Raw Water Model, Aurora, Colorado
High Country Hydrology’s staff has provided ongoing raw water modeling support to Aurora Water since the year 2000. This included developing a model of Aurora’s Arkansas and Colorado River basin operations, helping expand the model to include Aurora’s facilities in the South Platte basin, training Aurora’s in-house staff to use the model, and provide model support.
Aurora has used the model to identify bottlenecks in their delivery system, determine where storage limits the City’s yield and system reliability, quantify how yields could change under climate change scenarios, and run scenarios with suites of proposed projects for an Integrated Water Resources Plan. High Country continues to provide model support and be a source of institutional knowledge to the staff at Aurora Water.
“This looks fabulous. Thank you very much.” – DJ, Aurora Water
Water Rights Engineering
River Exchange, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs Utilities provides water to approximately 450,000 residents. Because the City is not located on a major river, most water has to be imported. Under Colorado water law, non-native water can be used and reused to extinction. Colorado Springs’ primary method for reusing its water is through river and contract exchanges, which allows the City to divert water at upstream locations while replacing flows at downstream locations to prevent injury to senior water rights.
High Country Hydrology has provided Colorado Springs Utilities with water rights engineering since 2008, including filing water rights applications for new exchanges and adding new sources of water to existing exchanges. Reusing the water legally available allows Colorado Springs to increase its water supply without having to develop new supplies.
“Genius it is. What you have provided will give us real-time access to [the data]. I plan to use this. Thanks!” – KL, Colorado Springs
Hydraulic Modeling
Bridge Replacement, Boulder County, Colorado
During a flood that occurred in September of 2013, more than 200 private bridges were damaged or destroyed in Boulder County. The County’s floodplain development criteria requires that hydraulic modeling be done by a registered professional engineer to demonstrate that new structures or other modifications to the stream channel will not increase the elevation of the 100-year flood. High Country has provided the modeling for approximately 20 replacement bridges.
Because the regulatory models developed by the County were typically 30 years old and often-times out of date, the County has allowed consultants to create models of pre- and post-flood conditions, and compare the models to determine how the proposed bridge reconstruction will affect the elevation of the floodwaters. We used pre- and post-flood LIDAR to generate channel cross-sections, and HEC-RAS to calculate flood elevations.
“Wow. Exactly what I needed. Thank you.” – VB, Boulder County