to fish


Lower Boulder Creek

Problems with evaluating long-term water quality changes:

• Very little water quality data collected before 1960s

• Different water quality parameters measured in the past and today

• Analysis methods usually not given

From Ford and Moore, 1904

• Estimate effects of dominant land and water uses

• Number of cases of waterborne disease

• Anecdotes and articles about water taste, smell, and appearance

Solutions:

1905 to 1920 headlines from Boulder News-Herald

Analysis of historical water quality

Water quality: Pre-1858

Photograph copyright Denver Public Library

• First evidence of humans in Colorado: 14,000 BC

• Until 1800s AD, sparsely populated by Native Americans, who had little impact on landscape

• Early 1800s: explorers and beaver trappers

• Gold discovered in 1859; Gold Hill and Boulder founded

• Settlers described Boulder Creek as “pure” and “full of fish”

Boulder, Colorado, circa 1870

Water development

Copyright Denver Public Library

• Settlers quickly realized Colorado’s dry climate required extensive water management to water crops and to have water year-round

• First ditch decree filed on Boulder Creek in 1859 (oldest in South Platte Watershed)

• Water diverted for domestic use, crop irrigation, mining

• Reservoirs built to provide year-round water supply

Irrigation in Colorado; from Harper’s Weekly, 1874

• Before 1875, Boulder residents carried water (untreated) from Boulder Creek, ditches, or shallow wells

• Early settlers discharged sewage (untreated) to outhouses and cesspools

• CO State Board of Health, 1877: “In rapidly growing towns the construction of sewers is often delayed until the subsoil is thoroughly saturated with disease-breeding filth.”

South Boulder School, Eldorado Springs, ~1890, with outhouse in background

Water quality: 1860s-1890s

Photograph courtesy Carnegie Branch Library for Local History, Boulder Historical Society Collection


Photograph courtesy Carnegie Branch Library for Local History, Boulder Historical Society Collection

• Dozens of gold & silver mines and mills, using chlorine, mercury, cyanide; chemicals and tailings discharged directly to creeks

• Mining followed by forest fires, timber harvesting & tie drives, causing erosion

• Boulder Creek described as having “a milk-like turbidity” which when consumed gave the “sensation of swallowing rope”

Placer mining on Fourmile Creek, circa 1890

Mining & water supply- Boulder Creek


Annual production of Boulder County (from USGS & Bureau of Mines)

• Boulder built first sewer line in 1895; discharged to settling basin, then to creek (at Scott Carpenter Park)

• Farmers downstream complained about sewage in creek

Typhoid cases in Boulder County, 1902-1980 (includes deaths)


• Typhoid tied to water contaminated by human waste ~1900

• Colorado began requiring reporting of typhoid in 1902


• Boulder’s first WWTP built in 1934; ineffective

From Chapman, 1934

Annual death rate in Coloradofrom typhoid fever, 1929-1931

• Other states boycotted South Platte Valley produce because crops irrigated with sewage

• 1948 Water Pollution Control Act: states responsible for control of water pollution

• New WWTP in 1957; quickly overloaded due to rapid population growth


• 1967 US Dept. of Interior study found Boulder Creek severely polluted, murky and gray, no fish below WWTP

• New WWTP in 1968, upgraded every few years

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency est. 1970

• 1972 Clean Water Act required dischargers to meet water quality standards

Human waste and urban growth

1937


1957


1977


1997

Water quality: 1990s-today• Lower Boulder Creek on CO’s list of

impaired waters for un-ionized ammonia in 1992; Boulder WWTP upgraded to reduce ammonia discharged to creek

• Boulder Creek within Boulder on CO’s list of impaired waters for E coli in 2004

• Invasive species

• Hormones, steroids, drugs found below WWTP

• Reproductive disruption found in fish below WWTP; high female:male ratio

For more information…

Boulder Area Sustainability Information Network: www.BASIN.org

U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Discipline: http://water.usgs.gov

[email protected]

State of the Watershed: Boulder Creek, Colorado Sheila Murphy.

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