Papers of Harold G. Evans

Harold G. Evans is a civil engineer whose career as a general contractor led to his extensive involvement in South Platte Basin water issues. Evans served on a number of local and state water committees for more than twenty years, contributing his engineering, construction, and business expertise.

Evans, born in 1944, grew up in southwest Missouri. He earned his BS (1967) and MS (1968) degrees in civil engineering from the University of Missouri – Columbia. From 1971 through 1990, Evans held a number of positions at Hensel Phelps Construction Company in Greeley, Colorado, including superintendent, project manager, manager of corporate services, district manager, vice president, and executive vice president. He left the company in 1990 to start his own firm, the Evans Group, which focuses on commercial real estate development and construction management consulting services.

Amidst his professional career, Evans became quite involved in water resources issues. He has served on the Greeley Water and Sewer Board since 1997, including 20 years as chair. In 2003 he served on the Owens-Hoppe-Salazar South Platte Committee, which helped draft Senate Bill 73 dealing with agricultural groundwater well augmentation. Evans was involved with the planning effort SWSI (Statewide Water Supply Initiative) from 2004 to 2007 as a member of the Addressing the Gap, Conservation, and Alternative to Ag Dry-Up technical roundtables for SWSI Phase 2.

After the Colorado legislature established the Interbasin Compact Committee and basin roundtables in 2005, Evans dedicated ten years of service as the Weld County municipal representative to the South Platte Basin Roundtable from 2005 to 2015. This group worked with the Colorado Water Conservation Board on writing the first Colorado Water Plan. While a member of the roundtable, he served as chair and vice chair.

During Summer 2007, Evans was a member of Governor Bill Ritter's South Platte River Task Force, charged with making recommendations regarding groundwater well issues. In July 2010, Evans testified before the Subcommittee on Water and Power of the Committee on Natural Resources of the U.S. House of Representatives regarding municipal water resource planning. In 2020, Evans contributed a chapter to and served as publisher of Confluence: The Story of Greeley Water by Gregory J. Hobbs, Jr., and Michael Welsh.

Beyond water-related service, Evans also dedicated his time and expertise to community organizations, including the Greeley Rotary Club, United Way of Weld County, and as a director of the First National Bank of Colorado. Evans received a number of community awards, including Rotarian of the Year and being selected with his wife Carol as the 2011 grand marshals of the Greeley Stampede. Evans and his wife have a son, a daughter, and four grandchildren.