| Boulder Action’s Current Focus | South Boulder Flood Control |

Dear Neighbors;

Hello!

We hope you are in good health and taking advantage of our beautiful spot in this world!

Our summer continues on - and although the passing of the summer solstice signals the beginning of inevitable cooling of our weather, it also signals, for this year, the heating up of our local politics.

So as our political world continues to build towards the upcoming November election, we thought it would be a good time to remind our readers what we at Boulder Action are focused on.

In addition to the restatement of our objectives, our July issue covers some very engaging and timely territory:

• South Boulder Creek Flood Control - Ben Binder provides extremely critical and detailed background on the engineering issues related to the CU-South/Save SoBo situation. Be sure to click on his links to get some really interesting facts.

• We again want to keep the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan (BVCP) revision process on the radar as we believe it is extremely critical that ALL citizens remain engaged in the proceedings that are underway. Read more about this in the June Newsletter OR by clicking below on the ‘BOULDER VALLEY COMPREHENSIVE PLAN REVIEW’ link under ‘Current Top Critical Issues’.

CURRENT TOP CRITICAL ISSUES

• BOULDER VALLEY COMPREHENSIVE PLAN REVIEW

• SAVE SOUTH-BOULDER

• SAVE IRIS FIELDS

___________________

->>Read Our Past Newsletters<<-

_________________________

Did You Know?

With a 97% increase in public relations employees in Boulder's Communications Department from 2018 to 2023 (from 14.75 to 29) and an additional million dollars spent (from $2M to over $3M) during this period, satisfaction with city services declined by 11 points. In 2025, PR requires 37 people and a $3.9M budget.

What Are Boulder Action’s Objectives?

Boulder Action has been very busy this past year with initiatives, newsletters, Action Alerts and various other forms of communications and grassroots efforts.

Although the principles that guide us to engage in these activities can be viewed in detail at the BA website, we think now would be a good time to restate where we are focusing our energies and why.

Our concerns are rooted in the troubling changes we’ve seen over the past 10 years in our city, driven primarily by Boulder City Council’s actions and inactions.

It’s hard for us to watch while the city we love continues on a reckless path to becoming a dysfunctional playground for the wealthy and the ideologically blinded.

We believe that since most of the problems we see were politically created, it follows that it will take a political effort to fix them. The following list summarizes the crucial issues that Boulder Action believes must be addressed to help get us back to a more livable, more inclusive and more humane place.

Overall Livability

• Accelerated densification

• Lack of interest in infrastructure maintenance

• Increase in crime leading to fear of using public areas

• Decrease in affordability for families

• Environmental degradation

Political Ethos/Ideology Overriding Debates

• National ‘progressive’ agenda subverting local governance

• Increasing use of far-right political tactics by so-called ‘Boulder Progressives’ controlling city hall that takes the form of

  • Stifling of public input

  • Out-of-state money feeding negative advertising supporting Boulder Progressive candidates and positions

  • Demonizing opponents

  • Supporting environmentally damaging initiatives

  • Defying the will of the people by passing legislation that was defeated at the ballot box

Abandonment of Traditional Progressive Principles

• Ignoring environmental concerns

• Lack of support for middle-lower tier families

• Prioritizing developer profits over middle-lower tier family needs

• Putting personal interests over those of the people of the city as evidenced by

  • Voting massive pay raises for council members

  • Manipulating timings and logistics of local elections to favor specific constituencies (rank choice voting, no online petitioning)

  • Allowing ideology to steer decisions rather that common sense

With these concerns in mind, Boulder Action is committed to help shape the next local election to bring about meaningful political change.

We’re asking that we all work together to get better candidates on Council in November! As of this writing in late July, Boulder Action will be supporting:

Mark Wallach

Jenny Robins

Rob Kaplan

• See what REAL BOULDER PROGRESSIVES are concerned with: www.realboulderprogressives.org

SOUTH BOULDER CREEK FLOOD CONTROL

By Ben Binder

Boulder’s plans for a detention pond to reduce South Boulder Creek flooding looks like they were designed by Rube Goldberg on steroids.

Instead of capturing and detaining peak floodwaters where they spill out of South Boulder Creek at the south end of the flood prone depleted Flatiron gravel pit, now known as CU South, floodwaters will be detained several thousand feet to the north by a three-story high hazard dam along Table Mesa Drive.

South Boulder Creek Regional Detention Project

There are numerous problems with this approach, which could have been easily avoided if the floodwaters were detained in a series of shallow ponds in the south end of the gravel pit, where they could drain directly back into South Boulder Creek before it flows under US 36. But CU, based on a 2001 site plan, would not allow the city to use that portion of its property for flood control.

1) Adding a 32-foot high-hazard dam above a residential area creates a new risk with the potential for damages far greater than the flood it is designed to mitigate.

2) Locating the dam in the far north end of CU’s depleted gravel pit requires a $19.4 million 2,600-foot concrete spillway/flood wall that runs all the way back to South Boulder Creek along US 36. To keep groundwater flowing down from the mountains from backing up and drying up grasslands north of US 36, an expensive complex groundwater conveyance system must be constructed to allow the groundwater to pass through the flood wall.

3) The detention pond must drain back to South Boulder Creek, which is on the other side of US 36 and thousands of feet away. To accomplish this, $6.1 million are budgeted for a long 5-foot diameter conduit which must be tunneled under US 36 in the presence of high groundwater and large boulders. The conduit will dump the floodwaters into Viele channel, which may not have the capacity to accommodate those flows.

4) To provide the required detention volume and reduce the land area needed for flood water detention, Boulder residents will pay to excavate and deepen the detention pond. This is done so that CU will have more land to develop. The excavated detention will be below the level of groundwater, and an absurdly expensive impervious barrier is needed to keep the depression from becoming filled with groundwater.

5) Boulder residents will pay approximately $4 million to emplace 150,000 cubic yards of earth fill (10,000 15-cubic-yard truckloads) to raise a portion of CU’s depleted gravel pit above the level of a 500-year flood.

6) The three-story high-hazard dam is located between Table Mesa Drive and CU South. Boulder residents will pay the cost of highway ramps required to pass over the dam to allow CU to access its property.

Boulder Refused to Study Plans with Safer, Less-Expensive Shallow Detention Ponds
City officials claim they studied the concept of using shallow cascading ponds at the south end of the site which could drain directly back to South Boulder Creek before it passes under US 36, but they definitely did not. In 2021, Colorado’s former Dam Safety Branch Chief suggested exploring such a plan using safe-to-fail “non-jurisdictional” dams.

Exorbitant Cost
When the city council selected CH2M Hill’s concept for the South Boulder Creek project, it was estimated to cost $23 million, and $2 million for engineering. To address the difficulties of the plan, costs have escalated so that a $66 million construction bond is now required. That does not include bond interest of approximately $15 million and $13 million the city has already spent on engineering – a total of $94 million.

Ignoring Nature
Universities, which plan to be around for centuries, wisely build on hills to avoid major floods, and not in flood prone depleted gravel pits at the foot of major drainage basins. Below is a map showing the 100-year floodplain from the 1981 permit for the gravel quarry at CU South. Much of the land was in the 100-year floodplain even before sand and gravel mining lowered the topography 12 – 15 feet. The problems we face today result from the City’s and CU’s failure to respect and design with nature.

1981 Permit Application for Gravel Quarry (CU South) Showing 100-year Floodplain

Several years ago, I created the following YouTube videos about CU South and South Boulder Creek flood control showing the failures of the plans. I hope other engineers are willing to weigh in on this fiasco.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxdjcrRDSbw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sutXapfUoU&t=134s

Ben Binder is a Professional Engineer and Land Surveyor and long-time Boulder resident.