Chatfield Reservoir is more than just a beautiful place.
It provides safety from flooding, recreational activities, supports several species of birds, wildlife and aquatics, and stores drinking water supply for local communities. You can help preserve Chatfield now by helping keep the Chatfield watershed clean. The Chatfield Watershed Authority promotes the protection of water quality in the Chatfield Watershed for recreation, fisheries, drinking water supplies, and other beneficial uses.
To protect these beneficial uses, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Water Quality Control Commission, adopted Regulation #73. This regulation includes limits on the amount of phosphorus that can get into the reservoir. The number one source of phosphorus to Chatfield Reservoir is from nonpoint sources (NPS). Nonpoint sources of nutrients, such as phosphorus, come from many diffuse sources. NPS pollution is caused by rainfall or snowmelt moving over and through the ground. As the runoff moves, it picks up and carries away natural and human-made pollutants, finally depositing them into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters, and even our underground sources of drinking water.
The Chatfield Watershed Authority would like to thank our gracious hosts, US Army Corps of Engineers staff members Gene Seagle and Joseph Holcom for an illuminating tour of the Chatfield Lake Dam on August 6, 2024. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates the dam and reservoir to provide many benefits to the local and regional public, most importantly the reduction of the loss of life and property damage from floods. USACE leases 5,381 land and water acres to the State of Colorado Parks and Wildlife Division to operate Chatfield State Park. USACE also leases separate portions of project property to the Parks and Wildlife Division for fish production and rearing areas, and to the City and County of Denver, which in turn has a management agreement with Denver Botanic Gardens.
SB23-267 - The Chatfield State Park Water Quality Fee signed into law
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More than 200 acres preserved forever in Douglas County real estate trade
Wildlife habitat near Roxborough State Park expanded thanks to partnership.
Posted on September 27, 2023 2023 DC Outdoors News and Events
The trade, involving Douglas County, Sterling Ranch Acquisitions and American chemical company, Chemours FC, LLC, results in the preservation of 204 acres of open space via a conservation easement. Conservation easements are voluntary legal agreements between a landowner and public entity that forever restricts how the land may be used, specifically for the purpose of conservation.