Cleanup begins Tuesday on troubled drainage channel in east Colorado Springs

(UPDATE: Tuesday, July 2)

On Tuesday, as promised, a work crew in Colorado Springs responded quickly to neighborhood concerns about a drainage channel on the city’s east side.
KRDO NewsChannel 13 was notified about the situation by a viewer and brought the matter to the city’s attention Monday.

A crew from the Neighborhood Services and Code Enforcement office arrived Tuesday morning at the West Fork of Sand Creek, near the intersection of Academy and Palmer Park boulevards.

The crew quickly cleaned up a small homeless camp a bank of the creek. The crew, two tents and their homeless occupants were gone when KRDO NewsChannel 13 arrived.

Workers will return later in the week to trim weeds along the creek, and team up with the Stormwater and Parks & Recreation departments to remove numerous dead trees, limbs and branches.

“I’m glad they came out so soon and did something,” said Debby Rohrer, a neighbor. “I’d like to see them do more.”

Another neighbor, Gloria Gildea, said she hasn’t used a concrete trail along the creek in more than a year.
“This just didn’t seem to be safe if you were by yourself, unless you were walking your dog,” she said. “It was just so overgrown, I just didn’t feel like there was any place for recourse to run to, or to be safe.”

Eric Eaton, a self-titled citizen scientist, said if the city can control trash, debris, and homeless activity in an along the creek, there’s no need to line it with concrete as so many other drainage channels are.

“They widen and channelize these small stream corridors, and in the process they de-vegetate them, and that takes a lot of habitat away from nesting birds and other desirable wildlife that we like to have,” he said.

Eaton said a downstream section of the creek is home to a dragonfly species that exists nowhere else in Colorado, but could become extinct if the city proceeds with plans to widen the channel in that area.

“I don’t want to discount concerns that neighbors have about what happens with and around drainage infrastructure,” he said. “But we all should try to be open-minded and look at what’s a more natural environment. One size doesn’t fit all.”

The city wants to create a maintenance plan for the creek and possibly improve its drainage.

(PREVIOUS STORY: Monday, July 1)

Trash, debris, and a homeless camp have residents of an east Colorado Springs neighborhood asking the city for action.

On Monday, after being made aware of the situation by KRDO NewsChannel 13, the city planned to send a crew to a troubled drainage channel Tuesday.

The channel, part of the Sand Creek West Fork, flows through the Rustic Hills area near Academy and Palmer Park boulevards.

Neighbors said the ditch is full of trash and debris, including many trees, limbs, and branches that broke off during a previous storm.

“This is something that makes me want to move,” said Cynthia Yeager, a neighbor who emailed KRDO NewsChannel 13 about the matter. “I’ve been here almost 30 years, and I’ve been considering moving for several years. But who would buy a house, come back here, and look at the conditions behind here?”

The ditch also has drainage issues, residents said, possibly because of the accumulated debris that has flooded a concrete path under a bridge.

Neighbors said the arrival of a homeless camp along the ditch has raised concerns about more trash.

“There’s also the dangers of when this starts flooding,” said Debby Rohrer, another neighbor. “They could be swept away, just like that. We’ve had flash flooding back here. It comes almost to the top.”

One resident said the city long ago planned to line the ditch with concrete, as it is north of that area.

But Mitch Hammes, manager of the city’s neighborhood services and code enforcement office, said the problems in and along the ditch are new and the process to investigate and clean up the area started Monday.
“We’re going to get out there and really take care of the problem — which is to clean up the debris,” he said. “We’re going to get any loose vegetation that’s out there. If there are any trees or branches out there that have fallen due to recent storms, we’re going to get those. We’re going to do everything we can with the resources that we have.”

Hammes also said the city will create a long-term maintenance plan for the area and, if possible, improve the drainage.

Yeager is cautiously optimistic.

“The city has been aware of this before and nothing has happened,” she said. “So I will hope for the best and hold my breath, but something’s going to have to change. This is just getting worse and worse.”