Screw the City of Westminster...

[Grant H.]

GD because it's not blatantly political...

So, according to the City of Westminster (CoW from here on out), they are not going to allow trailer born boats on Standley Lake ever again due to fear of "zebra mussels and quagga mussels" invading the water and causing damage...

https://www.cityofwestminster.us/Boating

Now, if you go look at the state website for ANS (Aquatic Nuisance Species), you will find that there is not a single lake in CO that has been at risk for these critters in the last 5 years, and not a single lake in CO has had a documented report of these species in nearly 10 years...

https://cpw.state.co.us/aboutus/Pages/ISP-Zebra-Quagga.aspx

CoW has repeatedly suggested that Standley should be off limits to any use except for fishing and non-powered recreational use. Through city council meeting attendance, and pressure from the park employee's themselves, this has been averted till now.

Now, CoW has decided to use their own BS idea of "risk" to eliminate the usage of the lake that they don't like. Despite that it is very publicly contrary to actual facts surrounding ANS in CO.

Fuck local .gov in this case, but in reality, fuck all .gov bureaucracy BS...

Sorry - Rant over... We just really enjoy wakeboarding in the summer, and Standley was a great option... And now political hacks have made it not an option...


Taken on Standley...
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/951/27261744487_ea7b39cfdd_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/Hx2yRn)0902171911c (https://flic.kr/p/Hx2yRn) by ARNEWB (https://www.flickr.com/photos/61071044@N08/), on Flickr

[Grant H.]

Oh, and if you live in CoW, enjoy the water rate hikes...

This one change will cost CoW $450k+ annually... (Boat permit revenue)...

[Mazin]

Call it wasteminster for a reason.

[Irving]

Ask them what they are going to do with all the money that is supposed to go to that lake instead.

[.455_Hunter]

I know families that purchased homes and property in the immediate vicinity of the lake because power boating is their complete lifestyle. I am sure they have some choice comments now.

[Irving]

Can you do recalls?

[Mtneer]

Sorry, not sorry; not politics, just science. This one actually makes sense. Once those damned things get into a lake, they do serious harm and there is no eradication that I've heard of. More remote places like Idaho make you buy an annual stamp per boat and (theoretically) do inspections. But for an urban lake like Standley, it's guaranteed there will be just the one asshole who slips through with a contaminated boat. It really is a threat to a water supply for a lot of people.

[Grant H.]

Sorry, not sorry; not politics, just science. This one actually makes sense. Once those damned things get into a lake, they do serious harm and there is no eradication that I've heard of. More remote places like Idaho make you buy an annual stamp per boat and (theoretically) do inspections. But for an urban lake like Standley, it's guaranteed there will be just the one asshole who slips through with a contaminated boat. It really is a threat to a water supply for a lot of people.

Maybe read the second link, that deals with precisely the misinformation that you are spreading...

They can't live here. They've been spotted in lakes in CO, and then they die off during the winter... We've had them, and then we haven't for years...

This is politics, and blatant inaccuracies, pure and simple.

[colorider]

I am one of those people who moved to Westminster for the lake. However, that was 17yrs ago. I live 2 minutes from the entrance. It was IDEAL. I would go to the lake every day after work, and chill out there on weekends. Some days would skip work, or work half a day just to be on the glassy smooth water. Wakeboarding and the boat life was everything to me and my wife. Sold the boat 13yrs ago when out son was born and did not replace it.
There are MANY people and families around here that moved for the sole purpose to be in close proximity of the lake. Driving to Chatfield or Cherry Creek, Boyd, or elsewhere is just not going to work for them. They use the lake every day after work, before work, weekends, etc. The neighborhoods are buzzing with anger after today's news. Oh, and fisherman too. The are also super pissed. Also, the city jacked our water prices up to an absurd amount a few months ago.

[Grant H.]

I am one of those people who moved to Westminster for the lake. However, that was 17yrs ago. I live 2 minutes from the entrance. It was IDEAL. I would go to the lake every day after work, and chill out there on weekends. Some days would skip work, or work half a day just to be on the glassy smooth water. Wakeboarding and the boat life was everything to me and my wife. Sold the boat 13yrs ago when out son was born and did not replace it.
There are MANY people and families around here that moved for the sole purpose to be in close proximity of the lake. Driving to Chatfield or Cherry Creek, Boyd, or elsewhere is just not going to work for them. They use the lake every day after work, before work, weekends, etc. The neighborhoods are buzzing with anger after today's news. Oh, and fisherman too. The are also super pissed. Also, the city jacked our water prices up to an absurd amount a few months ago.

Yeah, there has been some "gloating" from the fishermen that don't like seeing wake boats out early on a weekday morning, but they don't seem to understand that their boats are verboten as well... Any boat that arrives on a trailer is out...

I know our group of folks that we are close to from being out there all summer are super pissed. Everything is an hour plus away from there now.

CoW has known about this for a while, some folks that know more than I do have suggested it's one of the big reasons for the push to raise water rates 1/1/19 and 1/1/20, and yet they still let all of us pay our boat permit fee's, and now they will return it without any interest. That's dealing in bad faith, and I know a few folks have already contacted lawyers about this.

[.455_Hunter]

I am one of those people who moved to Westminster for the lake. However, that was 17yrs ago. I live 2 minutes from the entrance. It was IDEAL. I would go to the lake every day after work, and chill out there on weekends. Some days would skip work, or work half a day just to be on the glassy smooth water. Wakeboarding and the boat life was everything to me and my wife. Sold the boat 13yrs ago when out son was born and did not replace it.
There are MANY people and families around here that moved for the sole purpose to be in close proximity of the lake. Driving to Chatfield or Cherry Creek, Boyd, or elsewhere is just not going to work for them. They use the lake every day after work, before work, weekends, etc. The neighborhoods are buzzing with anger after today's news. Oh, and fisherman too. The are also super pissed. Also, the city jacked our water prices up to an absurd amount a few months ago.

Our old neighbors from Arvada sold their recently remodeled home to move onto the father's old family property (with old dumpy house) just across Alkire from the lake property boundary. Boating on that lake (and boating in general) are a multi-generational summer and fall activity for them.

[roberth]

CoW screwed up twice, put the residents instead of their development buddies (can you say corruption) on the hook for water, then screwed the boaters.

The (D) always looks out for their people. /sarc

[def90]

Right here from the CPW.. there are no waters in Colorado that are positive for Zebra or Quagga mussels. Zebra mussles cannot reproduce in waters that drop below 54 degrees and Quagga mussels cannot reproduce in waters that drop below 48 degrees.

https://cpw.state.co.us/aboutus/Pages/ISP-Zebra-Quagga.aspx

[newracer]

So CPW says the mussels cannot reproduce here yet they just introduced a new few for inspection and decontamination. I will have to pay that fee on my canoe if I want to use the electric motor on it.

[Grant H.]

So CPW says the mussels cannot reproduce here yet they just introduced a new few for inspection and decontamination. I will have to pay that fee on my canoe if I want to use the electric motor on it.

I've been looking at all of this as we are likely going to be on state park lakes this year now, and the stupid fee is for the invasive species that can live here (plants, mud snails, etc, just not the mussles that CoW is specifically citing). Most of the lakes already have the eurasian water milfoil (Standley included), and a good number already have the New Zealand Mud Snail and Rusty Crayfish. A handful don't, Boyd for instance doesn't have the mudsnails.

It's largely BS, because waterfowl can move the ANS between lakes too, but CPW is another stupid ass .gov bureaucracy, so why wouldn't they capitalize on an opportunity to collect more money...

[BladesNBarrels]

All of the State Park's waters have inspections before you launch.
They put a seal on the boat and trailer when the boat is pulled out if you are bringing it back.
They inspect that the seal is intact and look at the slip of paper they gave you at the same time when you return.
Takes about 3 minutes if there is no line.
If you have no seal, then they inspect all of the areas that might hold water, e.g. bait tanks, bilges, drains, and have you lower the motor or outdrive to see if they're dry.

Why doesn't the City of Westminster do the same?

[Grant H.]

All of the State Park's waters have inspections before you launch.
They put a seal on the boat and trailer when the boat is pulled out if you are bringing it back.
They inspect that the seal is intact and look at the slip of paper they gave you at the same time when you return.
Takes about 3 minutes if there is no line.
If you have no seal, then they inspect all of the areas that might hold water, e.g. bait tanks, bilges, drains, and have you lower the motor or outdrive to see if they're dry.

Why doesn't the City of Westminster do the same?

They do. They tag the boats on the way out, inspect the seal on the way in. If your seal/tag is broken, your boat can't be launched anywhere for 30 days after a spray down.

They claim they have identified 20ish boats that managed to cheat the seal/tag system, but they are unwilling to show how they "know this".

This has nothing to do with actual ANS issues, this is entirely the issue of CoW City Council and other folks (FRICO, who owns the lake) wanting to ban power boats for now. Based on some documents that have been passed around the wakeboat group (I don't know how they were gotten), the eventual plan is to ban all public use of Standley Lake.

Politics and bullshit...

[FoxtArt]

Step one: Buy the biggest box truck or RV possible on the cheap, something relatively beat up.

Step two: Gut the entire back end, build a padded boat hauler.

Step three: Profit.

You could probably bring in up to a 35' powerboat that way [LOL]

(yeah, I know they won't "permit" it)

[colorider]

Waterfowl can bring the invasive mussels to the lake. We need to ban them as well.

[ray1970]

Waterfowl can bring the invasive mussels to the lake. We need to ban them as well.

Or set up flak cannons to keep them out of the airspace.

[RblDiver]

Or set up flak cannons to keep them out of the airspace.

That does it, I know my new dream job: Fowl Flaker!

[kidicarus13]

The gov't is just trying to protect you boaters...

At the beginning of Superfund cleanup at Rocky Flats, the?5,273-acre plot of land?was home to?five of the 14 most-contaminated?buildings in America. Aerial photography taken during the FBI's pre-raid investigation showed radioactive material was being pumped into nearby Woman Creek and Standley Lake...

However,?Standley Lake?is already?contaminated?with ?low but measurable concentrations of?contaminationfrom 5-10 inches deep in the sediments? in the form of plutonium, due to?contaminated?wastewater released from Rocky Flats operations into Woman Creek, according to the CDPHE.



https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190320/15b60a92e860d2dc7bcd6ebf50cf4b7a.gif

[BladesNBarrels]

So, that's what is causing the glow fish.

Not to make light of the situation, but I couldn't help it.

[FoxtArt]

Waterfowl can bring the invasive mussels to the lake. We need to ban them as well.

So can illegals. What if they go swimming in Mexico, and then come back with Zebra eggs or larva, maintained by sweat until they reach Stanley Lake. BUILD THE WALL around Stanley Lake

[Grant H.]

The gov't is just trying to protect you boaters...

At the beginning of Superfund cleanup at Rocky Flats, the?5,273-acre plot of land?was home to?five of the 14 most-contaminated?buildings in America. Aerial photography taken during the FBI's pre-raid investigation showed radioactive material was being pumped into nearby Woman Creek and Standley Lake...

However,?Standley Lake?is already?contaminated?with ?low but measurable concentrations of?contaminationfrom 5-10 inches deep in the sediments? in the form of plutonium, due to?contaminated?wastewater released from Rocky Flats operations into Woman Creek, according to the CDPHE.



https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190320/15b60a92e860d2dc7bcd6ebf50cf4b7a.gif

Yep, that's it exactly... Just trying to protect us, while providing plutonium water to the city for drinking water... :D

It's long been known that the sediment at Standley tests positive for plutonium. I don't have a third arm yet, so it must not be that bad... [Sarcasm2]

[kidicarus13]

https://denver.cbslocal.com/2019/04/02/boat-ban-standley-lake/

[Irving]

We are always looking for close places to use our kayaks. I don't know how dumb this is, but I'd be less comfortable using this lake now because I don't want to get the stink eye from locals thinking I'd just be out there rubbing it in.

[Eric P]

Who cares what stink eyes you get. The lake will be safer for you on the kayak without powered boats zipping around.

[Grant H.]

Honestly, go for it. Who cares at this point? At least get some use out of the lake before they ban all watercraft.

As to Eric's comment, there is approx 30+% of the lake that is power boat free at all times for the canoes, kayaks, paddle boards etc... They are also free to use the rest of the lake, but must contend with the rest of the users, and follow the same rules (which they don't...) for the rest of the lake.

[BushMasterBoy]

From a scientific viewpoint, I'd say the real danger is the mollusks putting plutonium in the food chain. The zebra mussel will filter out pollution in the water. Any water that comes from that area should be distilled before consuming. Plutonium, it is what killed my father.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_mussel

[Irving]

I'm not a "kayak in front of a water skier" kind of guy anyway.

[Grant H.]

I'm not a "kayak in front of a water skier" kind of guy anyway.

This does not surprise me.

There are plenty of them who are, though... Then they like to give wakeboard/wakesurf boats the finger and yell threats...

[colorider]

I thought the paddle people and the yackers were only allowed in certain areas of the lake. Away from the boats.

[Irving]

I thought the paddle people and the yackers were only allowed in certain areas of the lake. Away from the boats.

Smart ones likely self police.

[roberth]

Lake is very quiet without boats. I spoke with a ranger, she was pleased that boats aren't on the lake anymore. I was going to ask her if park income was up or down but didn't get the chance.