Bear Creek 'impaired'

EPA puts section of Jeffco stream on troubled-waters list

Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News

Thursday, June 9, 2005

A popular creek running through much of western Jefferson County is the latest addition to Colorado's list of troubled waters.

The Environmental Protection Agency, overruling state health officials, last week designated an 11-mile stretch of Bear Creek as an "impaired" waterway because of conditions harmful to the creek's fishery.

Environmentalists and some residents cheered the decision, saying it will require state regulators to improve conditions for fish. Specifically, the EPA said, excessively high water temperatures need to come down.

"Hopefully this will prevent the trout deaths that we saw a couple years ago," said Karen Christopherson, a board member of Evergreen Trout Unlimited, who collected data needed to argue for the listing. "It was a great trout stream, then it was sort of gone."

The addition of Bear Creek, and one other stream - Red Mountain Creek in southwestern Colorado - brings the list of impaired waters to 119 stream segments and lakes, the most since the state began tracking such problems in 1989.

The EPA initially wanted to add another five water bodies to the list, but changed its view after discussions with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

The state's Water Quality Control Commission - a nine-member board appointed by Gov. Bill Owens - declined to list the Bear Creek segment as impaired during hearings last year. But the EPA, reviewing the state's decision, determined there was evidence to support the listing.

Bear Creek, beginning from trickles atop Mount Evans, flows through several mountain parks and open spaces in the foothills and provides drinking water to Genesee, Evergreen, Kittredge and Morrison.

The EPA's ruling is significant because it marks the first time in Colorado that a stream's temperature has been considered a form of pollution.

High temperatures can stress and eventually kill cold-water fish.

Colorado's water users have long feared considering high temperatures as pollution.

Cities and farmers that divert water leave less water in streams, which leads to higher water temperatures in the stream. A stream harmed by high temperatures could force water diverters to make amends.

The temperature rules can also affect sewage treatment plants, which may, in some cases, put water back into creeks that's warmer than the creek itself.

More data might show the fishery is not harmed as environmentalists and local activists have claimed, say listing opponents.

State officials, too, still aren't certain the stream needs be added to the list. They argue that the fish kills are directly linked to low flows tied to several years of drought in the region.

"With respect to Bear Creek, we still contend the drought is the issue here," said Doug Benevento, executive director of the state health department. "Time will tell. We're going to have two more years of data. . . . Drought is not a reason for putting this on an impaired water body" list.