Ed Schemm is chairman of the BTWF Board of Directors. He has been employed with the Larimer County Department of Health & Environment for 29 years and currently serves as an Assistant Director, responsible for managing environmental health programs. He has a Masters of Public Administration degree in Environmental Management.

As a nation, we have made great strides in addressing the problems caused by point source discharges. The quality of our streams and rivers has actually improved in many respects. In the Big Thompson River system, many small undesirable point source discharges were eliminated during the 1970s. However, as our region and populations grow, we continue to add other pollutants, primarily in the form of non-point source pollutants. The watershed approach puts emphasis on other sources of pollution that are equal in severity to point source discharges.

Watershed-wide efforts enable us to assess the overall quality of water as well as determine and evaluate its uses, and thus, the level of protection needed. A watershed approach to assessment and management is necessary to address the impacts from such sources as stormwater, siliviculture (cultivating forests), agriculture, and development. The State Water Quality Control Commission and the Water Quality Control Division are shifting their focus to this kind of approach. Under the state water quality control programs, watershed agencies will become a very important part of the processes for determining stream standards and classifications. Stream standards will be adopted on a river basin-wide basis. The watershed approach will allow public input and a cohesive voice into these processes. One benefit to membership in a watershed group is that one has this avenue of input into the decision-making processes. In future years, watershed agencies will become very important in the overall assessment and management of our water resources. Watershed agencies will become an integral part of the decision-making processes dealing with the aforementioned activities. Since they will have the data on watersheds, they will gain the respect and attention of the decision-makers on water quality issues.

Watershed agencies will also become an important voice in other public decision processes. For example, land use decisions certainly can have a major impact on water quality. Stormwater runoff from roads, parking lots, new development, and other land use related activities impacts the quality of our water. Watershed agencies will have a voice in these types of related decisions in the future.

The State of Colorado is in the process of implementing Phase II Stormwater Regulations under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). As we move forward toward this goal, it becomes evident that the cities of Loveland, Greeley, Fort Collins and developed areas of Larimer and Weld Counties will be impacted. In addition, it is anticipated that small communities which are experiencing rapid growth and/or seasonally high population densities may be impacted. Stormwater has one of the largest negative impacts of all discharges on our rivers. As the rules are implemented and monitoring results are analyzed, some difficult and important decisions will have to be made regarding the discharge of stormwater from these communities. The Forum will be a part of this decision making process. It would be helpful to both the Forum and the impacted entities to have the participation of those entities in the decision making process at the Forum level. We welcome input from everyone impacted by these new rules.

The Big Thompson Watershed Forum is now in its fourth year of operation. We have gone from a handful of interested parties, mainly drinking water providers, to a membership of 250 people and entities. Our focus has broadened considerably to include recreational, agricultural and aquatic life water uses in addition to drinking water. We hope to increase our membership to include every individual, business, special interest group and municipality concerned with water quality in our watershed.

We have instituted a broad and successful educational component, which will continue to expand. You can take our self-guided educational tour up the Big Thompson Canyon from the Loveland Visitor’s Center to Rocky Mountain National Park to view our displays. We teach elementary water quality classes that revolve around the Children’s Water Festivals in Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley. We also work with the Thompson R2J School District on the River Watch Program, involving older students in water quality studies. We see a lot of opportunity in the area of water quality education, and will focus some of our future efforts on the public at large.

The Forum has initiated sponsorship of a Small Lakes Focus Group, which will concentrate attention on the problems with small lakes within the Big Thompson Watershed. One such lake is Silver Lake in Loveland. The Forum is working with the Silver Lake Homeowner’s Association, the City of Loveland and an irrigation company to assess the causes of eutrophication in this lake and attempt to find ways to restore and protect the quality of water for its varied uses. A component of this project is the development of a manual of procedures and guidelines for assessment and remediation of water quality problems in small lakes throughout the Big Thompson watershed.

The Forum has recently instituted a cooperative water quality monitoring program. This effort is being funded by the cities of Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley, as well as the Fort Collins-Loveland Water District, the East Larimer County Water District, the North Weld County Water District, and the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. This effort is an attempt to eliminate the redundancy of monitoring by each individual entity and replace it with one monitoring program designed to serve each entity’s needs.
 Boyd Lake Reservoir and State Park in Loveland, Colorado

Information will be shared with all water providers and other interested parties. This effort should save considerable dollars and lead to an understanding of the biological and chemical characteristics of the Big Thompson River and associated reservoirs. In addition, these data will be used to help implement best management practices required by state and federal regulations. All water providers on the Front Range will eventually benefit from this program. I would expect that as Colorado’s watershed approach becomes more solidified and data from this monitoring effort become available, there will be more interest in this monitoring program from other water providers. In the quality collection, management, distribution and usage of these data, the Forum is becoming a scientifically based, respected voice in water quality management.

The Forum has a very positive and beneficial relationship with our sister watershed group on the Western Slope. Due to the contribution of west slope water to our watershed through the Colorado-Big Thompson project, we have a vested interest in the water quality in their watershed. The Three Lakes Watershed Association has instituted some interesting projects designed to provide data relative to the quality of water in Grand Lake, Shadow Mountain Reservoir and Lake Granby. We look forward to a continuing cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship with the Three Lakes Watershed Association.

It seems to me that the Forum has a lot to offer to those with an interest in the quality of water in the Big Thompson River and along the Front Range. There are approximately one-half million people, from Denver north, who are dependent on this source of drinking water. Cities and towns from Broomfield north to Fort Collins and east as far as Fort Morgan get drinking water from the Big Thompson River and the Western Slope diversion. The Big Thompson is as important to this region as the South Platte is to the Denver metro area. It is probably our most valuable natural resource. We need to protect the quality of this water.