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Streams Flooded Most of the streams in the area suffer from lack of maintenance and would not carry a full level of discharqes. Their channels are cloqqed by debris and unwanted vegatation. Under these conditions, floodflows would not pass through effeciently, resulting in back up water increasing flood magnitude and duration. If a storm of 1965 magnitude occurred along the Front Range covering the metro area, all the tributary streams of the South Platte, ranging from the main tributaries to the dry gulches, (see map, Figure 8) would be impacted. All streams and tributaries of the South Platte between the Plum in the south to the Sand Creek in the north would be flooded. The main streams are Plum Creek, Cherry Creek, and Sand Creek on the eastern bank and Bear Creek, and Clear Creek on the western bank. Some of these streams have been studied for their capacities to discharge a 100 year flood while others have not. A few of these stream channels, such as the Niver Creek, have been improved, while others have not. In the large majority of cases, flood waters would overflow the banks and inundate and damage structures in the floodplain. Runoff in the streams below the Chatfield Dam and the Cherry Creek Dam would be sufficiently consequential as would be the runoff in the Bear and the Weaver Creeks below the Bear Creek dam. Weir Gulch, Lakewood, and McIntyre Gulches run through densely populated areas of Lakewood. The run- off from the increased area of low soil permeability and the rainfall would impact the cities of Lakewood and Denver. There is no major dam across the Clear Creek, and this creek and its many tributaries would carry large amounts of floodwaters through the cities of Golden, Wheatridge, Arvada, etc., as shown in the map at Figure 8. Similarly, the Sand Creek has no protective structures built along its course. This creek together -22-