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Bear Creek watershed faces steep nutrient cuts under new TMDL, officials say
Summary
Speakers at a Conifer town hall warned a new state TMDL will require deep phosphorus and nitrogen reductions across the Bear Creek watershed, potentially forcing costly wastewater upgrades, expanded trading programs and targeted controls on on‑site septic systems and new development.
At a Conifer town hall on watershed management, a long‑time watershed association manager said new state modeling will force substantial nutrient reductions in the Bear Creek system and that the result will affect treatment facilities, on‑site systems and future development.
"We have to have 95% reduction of the total phosphorus that comes out as part of the internal load," the presenter said when describing the study results for Bear Creek Reservoir, adding that watershed‑wide cuts for nitrogen and phosphorus were presented in the study as roughly 56%.
The presenter said the reservoir is primarily a flood‑control facility that can hold up to about 93,000 acre‑feet during storms, and that the state engineer and the Army Corps have examined whether additional storage is feasible.…
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