Colorado Parks & Wildlife Research Library

In this study, the Regional Transportation District's (RTD's) light rail operations were examined for pollutant production and runoff. Conclusions from the study: Water leaving ballasted tracks carries only a small fraction of the heavy metals that are introduced into tracks from the light rail operations. Heavy metal concentrations at the most heavily traveled light rail station showed that pollutant concentrations were far below the regulatory limits....

Wildland fires continue to threaten people and property across Colorado. Continued population growth into wildland-urban interface areas and an increasing frequency of elevated fire weather conditions present major challenges to Colorado residents. Heightened awareness of wildfire risk, prevention and mitigation are becoming increasingly important to ensure safety. The Colorado Wildfire Risk Assessment Portal provides access to information that describes...

In this study, the Regional Transportation District's (RTD's) light rail tracks were modeled to determine the Rational Method runoff coefficient, C, values corresponding to ballasted tracks. The runoff coefficient for ballasted tracks is significantly larger than the previously tabulated values for railroad yards. The higher runoff coefficient reflects the design of ballasted tracks to drain rainfall as quickly as possible.