Colorado isn’t immune to flooding; here’s what you need to know

Hurricane Harvey has dominated our news coverage for days, and well it should. Flood events of that magnitude can be devastating to millions of people for months and sometimes years. Harvey reminds us that flood threats have the potential to affect everyone, and the tragedy in Houston has generated questions from people throughout the Denver metro area that we want to begin to address here.

The Urban Drainage and Flood Control District (UDFCD) was formed by the Colorado legislature in 1969 as a response to flood events in the Denver metro area. Our mission is to protect people, property and the environment through preservation, mitigation and education.the purpose of UDFCD is to assist local governments with multi-jurisdictional drainage and flood control problems. Because water does not recognize political boundaries.

UDFCD covers an area of 1,608 square miles and includes Denver, large parts of the six surrounding counties, and all or parts of 33 incorporated cities and towns. The population within UDFCD is approximately 2.8 million people.

Just because we’re in the high plains at the foot of the Rocky Mountains does not mean we’re immune from flood events. Flood-prone areas have been identified in 267 cities and towns and in all of Colorado’s 64 counties. Additionally, Colorado is susceptible to wildfires, which also makes our state susceptible to flooding in heavily eroded burn areas. Water accumulates more quickly than our soil can absorb it, especially on our hard clay.

Many residents new to the metro area are surprised to learn about the massive 1965 flood of the South Platte River through downtown Denver. Cherry Creek, Clear Creek, Boulder Creek and other tributaries have also caused damage in the past. Today, the Pepsi Center, Elitch Gardens Amusement Park and much of what we know as Lodo would not be possible without the flood safety measures put into place years before and improved and maintained each-and-every year.

In our opinion, every business and homeowner/renter needs to have a strategy in the event of a catastrophic event like Harvey. Coloradans should become “flood smart,” to identify their flood risk and consider what would be their family or office action plan in the event of a disastrous flooding event. The UDFCD has tools on our website to help people assess risk and make plans.

UDFCD provides local officials with early notifications of heavy rain and flood threats in partnership with NOAA’S National Weather Service. Local officials act on these notifications according to their respective emergency plans and warn people in affected high-risk areas when a flooding threat becomes more likely. The public can also access real-time rainfall, streamflow and weather information from the ALERT System. ALERT data can also be retrieved for past events. To ensure your safety, UDFCD’S flash flood prediction program, F2P2, operates from April through September. An archive of forecast products and flood threat notifications is available on the F2P2 website.

UDFCD partners with communities within the UDFCD boundary in the development of watershed master plans. Master plans are an important tool to help identify remedial stormwater quality and flood risk management projects for construction and to guide new land development projects to be consistent with regional drainage and flood control needs. We will then partner with local governments — usually under a 50/50 cost-sharing agreement — to build and maintain capital improvement or stream management projects.

In Colorado, we want to do our very best to create flood/drainage management that is both beautiful to look at and can be enjoyed by the community. However, fiscal constraints in the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights have reduced our revenue by $146 million in the last decade requiring our communities to defer more than $100 million dollars in stream maintenance and capital projects over the past 10 years. We need legislators and local government officials to work with us to address these revenue shortfalls before the water starts to rise, not after.

So, the next time you use a streamside trail or path or drive past a cascading water feature, remember that UDFCD and your local government are hard at work protecting you while enhancing our quality of life.

For more information on flood safety plans, Red Cross recommendations or other issues, please visit our website at www.udfcd.com.

Heidi Williams is mayor of Thornton and chair of the Urban Drainage and Flood Control District. Ken Mackenzie is executive director of UDFCD and a professional engineer.