Water Quality
The Metro District performs thousands of water quality tests each year to assure the public and the regulatory agencies that the Metro District is meeting the requirements of its Discharge Permits. The Current Water Quality  report demonstrates the Metro District’s ongoing commitment to improving Water Quality in the South Platte River. |
South Platte River Segment 15 Water Quality Data
Since 1998, the Metro District has been migrating all of its water quality data for Segment 15 of the Upper South Platte River into the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) data repository known as “STORET”. STORET (short for STOrage and RETrieval) is a repository for water quality, biological, and physical data used by the EPA, state environmental agencies, other federal agencies, universities, private citizens, and others. STORET users can choose to upload their local STORET data to the national data repository, which the EPA makes available to the general public. Metro District Water Quality data from 1987 to 2001 is available to the public through this national online data repository at http://www.epa.gov/storet/dbtop.html.
South Platte River Ecosystem
Historical Background - The report, "Segment 15 Water Quality: A Historic Perspective" , was prepared by the consulting engineering firm Camp Dresser & McKee Inc. in connection with South Platte River improvement studies the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District conducted in 1994. This report discusses the River basin, development and the River, water quality, regional concerns and actions, and recent developments and conclusions.
The report concludes by saying the South Platte River has shown significant improvements over the past 25 years, much of which is due to the efforts of Metro Wastewater Reclamation District. Further improvements are anticipated as a result of continued Metro District treatment facility improvements and higher levels of dissolved oxygen brought about by a series of drop structures (low, man-made waterfalls) being built between Denver and Fort Lupton. These structures will not only raise dissolved oxygen levels in the River but will save Denver area ratepayers about $80 million.
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Segment 15: A Unique Watershed - The paper, "Segment 15: A Unique Watershed" , by Metro Wastewater Reclamation District Water Quality Officer Todd L. Harris, Ph.D., shows that the South Platte River is a unique watershed with not one but two points of origin. One is the more-or-less traditional origin in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. More than half of this water, however, actually originates west of the Continental Divide, and without intervention by man, would naturally flow toward the Pacific Ocean.
The other origin of the South Platte River is in the homes of metro Denver. This River's tributaries are the myriad sewers that bring wastewater to the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District's modern wastewater treatment facility. Here, the water is cleaned and then discharged to a new South Platte River, which for nine months of the year gets 90 percent of its water from the outfalls of the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District at 64th and York Streets north of Denver.
As Harris points out, Segment 15 of the South Platte--which begins at the Burlington Ditch headgate just upstream of the Metro District's outfalls and continues 26 miles downstream to Fort Lupton--is more influenced by the area the Metro District serves than by topography. The South Platte River north of Denver is therefore no longer a natural watershed but a unique watershed and a unique resource that should be managed as such.
South Platte River Restoration - The paper, "Using Ecological Restoration to Meet Clean Water Act Goals" , by Metro Wastewater Reclamation District's Water Quality Officer Todd L. Harris, Ph.D., argues that the South Platte River cannot be restored to what it once was because to do that would be to destroy something that has become a resource. Harris points out that the River, before urban communities of the arid west settled along its banks and attempted to harness it, was often described by settlers as "too thin to plow, too thick to drink, a mile wide and an inch deep." Scientific research conducted by the Metro District shows the South Platte River now to be a resource with its own unique ecosystem. It is a River that flows year round rather than for a few months each year. And through management, it is a River that can become not what it once was but what we want it to become.
"Any use or reuse of these document shall be at the sole risk of the user and without any liability or legal exposure to the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District or Camp Dresser and McKee Inc. These document are subject to Copyright Law."
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