Source Water Assessment and Protection

Purpose

The purpose of the Project is to involve stakeholders in:

• Identifying and understanding one another's perspectives, concerns, and needs related to protecting CLP water resources; and
• Providing a basis enabling them to develop creative options for protecting these resources as a source of drinking water.

Background

North Front Range citizens, businesses, and agriculture need an abundant supply of high quality water. CLP water is a critical resource supporting virtually every human activity and critical environmental systems in the North Front Range region.

The North Front Range area has grown and will continue growing significantly. Some of this growth creates potential threats to water quality at a time when more, clean water is needed to support human activity and critical environmental systems. Growth has implications for additional issues including:

• Permanent alteration of the watershed environment due to changing land use and management;
• Accelerated loss of agricultural land;
• Conflicts between consumptive users, and recreationists and environmentalists;
• Loss of open space and wildlife habitats;
• Rural sprawl, and associated negative impacts on traffic, air quality, and efficient and cost-effective use of energy, infrastructure, and other resources.

These issues, in turn, compound the potential for additional impacts on CLP water quality.

These regional issues are of a size and complexity that a range of CLP stakeholders will need to act collaboratively to resolve them successfully. The City of Fort Collins, City of Greeley, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and many others are concerned about protecting CLP water quality and supply. The increasing demands regional growth is putting on the resource is heightening their concern. Currently, no comprehensive association of stakeholders is active in the CLP watershed.

Work Activities

The Project will apply the model stakeholder involvement process that the Center for Community Development and Design, University of Colorado (CCDD) used in the 'Colorado Communities Wellhead Protection Program'. That effort won the Governor's Smart Growth Award for Pollution Prevention in 1996.

The Project will accomplish a dozen assessment and involvement work activities. The assessment activities will involve interviewing individual CLP stakeholders to identify their concerns, perspectives, and needs, and evaluating how different factors may motivate and/or constrain possible future collaborative action to protect CLP water resources. The assessment will focus on CLP stakeholders that other stakeholders generally perceive as influential to the potential success of future action. The stakeholder involvement work activities will involve convening stakeholders to present findings and facilitating their consideration of future action.

The Project will seek committed participation from a wide range of CLP stakeholders. CLP stakeholders will include drinking water suppliers; local, state, and federal agencies; businesses; community and public interest groups; and interested citizens.

Anticipated Results

The Project will provide a forum enabling CLP stakeholders to:

• Share their concerns about and solutions to the growth induced problems that cross jurisdictional boundaries;
• Resolve and manage conflicts;
• Build trust;
• Share information and analytical capabilities; and
• Select and act on win-win solutions.

The Project will enable CLP stakeholders to:

• Develop a shared perception of problems challenging the watershed;
• Identify situations that could induce conflicts and provide a forum for their resolution and management;
• Identify issues that have potential for motivating collaborative problem solving and action;
• Formulate shared goals and objectives;
• Identify the actions needed for achieving the goals and objectives; and
• Assume corresponding and appropriate roles and responsibilities to carry out the action plan.

The Project will initiate a new, innovative level of planning. It will provide the foundation and facilitation for CLP stakeholders to develop an action plan addressing threats to their water resources. It will parallel the technical 'National Pilot Source Water Assessment Project' and provide the needed stakeholder involvement. We anticipate that the Project could involve more than 100 CLP stakeholders directly, and affect the quality of life of hundreds of thousands.

We are still seeking additional financial support to continue this stakeholder assessment and involvement effort. We have started the initial preparatory work activities and will begin identifying and interviewing stakeholders later this fall. Contact George Weber (303/494-8572, grweber@carbon.cudenver.edu) to make a tax deductable contribution through the University of Colorado Foundation.