Once the County has been able to assess all impacts and the County’s contractor has completed its evaluation of impacted households, the Commissioners will determine the process for the distribution of funds. A public meeting has been scheduled for June 29, 2023, for the Boulder County Commissioners to consider recommendations for Phase 1* funding from Section 2. of the Denver Water vs. Boulder County Settlement Agreement.
* Because Denver Water’s operational plan for tree removal around Gross Reservoir will not be available until 2024, the Boulder County Commissioners decided that tree removal impacts will not be considered in the first phase of funding (i.e., money from the full $5 million mitigation fund will be held back for a future round of funding once the tree removal impacts are better known.).
As a result, there will be two phases of funding. Phase 1 will distribute funding based on ongoing impacts from the full 7-year Gross Dam Expansion Project. Phase 2 will distribute funding based on impacts from the 2-year tree removal operations, specifically. The Working Group focused on developing recommendations on the methodology to distribute Phase 1 funding. They also developed recommendations on how much funding to retain for Phase 2 of funding distributions.