 Stakeholder
Update
June 2000
Dear BASIN Stakeholders,
The BASIN project
team has been very busy during the last few months, and we have lots
to update you about!
Water Quality
Data: Posting of city of Boulder water quality data is progressing nicely.
We already have total organic compound, pH, dissolved oxygen, and nutrient
data available online. Jim Waterman of BASIN developed a great way to
display this complex data in a way that is easily understood by the
general public. So far, the feedback on these data sets has been really
positive.
Sheila Murphy,
our research analyst, is busy preparing other types of water quality
data. In addition, she has made significant progress in getting other
communities to provide their data for the site. Denver Water has provided
water quality data on South Boulder Creek that should be up on the website
by July. Longmont's data on St. Vrain is also in the works. Please check
out the spatial data catalog on the BASIN website and let us know what
you think.
Outreach and
Marketing: The team has been very busy with outreach over the past months.
Mark and Sheila have given great presentations to a variety of groups
including the state Flood and Drought task forces and EPA Region 8 and
on local radio station KGNU. These presentations have been favorably
received and have given us a great deal of exposure. If you would like
to have us give a presentation of the project to your business or community
group, please let us know.
We just completed
a Green Report, a Channel 8 environmental program, on the watershed.
Watch for it to air soon. It features the work of the core project team,
and includes interviews with Chris Rudkin (city of Boulder), Sheila
Murphy (BASIN), David Sample (CU) and Mark McCaffrey (BASIN). We now
have BASIN brochures and posters available. If you'd like some to display
or give to associates, let us know and we'll send them your way. We've
issued several press releases, which have been picked up by such diverse
media as the Longmont paper and the Boulder County Business Report.
In addition, we had a BASIN utility bill insert in the June city of
Boulder water bills. Our bi-monthly newsletter is now available in electronic
form and in hardcopy. Hardcopies are distributed in various city offices.
The electronic version is distributed to an email listserve. If you
aren't already on the listserve, let us know and we'll add you.
Mark represented
BASIN at the Boulder Earth Day Festival, the Boulder Creek Festival
and the Children's Water Festival. At each event, we had our brochures
and other information available for the public. Future presentations
will include the Stockholm International Water Symposium in August and
the AWRA state convention in Vail in September. School Outreach: We've
make alot of progress in our school educational outreach. Currently,
the Sojourner School in Boulder is working on an 'environmental reporter'
project in which they are creating a video on Boulder Creek and water
quality. When its completed, the video will be shown on Channel 54 and
complete details on the project will be available on the BASIN website.
A New Water
Quality Study: The U.S. Geological Survey, BASIN and the city of Boulder
are working on a new summer and fall water quality investigation of
Boulder Creek. High-flow and low-flow water quality sampling of Boulder
Creek from upstream of the town of Eldorado to below the confluence
of Boulder Creek and Coal Creek will be carried out to determine geologic
and human influences on water chemistry and to provide a baseline data
set for constraining future impacts. A variety of measurements will
be performed on the water samples, including pH, dissolved oxygen, and
major element, metal, pesticide and pharmaceutical concentrations. BASIN
project team members Dr. Larry Barber (U.S.G.S.) and Sheila Murphy are
designing and implementing the study that will include a large number
of U.S.G.S and city of Boulder participants. This study promises to
be highly useful and we are excited to be a partner. Check out our website
for developments at the study get underway.
Household Cleaner
Alternatives: A great new resource is now available on BASIN that gives
alternatives to harmful, toxic household cleaners. Sheila compiled an
extensive list of cleaners, the harmful affects of these cleaners and
alternatives to their use that are environmentally benign. The next
time you reach for the heavy-duty cleaner, check out the website first
for a better solution! You can go directly to the information at basin.org/local/houstext.html
New Project
Manager: As you may know, Gene Dilworth left the project in January
to go back to school. Tammy Fiebelkorn came on board in January. Tammy
is a consultant with a background in energy and air quality issues.
If any of you would like to contact Tammy, please feel free to give
her a call at 441-1964. Website Redesign: We are currently in the midst
of a website redesign. As the amount of information we provide grows,
we are finding that the current design is becoming more and more cumbersome.
Mark, Jim and the wonderful BCN volunteers developed a new architecture
that will make navigation of the site much easier. The changes are underway
now and should be ready sometime in late July, so be watching for it.
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