Project Description
The Pine Gulch Dam is located approximately ¼ mile north of the Town Center of Parker in the
unincorporated area of Douglas County, Colorado. The dam is near the downstream end of the Pine
Gulch watershed which drains to Sulphur Gulch that eventually drains to Cherry Creek. The dam is
an earthern embankment that has an emergency spillway on the right side of the embankment. The
dam was proposed fifty years ago by the Cherry Creek Soil Conservation District and Douglas County
as part of a watershed protection and flood prevention plan for the upper Cherry Creek watershed.
The dam, constructed in the early 1960’s, controls a tributary to Sulphur Gulch 0.68 square miles in area.
It is approximately 27 feet high and impounds 56.0 acre-feet at the elevation of the emergency spillway.
It is designed to contain the 100-year storm event, which consists of 3.04 inches of rain in a 6-hour
period according to the design report. Under normal condition, the dam does not impound water in the reservoir.
During the last 50 years, the Town has grown considerably, and now there are residential and commercial
properties immediately downstream of the dam in downtown Parker, including the Town Hall. The County was
notified by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in September 2008 that the hazard
classification needs to be evaluated, and an EAP must be developed if the dam is classified as significant
or high hazard.
This study was undertaken to evaluate the potential hazard of the existing dam to re-define the dam’s
appropriate classification based on Colorado State Engineer’s Office (SEO) Rules. The hazard
classification along with the dam size classification defines the required SDF for the project and,
therefore, the spillway capacity. Depending on the results of the dam hazard classification, alternative
analysis and conceptual design will be provided to update the Outfall System Plan for the Sulphur Gulch.