MONTROSE, Sept. 6, 4:32 p.m. – If a Western Slope conservation group has its way, the banks of the Uncompahgre River through the city of Montrose and Montrose County could be saved from further development – with the science and the safety of the river’s water quality doing the talking.

Friends of the River Uncompahgre board member Hank Hotze presented a plan to improve the river’s water quality that will in turn preserve the river’s riparian habitat to the Montrose City Council at an Aug. 16 work session.

The plan asks for a 100-foot buffer zone of non-compacted natural habitat on both sides of the river that will act as a filtration system for surface and subsurface water entering the river, which could improve the water quality of the Uncompahgre by taking out such contaminants as e. Coli, fecal matter and heavy metals.

“This buffer zone is basically a filtration system that science says should be 50-meters,” Hotze said in an Aug. 29 interview. “Fifty meters will be hard to get. We are hoping the language will read a minimum of 100 feet. This filters nitrates out of the water, both surface and subsurface, before it gets back into the river. If you have a riparian buffer zone – a non-compacted natural zone with native shrubs and willows, etc., etc. – you would then get the river cleaned up, and we can get that done in Montrose.”

According to Hotze, the Uncompahgre’s water quality upstream of Montrose isn’t bad, but as the river approaches the city and development, “strange” things begin to happen.

“The Uncompahgre Valley, particularly through Montrose is approximately 100 feet deep, and has huge alluvial boulders in it that were deposited there during the Ice Age,” Hotze said. “We retain a lot of stuff that is deposited in the river, which seems to be in good shape until you get to Montrose and then it gets strange all the way until Delta. We [FORU] found research that a buffer zone will filter all return water. At the same time, that non-compacted natural habitat needed to filter the water will be preserved as well.”

At the Aug. 16 work session, council directed Hotze and members of FORU to work with the city’s attorney and staff to come up with wording to add the 100-foot buffer zone to city planning/building codes, which would require council approval.

“There are a number of things that have to be weighed,” said Montrose City Councilmember David White in an interview. “I think most property owners that own property along the river are going to look at this two ways. They will look at it from a community standpoint and [how best] to preserve that corridor. Or they will look at it from an economic standpoint – they want to maximize the benefit that is derived from owning that property.

“The proposal they have made so far I think is conceptually a good idea,” White said. “There are stretches of river that have no development to speak of. Those are the areas we are most interested in preserving. First it boils down to the legalities of what you can and cannot do. Obviously, government can impose regulations and codes and whatnot. We are looking at how does this affect property owners and what is in the best interest of our property owners.”

Dennis Erickson, the park planner of the City of Montrose, explains that the habitat along the river corridor came under the spotlight following the recent development on the south end of town (Target, J.C. Penney’s). He believes and that FORU’s plan for preserving water quality will make the Uncompahgre the centerpiece of Montrose.

“I think people were shocked and awed at what was going on in that development south of town,” Erickson said. “That developer did work well with the city and they provided us with more than 100 feet as a buffer zone. The riparian buffer zone that [FORU] is proposing, that I agree with, will help take care of the river as far as removing the nitrates and contaminants. I don’t think of this plan as saving the land, it is saving the water quality in the river and the riparian corridor is an extra to protecting the water quality.

“The Uncompahgre, as Montrose has said, is the jewel of our community and it is right in the heart of Montrose,” he added. “People are starting to recognize that it is a valuable asset. In years past, the areas along the river have been considered our backyard, but now, hopefully people will start turning around and looking at it as our front yard and that it is a benefit and it is the community that makes it a jewel.”

Hotze hopes that if the city decides to add the 100-foot riparian buffer zone to the city’s planning codes, Montrose County will follow suit. He also would like to see other counties and municipalities on the Western Slope take similar planning/development actions to preserve the area’s water qualities and river corridors.

“I grew up on Cherry Creek in Denver and I loved the biology of the river,” Hotze said. “As it turns out, the place was a sewer. Cherry Creek then decided ‘that it would be great to have a river, maybe we should take care of it.’ It cost them ten or a hundred times more to clean the river up after it had already been damaged.

“We got a wake up call here in Montrose when the developer decided to take out those trees, and that was his right,” he added. “Right now, our next step is with the county. They will have the city take the lead in the process and what we hope they will do is when the city writes the code, they will come up with an intergovernmental agreement, and they [county] will manage their riverbanks in a similar way.

“We will then go and talk to Ridgway and then to Ouray,” Hotze said. “This plan is a fabulous thing. There are a lot of things going on near the San Miguel River, and this gives planners in that area the tools to write codes that says there needs to be a minimum of 100 feet and this is the reason it is important. This doesn’t have to do with politics or fingerpointing, it has to do with the general health of the public and water quality.”