Boulder may create water advisory board

A standing room-only crowd gathered at City Hall Monday evening to share their concerns with Boulder’s City Council about the town’s water sales – nearly a million gallons, as of this week – for use by a resort in the Shields Valley.

“When I’ve spoken to people in this community, it’s very much agreed upon that if this sale of water was for emergency use for our neighbors in Montana, people wouldn’t see a problem with it,” said Brady Smith, a Boulder Valley rancher who asked that the question of bulk water sales be put on the Council and who introduced the discussion. 

“Part of the issue is this is a recreational use 150 miles away,” Smith said. “We have to think about what happens to our water in the long term [and] if we’re setting a precedent that we are a town that will sell its water to whoever comes along for what’s a pretty low cost.”