Water quality to remain centric in the Roaring Fork River Basin

Hunter and Woody Creeks and Avalanche and Thompson creeks in the Crystal River Basin are now designated Outstanding Waters by the Water Quality Control Commission.

The Colorado Water Quality Control Commission on Aug. 21 unanimously designated roughly 385 miles of waterways across 15 rivers and streams in the upper and lower Colorado, Eagle, Yampa, and Roaring Fork River basins as Outstanding Waters. 

The Outstanding Waters designations are authorized by the Colorado Water Quality Control Act and the Clean Water Act. 

Water Quality Technician Mathew Anderson spent two years sampling the water quality in all four creeks with Water Quality Program Manager Chad Rudow, both with the Roaring Fork Conservancy, to help earn this designation.

“An Outstanding Waters designation is a protection that can be given to reaches of streams that offer water quality protection. It is the highest level of water quality protection that can be given by the state of Colorado,” Anderson said. “With the protection, future projects that may happen along these reaches have to ensure that the water quality will not be diminished.”

This designation can protect creeks and rivers from future developments and pollution. He noted that all existing industries, ranches, homes, and utilities along these sections of designations will be grandfathered in. 

“This designation helps protect against any future water quality concerns,” he said.

He said that obtaining this designation took a coalition between different watershed groups that ranged from the Yampa to Eagle rivers.

“Chad and I went out and took water quality samples at each of our four sites in our watershed seven or eight times, over the course of two years,” he said. “We were capturing all the different seasonality to ensure that the water quality was good year-round.” 

For creeks, streams, and rivers to receive this designation, the water quality must already be of a high standard. Eleven respective criteria points must be met as it relates to water quality before this designation can be obtained.

Anderson said various outreach was done to a wide range of stakeholders, including local, state, and federal governments, water rights holders, districts, and providers, as well as landowners and businesses. He said that the sites in the Roaring Fork River Basin were mostly bordered by U.S. Forest Service land.

“We didn’t run into a lot of opposition for our area, but we were also looking at areas that were already pretty remote,” he said.