UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Based on the Association's 9-Element watershed-based plans for EPA Region 2 plans’ findings, the Association is creating a Nonpoint Source (NPS) Projects Dashboard for 208 Planning Region 2 (Larimer and Weld counties). The Dashboard would enable the public, government agencies, non‑profits, and private stakeholders to coordinate and collaborate on watershed projects for the South Platte, Cache la Poudre, Big & Little Thompson, and St. Vrain Creek watersheds.

 The NPS Projects Dashboard would let utilities and the public identify, review, and propose projects to improve regional water quality. It would promote collaborative regional planning, facilitation, and project review to prioritize feasible, cost‑effective, non‑competitive grants and avoid duplication. The tool would serve as a one‑stop resource for municipal, industrial, agricultural, and fire prevention/restoration stakeholders—similar in concept to an “Adopt a Highway” program but applied to nonpoint source projects. Users could select projects that deliver the greatest water‑quality benefit within a watershed, with the goal of getting local implementation (boots on the ground) of best management practices (BMPs).

Regionally, governments and municipalities face a tipping point: efforts must be practicable, economically reasonable, and technologically feasible under the Clean Water Act. Innovative, collaborative approaches are needed to protect water quality while keeping wastewater utility rates affordable. The Association’s long-term goal is to enable water-quality trading between nonpoint and point sources (permittees) for projects listed on the NPS Projects Dashboard. The Dashboard aligns with many priorities and measurable outcomes in the South Platte Basin Implementation Plan and Colorado’s Water Plan. The Dashboard encourages the implementation of projects, promotes municipal and industrial involvement, improves irrigated and recreational water quality, enhances watershed function by collaborative management strategies using regional planning, education, and outreach, and improves the overall efficiency and effectiveness of implementing regional NPS projects. Encouraging and completing NPS projects regionally for the entire South Platte Basin benefits everyone by improving water quality, including all point-source permittees (wastewater, drinking water, stormwater, dewatering, etc.), recreational users, irrigators, and agricultural producers.