The Poudre River flows by the Kodak Colorado Division plant near Windsor. Environmental groups and wildlife officials are concerned that the Poudre's pollution from a variety of sources has gotten out of control, but state officials say there is little reason to worry. Photo by Benjamin J. Woodruff, Greeley Tribune

Story by Dan England, Greeley Tribune. Thursday, February 3, 2000 Page A12 and A13.

City officials have targeted the Poudre River as Greeley's recreational centerpiece.

Birders, bikers and hikers have targeted the river as one of the few places in Weld County to go for outdoor fun.

But environmentalists, wildlife officials and the board of the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment have targeted the river for a much different reason.

They say the Poudre is polluted and that, though the pollution starts in Larimer County, the main area of concern starts in the jewel of the river's trail project, near the paved paths of the Colo. 257 trailhead in Windsor and by the Kodak plant.

In fact, a federal study sponsored by the Sierra Club and other organizations named it Colorado's most polluted river and the nation's 25th worst in 1996.

Many disagree on whether the Poudre is heavily polluted, and many others disagree on who is responsible for most of the pollution. But almost everyone agrees that there are three main sources of pollution in the river. There is industrial pollution from the Kodak plant and others downstream from Windsor into Greeley. There is municipal pollution from the cities of Greeley, Windsor and a small secondary plant from Fort Collins. And there is agricultural pollution from years of runoff mixed with fertilizer.

All of it, environmental officials say, is creating a Poudre problem that may eventually harm much of the wildlife in the ecologically sensitive area that will one day be the focus of outdoors recreation in Greeley.

What's flowing through it?

Environmental groups acknowledge that they don't know the extent of the Poudre's pollution, but they know enough to be worried.

"I'm very concerned about it," said David Lauer, president of the Friends of the Poudre and a Fort Collins resident. "The quality of the water is not what it ought to be, chemically or appearance-wise."

The organization recently got a $27,000 grant to monitor the pollution of the Poudre and its attempting to figure out the best way to do it.

"There's a lot we don't know," Lauer said. "That's why we are doing this study. What we're trying to do is establish a benchmark, and then we'll continue to monitor it as long as we can."

Officials from the health department and the city of Greeley tried to get a grant to monitor the river from the Environmental Protection Agency but were rejected. The department's board was concerned enough to ask the department to look into the Poudre's pollution.

"The feeling of the board was the river doesn't look the way it used to," said Connie O'Neill, laboratory of program supervisor with the department. "They raised some sort of concern, and we're just trying to figure out whether they should be concerned."

Causes of the concern

No one can point to a specific cause of the Poudre's pollution. Almost everyone agrees that it's the cumulative effect that's causing the problem.

"It's everything from agricultural practices to industrial practices to urban practices," said Larry Rogstad, district wildlife officer for the Colorado Division of Wildlife's Greeley north district.

The river's pollution seems to be hurting the river's wildlife from Windsor to Greeley, Rogstad said.

There is more disease in the lower portion of the river than in many others, and last summer a total fish die-off for three miles of the stream occurred that still is being investigated by the DOW.

DOW officials said the cause probably was from an agricultural spill.

And silt from the chemicals and pollutants in the river have left little space for fish to breed.

"When systems become compromised, we lose special kinds of fish, and only the general species are the ones that survive," Rogstad said. "Now the lower Poudre is a carp and sucker stream. And those fish have lesions and pimples all over them.

Rogstad said the continuing growth of the Windsor area is what concerns him most about the Poudre.

"All that lawn fertilizer and all those oil patches on the road and everything all washes into the creek," Rogstad said. "The urban pollution is much worse and will only get worse as more growth occurs."

Mark Easter, conservation chair for the Larimer and Weld counties chapter of the Sierra Club, believes urban sprawl is a big part of the problem as well.

The Sierra Club recently completed a report on the effects of sprawl.

"I think people need to understand just what the effects of sprawl are," Easter said. "It's very hard to find the source of pollution. You can't do it. You have to look at the culmination of it."

What, me worry?

Officials of the Poudre Trail aren't that concerned about the Poudre's pollution.

"From a purely trail standpoint, I would say no, we aren't worried," said Karen Scopel, the city's natural resources planner.

"There could be some concerns about the broader range of opportunities, like, say, if we wanted to promote fishing. We would be interested in getting into some discussions about it."

There doesn't seem to be much cause for concern according to records from the water quality control division of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Kodak and the city of Greeley have permits to discharge into the river and are well within their permitted amounts, said Dave Akers, manager of the water quality protection section of the state' s water quality control division.

Kodak and the city monitor their discharged amounts and report them to the state, Akers said.

The state also periodically inspects the facilities, and there is a substantial penalty for false discharge reports.

However, even Akers admits that some think the discharge limits are too easy to make.

"There are some who would characterize them as conservative amounts," Akers said.

Those standards are set by the Environmental Protection Agency and are reviewed every three years by a nine-member committee of citizens.

The standards are up for review in July, 2000.

The state periodically samples the river to check the health of the river and whether the levels are being exceeded.

Jon Monson, director of water and sewer for the city, questions how one can determine the load of pollution a river is able to take.

But the EPA's monitoring system leaves him no doubt he doesn't need to be that concerned about it.

"The EPA has been in this business for 30 years," Monson said. "They know what they' re doing,"

But that doesn't ease the concerns of environmentalists such as Easter.

"We need to evaluate the Poudre as a resource, and we all need to take responsibility for it." Easter said. "It's time to start to ask questions."

©Copyright 2000, The Greeley Tribune. The Greeley Tribune grants permission for the Friends of the Poudre to use this story on the FOP website.