Boulder receives drinking
water from three sources: Arapahoe Glacier and Silver Lake Reservoir
(40%), Barker Reservoir (40%) and the Colorado River(20%) via the Colorado-Big
Thompson Transbasin Diversion Project. Water fromArapahoe Glacier and
Barker Reservoir is piped to the Betasso Water Plant.Water from the
Colorado River is piped to Boulder Reservoir through the Boulder Feeder
Canal. It is treated at the 63rd Street Water Treatment Plant. The water
goes through a series of treatment steps including: coagulation, sedimentation,
filtration. It is then piped to our homes through an extensive distribution
Boulder's wastewater is collected
in sewer pipes and delivered to the 75th Street Wastewater Treatment
Plant. Here the used water undergoes extensive treatment including:
settling, filtering, solids contact, and chlorination/dechlorination
before it is discharged into Boulder Creek for users downstream.
The third set of water pipes
are those that collect stormwater runoff from streets, parking lots,
roofs and other surfaces and carries it to the nearest creek. Storm
drains are connected directly to creeks and ditches in Boulder. What
this means is that anything that gets picked up by stormwater such as
litter, fertilizer, oil, leaves, pet waste and more is discharged directly
to a creek. It is important that we work to keep our streets, yards
and parking lot clean in order to keep our creeks clean.
Settlers arrived in the Boulder
area in 1858. They were lured westward by the tales of gold discoveries
in the Rocky Mountains. The first groups of settlers, lead by Capt.
Thomas Aikins, arrived at the mouth of BoulderCanyon below Red Rocks
at Settlers' Park.
Small gold veins were found
in several places throughout the foothills, with the most notable discovery
in Gold Hill. However, the abundance of gold was not what they had expected.
During the spring of 1859, some of the discouraged gold seekers moved
east to the Boulder area. The town of Boulder would grow quickly; in
fact, the town prospered with new businesses, banks and educational
The town of Boulder realized
in the 1870's that in order to have dependable water supplies throughout
the year, they would have to build a reservoir. The first reservoir,
complete with a sand filter, was built in 1875. Water flowed down to
Pearl Street through an 8 inch cast iron pipe to the public square (site
of the Boulder County Courthouse) which lay 160 feet below the elevation
of the reservoir. Many Boulder residents got their water at the public
square. The trip to town for water became a social event; citizens took
time to visit, perhaps watch a baseball game between Boulder City and
Sunshine, and then trudge home with full pails.
In the early 1900's the city
realized that it would need to secure more drinking water sources if
the area was to support a thriving town. One of the head figures in
developing the city's drinking water plan was Eben G.Fine, whom we have
named a city park after.
What follows is an account
by Eben G. Fine of the Boulder water supply plan:
In 1900, I discovered
Arapaho Glacier. Six years after this discovery, the city of Boulder
purchased Silver Lake from James P. Marshall. Later, other lakes in
the Boulder Creek Watershed, together with twenty three hundred acres
of land on either side of the stream flowing from Silver Lake, forming
North Boulder Creek were purchased. The purpose of this purchase was
to being safeguarding the purity of the water by closing off the area
and patrolling the stream from the lake to the city's storage reservoir
a few miles below.
In 1919, a bill was introduced
in the Congress and passed, enabling the city of Boulder to purchase
out of the Roosevelt National Forest, three thousand six hundred ninety
five acres of land, including Arapaho Glacier and the entire Arapaho
watershed, as the source of the city's water supply. The purchase was
completed and the money paid over to the Government in 1925.