Today marks the last day for public comments regarding the controversial $360 million Moffat Project as proposed by the Front Range’s biggest water utility—Denver Water.

This project entails several years of construction to increase the size of Boulder’s Gross Dam to corral more water from the Fraser River (located near Winter Park and which feeds into the Colorado River), all by way of tunnels under the Continental Divide. This diversion would nearly triple the capacity of Gross Reservoir, thus having an impact on Boulder County in addition to a grave impact on the Fraser River and Colorado River Headwaters.

If this project goes through, the Fraser River would be reduced to about 15% of it’s traditional pre-diversion flows (it has already been reduced to about 40 percent of it’s historic flows due to prior diversion projects). It is important to note that 50 percent of Denver Water’s water goes directly onto our lawns, most of which are non-native Kentucky Bluegrass.

It is also important to note that until a recent “Pulse Flow,” the Colorado River had not reached the ocean, it’s natural destination, since the early 1990s. This is because the Colorado River is relied on by tens of millions of people in the arid Southwest, from Denver to Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles.

If you care about keeping the headwaters of the Colorado River flowing, please send your comments to the Army Corps of Engineers TODAY.

It’s time to ditch the Kentucky Bluegrass, create jobs by way of a reversion to native-species landscaping, and conserve water before draining more of our rivers.

Need a little inspiration? Watch Pete McBride’s 3 minute film called “I Am Red.” It gives me goosebumps every time.

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Editor: Renée Picard

Photo: Wiki Commons