FAQ

Who owns the Rocky Mountain Ditch, exactly?
Rocky Mountain Ditch (RMD) is run by Rocky Mountain Water Company which is wholly owned by Coors Brewing Company, and in turn, the Molson Coors Company. Since the 1860s, there has been a permanent easement for this waterway. Consolidated Mutual Water Company (CMWC) owns the actual property over which the RMD flows. In short, Molson Coors owns the waterway, CMWC owns the land.

Who owns the Maple Grove Reservoir?
The equity of the reservoir is owned by CMWC water users. So, the customers are the shareholders of this nonprofit water company that serves over 22,000 households and businesses. CMWC expects the demand for water to grow, so they plan to expand the existing footprint of the reservoir in the near future.

What’s the relationship Between Molson Coors and CMWC?
The original agreement between CMWC and Molson Coors is that the water company would maintain the RMD. Over the years, this maintenance has been spotty at best. Sometimes, no maintenance occurred. Then, wholesale boom mowing took out all the vegetation. Many trees were left unattended, and falling branches tended to clog the ditch. Many homeowners cleared the ditch themselves.

Is the Rocky Mountain Ditch a designated “wildlife corridor”?
There appears to be an active wildlife corridor connecting Lena Gulch to the Rocky Mountain Ditch, which brings water in from Clear Creek up in the foothills. Community members have seen wildlife of all kinds along the ditch and around the Maple Grove Reservoir. Deer, foxes, raccoons, coyote, muskrats and more migrate through the area along the RMD. Dozens of species of water birds and perching birds are also residents. Birds of prey, such as Red Tail Hawks, Great Horned Owls, Bald Eagles and Cooper’s Hawks, are commonly seen at the reservoir, particularly in the large trees that have just been cut down by CMWC.

Did CMWC notify the neighborhood or shareholders about this project?
There was a basic flyer distributed only to the houses with properties backing up to the reservoir. However, no meeting was ever established for public concern or comment, and no other shareholders or neighbors were told about this. Even RMD wasn’t told about this project. The design for the $200,000 fencing project was changed and was approved in January 2023 by the City of Lakewood.

Can’t RMD stop this project since they own the ditch?
To our understanding, RMD issued a cease and desist CMWC around the lining of the ditch for the time being. Litigation is ongoing and the outcome is unclear at the time of this writing.

Isn’t this simply about protecting the views of the few homes around the reservoir?
No. CMWC contacted the homes directly adjacent to the reservoir, completely unaware that the presence and view of this reservoir is beloved throughout the larger neighborhood. When those of us away from the reservoir expressed our concerns and explained how this is an important matter for all, they made no effort to reach out to the larger community. As a result, most neighbors do not know about the concrete and metal fence construction planned by CMWC threatening the ecosystem along the RMD.

Are people just upset about their personal bridges are being taken down?
It’s true that over the past few decades, a few homeowners built bridges or even installed play equipment along the banks of the RMD. Because the land is legally owned by CMWC, these things are technically not legal, yet CMWC simply looked the other way and allowed them. These installations have now all been removed by CMWC in 2022 so access to the interior side of the ditch is now unavailable by pedestrians.

CMWC suggests that the fence will prevent the major problem of various trespassers coming onto their property. Isn’t that true?
Some trespassing has occurred, although those intrusions have been relatively few and far between. Sometimes, people have been seen walking dogs around the reservoir, yet several of these have been CMWC employees. Again, without the pedestrian footbridges, there is no longer access to the interior side of the ditch except by employees at this point.

Is deforestation truly happening to create this fence?
Yes. Many in the community were horrified to witness the removal of dozens of enormous mature trees. Some were nesting sites for Red Tail Hawks and Bald Eagles. After assuring adjacent homeowners that trees would only be ‘pruned,’ many 50 to 80-year old trees were cut down within days.

So WHY is Consolidated Mutual so anxious to add more fencing?
The reasons keep changing. At first, the CMWC Water Resource Manager (Jarod Roberts) explained that Molson Coors was demanding better fencing. Later, it was learned that Molson was never included nor informed about CMWC’s fence relocation and ditch-shoring activities. After that, the reason changed to a need to reduce the insurance premiums for CMWC. Then,
the argument was made that concrete ditch shoring was necessary to conserve the water flowing through RMD.

I saw some yard signs posted along the reservoir explaining about the fence, but now they’re gone. What happened?
Jarod Roberts with CMWC removed all of the signs (including any on private property). When asked why he was removing them from public property, he said that because they were on public property, he was free to remove them. If you’d like to help us replace those signs, that is one of the many ways we can help spread the word, so please do reach out!

Who is this “Consolidated Neighbors” group?
We are a group of neighbors who first came together to learn more about this project. When it became apparent that Jarod Roberts had misled us during that presentation, we realized we needed to act quickly to inform more neighbors about what is going on. Some of us live right by the reservoir, while others don’t. We’re of all ages and political affiliations. The one common denominator is simply that we care about what’s going on with this reservoir.

It’s hard to follow what happened when. Can you go over this for me?
Yes! It’s a lot to keep straight. We’ve put together a timeline you can see here.

What happened at Monday’s City of Lakewood Council meeting?
A handful of neighbors spoke, and neighbors wrote comments via Lakewood Speaks. You can see those comments here. If you’d like to see a video of the meeting, please find that here.

Last updated: 1/25/2023