changes to recreation for municiple water use

Chatfield Reservoir is a lake in Colorado built to control flooding from the South Platte River and Plum Creek. Chatfield is also one of the largest recreational waters in the Denver Metro area. It is located south of Denver and may soon serve as a storage reservior for some of the surrounding cities (suburbs of Denver) such as Castle Rock, Parker, Highlands Ranch, Brighton, and others. The problem becomes what will happen to the recreation on the lake. The Rocky Mountain News reports that if the proposed changes are approved, $100 million plus will be needed because, "The change in use would raise Chatfield's shoreline as much as 12 feet, forcing relocation of the swim beach, marina, several boat ramps and some picnic areas. " The change would require less room saved for flood waters and more room used to store municiple and agriculture water.

The Chatfiled dam was built in 1967 and became a recreational area in 1974 and a park in 1976. Since then there are things for everyone to do: hiking, camping, boating, fishing, etc., there is even a model-airplane field and hot air baloons, all just south of the Denver metro area.