Big Dry Creek Watershed Association

Since 1997, WWE has served the Big Dry Creek Watershed Association, northwest of Denver. Key watershed stakeholders are the City and County of Broomfield; the Cities of Westminster, Thornton, and Northglenn; Adams and Weld Counties; and agricultural landowners. BDCWA is focused on the health of the stream as it passes through urban, developing, and rural areas before joining the South Platte River. WWE’s annual support to BDCWA includes organizing and facilitating quarterly stakeholder meetings, managing a long-term water quality database, preparing an annual watershed report that integrates water quality, stream flow, and aquatic life, preparing an annual newsletter, and providing technical support on a variety of watershed-related topics.

Technical support to the watershed group has included completion of a 319 watershed plan, review and analysis of hydrologic and water quality data (nutrients, pathogens, selenium), collaboration with Colorado State University on geomorphology and channel stability, evaluation of the effectiveness of detention in the watershed, and other stewardship topics. WWE supports BDCWA on a variety of regulatory issues related to Colorado stream standards, discharge permit issues, stream impairments, and total maximum daily load (TMDL) requirements related to bacteria.