BOARD02598

• Board Meeting Date: 9/18/1974
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

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you name it as far as other floods are concerned. The main problems that
are also unforeseeable generally are the debris blockage of bridges as
well as narrow parts of the channel.

One reason why I think the definition of the low hazard area is extremely
important is that the legislature has given certain powers to the Water
Conservation Board to delineate floodplains. This is a very fine power
that has been given to the CWCB. Further more, the courts have pretty
well verified the fact that the government can regulate floodplains
because of the health, safety and welfare aspects. I think it is pretty
well established that we have the.police power to regulate the flood-
plains. So in effect the state and municipalities and counties and other
local governments have the power to regulate land use in our urban areas
and in our agricultural valleys which are in the floodplains. This is
a very fought for and hard won power of regulation. What the low hazard
area definition does is subdivide the floodplain into high hazard area
and low hazard area. What it does is give back some of the powers that
the state and local entities have won through a lot of hard work.
Remember that we finally have gotten authority to regulate the flood-
plains which in some places is relatively wide and sometimes relatively
narrow, but it is a floodplain that is delineated by engineering and
hydrological facts. By making the low hazard area much less restrictive
we are in effect giving away land use powers that have just recently
been, really been given to us and being used. And the only thing I say
here is that you should be aware of the fact that we are turning back,
giving away powers that have been hard fought and'hard won.

And again, I do feel that if we could have had this floodplain regula-
tion, this work that you are doing this month, some twenty years ago,
our state would be far better off and we would have far less expenses
facing us for corrective works.

I would also like to point out that I personally am a strong supporter
of greater control of floodplains and the hazards related to flood-
plains by the state, and particularly by the Colorado Water Conservation
Board. I feel that more authority should be granted (I know that this
is not your issue right now, but I just wanted to make this comment so
that you knew my views on this). It is a matter for the state legis-
lature, of course. But I do feel that more authority should rest with
the state rather than the local governments in regard to the floodplains
for a number of reasons which I will also submit to you in writing.
Relative to this particular matter, I would like to invite you to a
debate that I will be having with Senator Shoemaker in November on this
very issue. It is the debate over the question of whether or not
state government or the local government should be involved more heavily
in the regulation of our floodplains. It is going to be sponsored by
the Urban Drainage and Flood Control District.

To summarize then quickly, I have some suggested recommendations here
which I presume will be part of the record. Most of these relate to
the low hazard definition. I would recommend that instead of "three
feet per second," you use "two feet per second" for that aspect of the

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