The Path Forward
Resources Will Help Plan For Flooding In Park Hill
During the past several months, we have been reading in these pages the stories – several of them quite painful – about the devastation and loss from the June 24 floods in Park Hill and in other parts of east Denver. Among the reports:
• Basements knee-deep or hip-deep in dirty brown water
• Cars ruined just because of where they were parked
• Floodwalls providing no protection to the homes behind them
• Powerful warnings that in several locations in Park Hill a slightly bigger storm could truly result in loss of life.
If I left you only one lesson from June 24, it would be, as a community, we have done a poor job of understanding that the land on which Park Hill is located lies largely within three watersheds that were created by Mother Nature long before the Colorado Gold Rush of 1858.
I will call the creeks that are the “spines” of those three watersheds Montclair Creek, East Park Hill Creek and West Park Hill Creek. We humans began to ignore, and thereby interfere with, Montclair Creek in 1870. We waited a little longer to interfere with the other two creeks.
Most of Park Hill was annexed into Denver in 1893. The first area to have been platted prior to that annexation (in 1871) was the Hartman’s Addition, between Colfax Avenue and Montview Boulevard, extending from Colorado Boulevard to Dahlia Street.
The part of Hartman’s Addition between Colfax and 17th Avenue is largely in the Montclair Creek bottomlands near City Park. Construction of houses, stores, streets, and other urban features there and in other parts of Park Hill, from the late 19th century to the present, has largely paid little or no mind to our three creeks.
As long as we continue to view them as storm drainage facilities to be “fixed” by Denver Public Works when they bother us (simply networks of pipes and storm inlets to be periodically enlarged), I expect, unfortunately, to see and hear more sad stories. We continue to ignore these natural creek systems at our own peril.
On Oct. 15, I represented Park Hill at a meeting to discuss potential impacts/benefits to upstream and downstream neighborhoods (including Park Hill) from flood hazard reduction features that will be a part of the reconfiguring of I-70 between Brighton Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard by Colorado Department of Transportation.
A conversation with a representative from Denver Public Works immediately after the formal end of the meeting, and some specific (and much appreciated) follow-up on his part, has led me to the clearest answer I have come up with so far to the question of whether there might be a path forward.
Here is a start – some help from Denver Public Works for some of you who experienced basement flooding. The City and County of Denver’s Flood Protection Handbook, has suggestions that might be helpful; especially pertaining to floor drains and sewer backups.
The handbook is available online at:
http://www.denvergov.org/content/dam/denvergov/Portals/428/documents/Denver_Flood_Protection_Handbook.pdf
A more general listing of Emergency Preparedness city resources is also online:
www.denvergov.org/tabid/391460/Default.aspx
Make sure to take a look at the maps, in the Flood Protection Handbook. It shows flood hazards in Denver, including Greater Park Hill.
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.