Forest investment protects water supply, infrastructure

July 30, 2014 | By

The U.S. Department of the Interior has announced another $187,500 in funding for the Colorado-Big Thompson Project water system. This is in addition to the $152,000 Interior's Bureau of Reclamation has already committed as part of the state's Western Watershed Enhancement Partnership.

Big Thompson River. Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Wusel007

The Colorado-Big Thompson water system provides water to 800,000 people within eight counties, and to more than 650,000 acres of agricultural land. It also generates enough electricity to power 58,300 homes annually.

The Colorado-Big Thompson Headwaters Partnership pilot project is helping to identify and mitigate risks of wildfire to parts of the nation's water supply, irrigation and hydroelectric facilities. Flows of sediment, debris and ash into streams and rivers after wildfires can damage water quality and often require millions of dollars to repair damage to habitat, reservoirs and facilities.

The goal of the Western Watershed Enhancement Partnership is to restore forest and watershed health, and to proactively plan for post-wildfire response actions intended to protect municipal and agricultural water supplies, infrastructures and facilities, water delivery capabilities and hydro-electric power generation. They also hope to minimize sedimentation impacts on reservoirs and other water and hydro-electric infrastructure by reducing soil erosion and the impacts of wildfires, helping water managers avoid costs for dredging, water filtration, and the need to replace damaged infrastructure. 

Nationwide, the National Forest System provides drinking water to more than 60 million people. The share of water supply originating on national forest lands is particularly high across much of the West, including the upper Colorado River basin where nearly half of all water comes from national forests. Healthy forests filter rain and snowmelt, regulate runoff and slow soil erosion, delivering clean water at a far lower cost than it would take to build infrastructure to replace these services.

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