Great Idea, Perserverance or Combo?

No one is going to be forgetting about the ‘Dream Stream’ anytime soon, but don’t overlook Colorado’s ‘Stream of Dreams’. Follow the links to see how years of work have begun to gain serious traction and momentum. And stay tuned to find out how you can give the Denver Metro a clean, natural, swimmable, boatable and, yes, fishable river.

Denver Post Your Hub article by Daniel Smith

Denver Post article by Bruce Finley

The New Golden Age of the Urban South Platte

We spend a lot of time doing the crucial, good work of defending and whistle-blowing, and when we turn back careless greed or stave off disaster; we feel good. Rightly so. But there is something extra-special about an opportunity to get back something that’s been lost.

Last night the board of South Platte Suburban Parks and Recreation and the City of Littleton voted unanimously to begin the process of returning the South Platte to a naturally functioning river. They approved the master plan proposed by Ecological Resource Consultants (ERC), whose intial feasibility study was purchased by Denver Trout Unlimited. The work begins with three demonstration projects, which are fully funded and you should expect to see work begin in late 2012.

To pursue and fund this project took enormous vision, courage and commitment by South Suburban Parks and Recreation, the City of Littleton and Urban Drainage. The Littleton project added to planned improvements utilizing the Shattuck money awarded to The Greenway Foundation equals a Renaissance for the Urban South Platte.

Click HERE to check out the plan for the South Platte River in Littleton.

Carp Slam 5 Champion McTage Now Conservation Hero

Trevor Tanner was already a proven friend of the Denver South Platte River having volunteered time and raising money for river restoration. This August, Trevor was crowned the Amateur Champion of DTU’s Fifth Annual South Platte Pro-Am Carp Slam. Trevor can now be considered a Conservation Hero. Click HERE to read the Denver Post story about how Trevor, while prowling an area of the South Platte known as “The Stink”, recognized a growing environmental crisis and doggedly pursued a response that has ultimately led to involvement by the EPA.

What next McTage?

Tweet this link about #SPspill South Platte Spill.

Additional coverage of the Sand Creek – Suncor  Benzene Spill – Beginning Nov 2011

• 11/27/2011 Trevor Tanner … Original Post on the Sand Creek Spill he happened upon on while fishing the Denver South Platte.
• 11/29/20011  Bruce Finley … Three trucks sucking up oily muck in Sand Creek trying to keep more from flowing into South Platte River – The Denver Post
• 11/30/2011 Bruce Finley … Health department: Pipe may have broken a half mile from Sand Creek spill site – The Denver Post
• 12/01/2011 Bruce Finley … Benzene in Sand Creek measured at 400 times amount tolerated by national drinking water standards, EPA tests show – The Denver Post
• 12/01/2011 Walter Ayramenko .. Order to Suncor on monitoring and mitigation .. CO Dep of Health and Env.
• 12/02/2011 Will Rice in the Drake … S. Platte Bitten by Benzene Attack
• 12/02/2011  Bruce Finley Denver Post … Cleanup orders at Colorado’s Suncor refinery spill into Sand Creek officially issued – The Denver Post
• 12/02/2011  EPA  Sampling Read:the full summary of the EPA’s surface water sampling for the Sand Creek seep, as of December 2, 2011.
• 12/03/2011 Bruce Finley … Trench being dug to halt toxic ooze into Sand Creek north of Denver – The Denver Post
• 12/05/2011  Trevor Tanner – Inspection of Sand Creek spill mitigation.
• 12/06/2011 Bruce Finley … Sand Creek trench done, catching gasoline-like leak near Denver refinery – The Denver Post
• 12/30/2011 CO Dept of Health and Environment – Hazmat -.. 2nd Interim Order requires sparging system and drinking water standards in Sand Creek by 1/31/2012
• 12/30/2011 Bruce Finley  … Benzene is fouling drinking water at Suncor refinery and chemicals are seeping directly into Sand Creek- The Denver Post
• 01/02/2012 Will Rice … Cause & Fx -current status of Sand Creek -The Drake Magazine.
• 01/07/2012 Bruce Finley …Suncor refinery employees tested for benzene contamination - The Denver Post