Driving You Crazy: Where is the water coming from that is flowing over the Ward Rd sidewalk near I-70?

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo — Vickie from Arvada writes, “What's driving you crazy? On Ward Rd just north of I-70 there has been water running onto the sidewalk and has been before Covid. It looks like you can’t even use the sidewalk right there. Who owns the property where this water is coming from? Kaiser? City of Wheat Ridge? CDOT? RTD?”

The who answer is Kaiser, but the answer to why the water is flowing over the sidewalk and what can be done about it is a much more complicated question to answer.

When I went to take a look at the sidewalk, I was surprised not only by the amount of water that was flowing over it but more so by the water fed swamp that has overgrown the sidewalk. There is so much bog like aquatic plant life that the sidewalk has become rather gross, very slick and nearly impossible to walk through without slipping. There are other water plants that have sprung up next to the sidewalk and down the curb as the water flows all the way down Ward Rd to the drain just before the old RTD Park-N-Ride north of I-70. I could also see the green stained remnants of previous plant growth that at one point covered the sidewalk but was recently cleaned by CDOT. Ward Rd is also State Highway 72 and is therefore maintained by CDOT.

When trying to identify who is responsible for the constantly running water, I first looked at the satellite view of the area and saw a creek running just south of the large Kaiser Permanente medical facility on the west side of Ward Rd. What I learned after finding a US Topo Map on the AnyPlaceAmerica website, what I though was a creek was actually an irrigation ditch owned by the Consolidated Juchem Ditch & Reservoir Company. I also saw another smaller ditch called the Swadley Ditch running on the very east side of the Kaiser property. A ditch company rarely owns the land on which it is located. Most of the time these water carrying ditches lie on property owned by others like in this case, property owned by Kaiser.

That took me down a rabbit hole looking into all of the still active irrigation canals that meander through metro Denver. Many of the dozens of irrigation ditches along the front range were originally built in the 1860’s to move water from mountain rivers like Clear Creek to farms and ranches in the area. According to the City of Arvada, irrigation ditches still deliver water for a variety of users. They are typically owned collectively by shareholders who are part of an incorporated ditch company. The shareholders often include a mix of individuals, farms, municipalities, governmental agencies or industrial users.

All of that led me to speak with Jerry Hightower, current superintendent and past President of the Juchem Ditch. He says the water is not from them and could be coming from the nearby Swadley Ditch or it could be ground water seeping up to the surface and across the sidewalk. Jerry suggested I reached out to the Colorado Division of Water Resources (CDWR).

I talked to Jason Smith, CDWR tributary coordinator for Clear Creek and Boulder Creek who was curious about this water mystery after our conversation and took a look. He tells me, “The best that we can tell, it's just groundwater or seep but it could be a natural spring for all we know. We’ve had complaints about wet areas all through there and down to Mt Olivet. We don’t really know where all the underground water is coming from, it’s just a really wet area.” CDOT tells me they agree saying after checking with their maintenance teams, they believe the source is a natural spring on the Kaiser property pushing water up and over the sidewalk.

Since that groundwater is flowing up from under the Kaiser property, I reached out to Andrew Sorensen with Kaiser to ask if they were aware of the water issue and might look into diverting the water away from the sidewalk. He tells me they weren’t aware of this issue until I brought it to their attention. “We are looking into the water issue you identified and, at this time, have not determined its source or whether it originates from Kaiser Permanente property. Kaiser Permanente takes concerns involving our properties seriously. We are committed to being a responsible environmental steward and will work to better understand and appropriately address the situation.”

I then asked Jason Smith with CDWR the obvious question, what can be done, if anything, to divert the water to make it flow somewhere other than over the sidewalk. “The property owner, if they if they choose to, they could divert the water, which means it stays in a natural course but isn’t being consumed for agriculture or into a truck. You can divert it as long as the water goes back to the natural drainage, by Colorado statute, it’s ok to create a little ditch to prevent property damage and let it flow down the hill which eventually would be to Clear Creek but would run into Swadley first.”

Kaiser indicated to me they would be amenable to diverting the water once they learn more about it. “We will work with the appropriate local and state agencies, as needed, to better understand the source of the water, property boundaries, and potential next steps.” says Sorensen.

I saw the obvious scars from the late summer cleanup that CDOT maintenance workers did to clear off much of the vegetation that had grown over the sidewalk, but over the past several months, the bog quickly grew back and is again covering a decent section of the sidewalk. And now that we are transitioning to winter, icing on the sidewalk will become the major concern. The City of Wheat Ridge tells me CDOT is responsible for sidewalk maintenance. CDOT tells me they will continue to monitor the area and address cleanup as needed if water or ice accumulation poses a safety concern.

Denver7 Traffic Expert Jayson Luber says he has been covering Denver-metro traffic since Ben-Hur was driving a chariot. (We believe the actual number is over 25 years.) He's obsessed with letting viewers know what's happening on their drive and the best way to avoid the problems that spring up. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or listen to his award winning Driving You Crazy podcast on any podcast app including iTunes, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Podbean, or YouTube.