A Window Of Opportunity To Fix Flood Realities
Park Hill Flood Hazard Map Must Be Updated
Last month in these pages I suggested a path forward for dealing with flood hazards facing our community. I mentioned a useful resource for property owners who want to protect their individual properties, the City and County of Denver’s 2003 Flood Protection Handbook.
This month I’d like to focus on the larger perspective and the need for your participation:
• How do we address our shared flood hazards as a community?
• What can we do together to live more safely with our creeks?
First, though, let me correct an error in my column last month. I directed you to the map in the Flood Protection Handbook. I went on to say, “It shows flood hazards in Denver, including Greater Park Hill.”
The handbook was prepared in 2003. The flood hazard map in that handbook predates the mapping of hazards in Park Hill by about 10 years. We have known for some time that there were many locations that flooded repeatedly in Greater Park Hill, but it has only been in the last two years that we have had a thorough engineering analysis to give us defensible mapping of the flood hazards in each of the three major watersheds.
During the next few months, I will get specific and detailed about that flood hazard mapping. This month I’m providing an overview of the sources of flood hazard in Greater Park Hill.
The flood hazard map in the city’s Flood Protection Handbook is online at
http://www.denvergov.org/content/dam/denvergov/Portals/428/documents/Denver_Flood_Protection_Handbook.pdf. It shows many hazards in Denver. It does not, however, show any of the flood hazards in a large part of northeast Denver, including Greater Park Hill. A reasonable viewer looking at that map from 2003 would assume there are no flood hazards in Greater Park Hill.
Those of you who were in or near Park Hill during the monster storm on June 24 (as well as other bad storms that hit this summer) know that, in fact, there are flood hazards within our community. We now have the resources to update that 12-year old map to reflect those additional hazards.
The map on the right does not show specific flood hazards in Greater Park Hill, but it does show the three major watersheds that do generate flood hazards in our community. The East Park Hill Creek watershed is shown in yellow, the West Park Hill Creek watershed in yellow-green, and the Montclair Creek watershed in red. In the future, I’ll discuss in some detail the creek systems that generate the flood hazards and specific locations in Greater Park Hill that face serious flood risk.
Within the three watersheds colored on the map there are floodprone areas, usually called “floodplains.” Within those three watersheds, however, no stream corridors have been mapped by FEMA as mandatory flood insurance areas.
Even though Park Hill’s flood hazard areas are not included on FEMA maps, the city has made a significant effort to record known flood risks in Park Hill and elsewhere in Denver. Park Hill’s flood risks are noted in the city’s 2014 Storm Drainage Master Plan. The city encourages businesses and residents to implement floodproofing measures to protect their properties and to consider purchasing flood insurance through their agent.
Since June 24, the City is looking more carefully at possibilities for reducing those flood risks through hazard mitigation projects. I urge you to contact newspaper editor Cara DeGette, and myself, with your thoughts for how to lessen our shared flood risks. Right now, we have a window of opportunity to work with the city to make this happen.
The bottomlands next to those three creek systems clearly do have flood hazards associated with them. Since June, the city staff has acquired a more detailed awareness of these hazards. It’s up to us to encourage the City right now to work with Park Hill to help reduce the flood risk we face in our community and to enhance the neighborhood in the process.
Brian Hyde is an expert in floodplain management and stream restoration. He wants your feedback at westerly_connect_brian@comcast.net or 720-939-6039. Editor Cara DeGette can be reached at editor@greaterparkhill.org.