Save the Poudre, a nonprofit that has challenged and delayed a handful of major dam and waterway projects across Colorado in the past decade, warned officials Monday it will sue to block Larimer County greenlighting a crucial section of a pipeline meant to deliver Poudre River water to Thornton.
Larimer County last month approved Thornton’s second attempt at receiving a so-called “1041” building permit, saying the Adams County city had shortened the route through Larimer County and made other emergency access and conservation concessions since its first failed application.
Save the Poudre, other environmental groups and neighbors of the pipeline route objected strongly to the Larimer commissioners’ vote in May. They said Thornton should take its water rights through the Poudre River channel itself rather than building a pipeline. Using the river channel for delivery would revive river ecology while avoiding construction and access issues on local roads issues, they said.
“It’s insane to divert the water out of the Poudre and put that water in a pipeline that crosses the river 12 miles downstream,” Save the Poudre director Gary Wockner said. “Using the river as the conveyance would increase the health of the river in Fort Collins, the riparian corridor along the river, and the recreational opportunity at the new Whitewater Park in downtown.”
Through years of talks among Thornton water officials, Larimer County officials and neighbors of the pipeline route, which now crosses 10 miles of land in Larimer County, the great majority of public comments have been against the pipeline and for Thornton using the river channel, Wockner said.
The suit, planned for state district court in Larimer County, will allege county approval violates the commissioners’ own guidelines under the 1041 project approval process, including requirements to limit impacts and promote conservation of resources.
“This decision not only violates the land use code, it violates the will of the people,” he said.
The 1041 process refers to the number of bill in the state legislature in the 1970s that set up how counties can approve major construction projects that impact public resources, including those proposed by cities or entities from outside the county.
The Larimer County commissioners in May said they had agonized over their votes before approving the Thornton permit 3-0. Final signoff on the permit application is scheduled for a regular commission work meeting Tuesday. Save the Poudre says it has 28 days from that final signing to file its lawsuit.
The commissioners and county planning staff said they had gained numerous concessions from Thornton from their first rejected application, including shortening the proposed 27-mile route inside the county down to about 10 miles, improved access during construction, limits on noise from construction and a pumping station, and more. Thornton says it needs the Larimer County section to link water rights it owns in reservoirs taking Poudre River water near Ted’s Place, northwest of Fort Collins, and continuing to pipeline segments already under construction in Weld County.
Thornton says it long ago rejected any consideration of using the Poudre channel to deliver its water rights, because the water would pick up contaminants such as PFAS, agricultural runoff, and industrial and municipal waste. That contamination would require a new treatment plant costing hundreds of millions of dollars, Thornton maintains.
Colorado courts ruled on Thornton’s first 1041 application that Larimer County had the right to reject it, but could not demand using the river channel as a condition of future approval.
A Thornton spokesperson said the city does not comment on potential or pending litigation. A spokesperson for Larimer County said the same.