Floodplain decisionFrom:elizabeth@elizabethblackart.com
To:Council; OSBT-Web
Subject:Floodplain decision
Date:Thursday, February 22, 2024 7:15:44 AM
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Hello Council and OSBT,
It is going on 11 years since the 2013 floods. All the elders in Fraser’s assisted living who were carried through rising flood waters to safety are most certainly dead by
now. Don’t you think it is time to get with the program to protect Boulder residents from future floods? Please immediately approve the disposition of the small Open
Space acreage necessary to protect South Boulder residents and do everything you can to expedite work on the project.
You will be setting a precedent with this decision for the necessary flood mitigation work on other Boulder drainages which originate in Open Space, and which caused
significant City flooding in 2013. During storms, our creeks gather water, debris, momentum, and force in their steep foothill channels. When they exit their constricted
channels onto the plains, their gathered force shoots them off in multiple directions, just the way the end of a hose flips back and forth when water is turned on full. The
debris they carry can plug their original channel, causing them to carve new channels. Unfortunately, we have built our city right where all this hydrological action takes
place. We can no longer allow our creeks to change their channels willy-nilly. Much of the future work to keep these creeks in their channels will have to take place on
Open Space lands.
I live on Four Mile Canyon Creek, which is an excellent example of this. Four Mile Canyon Creek is the third largest drainage in the City of Boulder. In 2013, it caused
millions of dollars of damage in North Boulder with just 30-40-year flood levels. More than 100 landslides came down its hillsides, which plugged its channel on Open
Space land as it exited the canyon. It jumped its plugged channel in several spots, flooding neighborhoods south of Lee Hill road, the North Broadway storage units, and
the Crestview West and Githens neighborhoods. It damaged and closed Crestview Elementary School for months. Its floodwaters jumped into Wonderland Creek and
added significant damage to that drainage as well.
To prevent future flood damage from Four Mile Canyon Creek, we must of course build an adequate channel for its floodwaters through the City. But we must also
enlarge and modify its channel on Open space lands, upstream of City neighborhoods, to provide space for its debris, so that the creek will remain in its channel. There
are other Boulder creeks –Two Mile Canyon Creek, Bluebell, and more – which have similar stories and will need similar work. We are now paying the price for decisions
which past Boulder settlers and developers made when they built our fair city on top of the junction of 14 creeks.
There will be much hand wringing and tongue wagging when we do this, just as there is now. But if you are at all familiar with our environment, you know that where
there is water, ecosystems recover quickly. The riparian zone along South Boulder Creek will quickly recover from floodway construction, as will riparian zones along
other creeks in Boulder when their time comes. Please approve the disposition of the Open Space acreage necessary to protect South Boulder residents, and set the
precedent, so that other Boulder residents can someday receive some adequate flood protection too.
Thank you, Elizabeth Black
Elizabeth Black
The Citizen Science Soil Health Project
Helping you PROVE you are IMPROVING your soil.
https://soilhealthproject.org/index.html
4340 N 13th St. Boulder CO 80304 303-449-7532w 720-839-5576c
Elizabeth@ElizabethBlackArt.com
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