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After the draft plan was circulated among all of the stakeholders identified, contacted and <br />interviewed for this project, the information was then incorporated into this final <br />document which was produced and distributed among those same stakeholders. <br />2. Background <br />Boulder County, Colorado is one of the most attractive places to live in the United States. Open <br />space, proximity to the mountains, 300 days of sunshine per year and boundless amounts of <br />outdoor recreational opportunities are just a few of the reasons why "quality of life" is rated high <br />among its residents. <br />Central to the landscape in Boulder County is the Boulder Creek watershed. The Boulder Creels <br />watershed is approximately 1,160 square Milometers (447 square miles) in area and is located in <br />the Front Range of the Colorado Roclcy Mountains, east of the Continental Divide. In 2000, <br />about 185,000 people lived in the Boulder Creek Watershed (LT.S. Census Bureau, 2001). <br />A reliable source of high-quality water is important for drii~ldng-water supply, recreation, aquatic <br />life, and agriculture. In the semi-arid environment of the Colorado Front Range, water resources <br />are limited, and waterways are subject to stress by competing uses. The population of the five <br />largest communities in the watershed (Boulder, Lafayette, Louisville, Superior, and Erie) grew <br />by 36 percent from 1990 to 2000, increasing demands on water resources. <br />2a. Water Quality <br />Water quality of the Boulder Creek watershed varies. In general, the water quality of streams in <br />the upper portions of the watershed is good. As the water moves down gradient into the <br />increasingly urbanized portions of the watershed, water quality declines. The Boulder Creek <br />watershed has several stream segments that are on the State of Colorado's 303(d) list for <br />impaired streams. One or more segments are considered impaired for e.coli, copper, zinc and pH. <br />Several stream segments are on <br />the State of Colorado <br />Monitoring and Evaluation <br />(M&E) List for E.coli, <br />selenium, iron, ammonia and <br />aquatic life. Tlus and other <br />water quality infornation can <br />be found on the Boulder Area <br />Sustainability k7formation <br />Network (BASIN) website at <br />www.basin.org. A report <br />prepared by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the City of <br />Boulder presents the state of water quality in the Boulder CreeM Watershed in 2005 and how it <br />has changed over the past 160 years (Murphy, Sheila F., State of the Watershed: Water Quality <br />of Boulder CreeM, Colorado, USGS, 2006). <br />-, <br />