Boulder’s Environmental Hypocrisy at CU South

By Steve Lynton

Two major groups cite harm to threatened species and wildlife habitat from dam-building project

As Boulder’s government presses ahead with plans for a multimillion-dollar dam along U.S. 36 at CU South, its long-debated flood-protection project, twice the focus of a city referendum, has stirred new objections from two key environmental organizations, the Center for Biological Diversity and Save the World’s Rivers. The groups point to the project’s impact on wildlife habitat and two threatened species.

The city’s plans–which carry an official $66 million pricetag financed by increases in household water bills and are expected eventually to cost over $90 million including bond interest and engineering fees–already face a court challenge from South Boulder activists, alleging flaws in its “emergency” financing scheme. The national groups’ concerns highlight key environmental issues for Boulder, a city widely regarded as “progressive,” where politicians and voters support measures ranging from curbing use of fossil fuels to protecting wolves and mountain lions.

The Center for Biological Diversity, a national organization that seeks to protect native species and habit, has warned that the dam-building project will “harm local wildlife populations, including two federally-threatened species” and “may destroy or adversely modify designated critical habitat.” The threatened species are the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse and the Ute ladies’-tresses orchid,

“We are in the midst of an extinction crisis, and we must do all we can to support threatened and endangered species and keep them on our landscapes,” Sofia Prado-Irwin, a staff scientist for the center, said in a letter to Boulder government leaders.  “We urge the City to, at a minimum, wait on any further actions unless and until federal processes have been concluded and resolved as well as consider alternatives that would not harm highly imperiled plants and animals.” The center’s letter was submitted last summer but has not been previously reported.

Save the World’s Rivers, an environmental group that recently reached a $100 million deal over a controversial water-supply project in the Cache La Poudre River corridor and is now engaged in a court battle with Denver Water over dam expansion at Gross Reservoir, announced its concerns over Boulder’s dam-building plans in March.

“Flood protection is a critical function of local government,”  Gary Wockner, the group’s director, said in a statement. “However, it’s also critical to implement these projects in compliance with federal environmental laws that are designed to make sure the environmental impacts are avoided or minimized, and that the final alternative that is chosen is the most practicable. The City has not even begun this entire permitting process yet.”

“It may seem ironic that Boulder County is known as one of the most ‘environmentally minded’ places in Colorado and the U.S., but the threats to Boulder County’s watersheds are likely the most intense of anywhere in Colorado,” Wockner added in an update last month, citing additional environmental controversies along South Boulder Creek and around Nederland. “We are pushing back against all of these threats and doing our level best to protect the streams and creeks as well as the water supplies that all citizens depend on for life.”

Although opposition to Boulder’s dam-building project at CU south has encompassed a wide range of engineering, development, safety, and other issues, the seven-page letter from the Center for Biological Diversity is among the most detailed analyses of environmental concerns raised by the city’s plans.

The letter cites requirements for permit review by the Army Corps of Engineers stemming from impacts on wetlands and threatened species, arguing that “the proposed mitigation is inadequate to protect these two listed species.” It notes that the CU South area is described in the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan as having “Very High Biodiversity Significance (Nearly Irreplaceable)” and warns, “Utmost care should be taken to preserve the species and habitats present in this important area that are essential components of Boulder County’s local and regional biodiversity.”

It notes that 12.3 acres of habitat for the threatened orchid species are impacted by the plans, warning that attempts to transplant that species have not proven effective and are likely to fail. It describes the city’s plans for mitigating harm to 15 acres of habitat for the threatened mouse species as minimal and a cause for concern. The center also expresses concern about impacts on environmentally valuable wetlands and riparian ecosystems.

It calls for measures to avoid intrusion into habitat for the threatened species and other wildlife, monitoring of impacts on those habitats from the proposed dam-building project, and larger ratios of new habitat to replace any of the species' current habitat damaged or destroyed by the project to mitigate impacts from the proposed construction. In addition, it warns that development remains a primary threat to the threatened orchid species and will tend to fragment habitat for the threatened mouse species.

“We recognize that flood control is an important priority in land use planning, especially in the era of climate change,” the center says. “However, protection of threatened species and their critical habitat is equally paramount and protecting intact wetlands and riparian corridors are also essential flood control measures.”

They're issues raised by environmental scientists at the Center for Biological Diversity and by advocates for river conservation at Save the World's Rivers.  It's also noteworthy that the city government continues to operate lawlessly by failing to obtain any of the local, state, and federal permits essential to building this enormous dam in an environmentally protected wetlands area along South Boulder Creek.

In addition to the city's asinine maneuvers on this monstrosity of a dam, we've also got a pigheaded enemy in CU's leadership. CU, which once was an asset for this city, has become its relentless enemy, overcrowding our limited housing with its unrestrained enrollment and blatantly disregarding our environmental laws and regulations (height limits, for example).

At CU South, CU's developers grabbed a conservation tract consisting of wetlands in an environmentally sensitive floodplain and, for its own financial interests, has set out to destroy that preservation areas and blocked the city from carrying out essential flood-protection measures. CU has also embarked on a development scheme that will destroy wildlife habit and natural landscape. CU is run by our enemies--a bunch of anti-environmental, revenue-seeking, free-wheeling developers and investors.

Boulder has plenty to say about CU South—it just has lacked the political leadership to say it. CU would be stuck with that land without access to water supplies if the city didn't go along with its development demands—that's why CU fought for annexation, outspending its opponents 5 to 1 in the last referendum campaign. CU has become nothing but a bunch of mercenaries, and the city's incompetent political leaders kowtow to CU's financial interest because "progressive" city politicians are aligned with developers and real estate investors.