The billionaire owner of a San Luis Valley ranch who is building an 8-foot high fence along his property line has violated water quality laws and must “cease and desist,” according to state officials concerned that the construction eroded hillsides and disrupted water flow, sending sediment down the mountains and into arroyos, creeks and the Rio Grande.
The Cielo Vista Ranch could face penalties of up to $65,544 per day for violating water quality laws, according to a notice sent to the ranch last week by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
The state health department does not have the authority to order Cielo Vista to stop constructing the fence, but can order it to “cease and desist” violating the Colorado Water Quality Control Act and correct the damage the construction has caused to waterways.
Still, the notice comes as a major relief for a group of people in the San Luis Valley who have been fighting construction of the fence since soon after it began in 2020. A bulldozer plowed a path 20-feet wide up and down steep ravines, taking out piñon trees and sagebrush, to make way for the fence, which is a wire grid with barbed wire at the top and bottom.
The still-unresolved battle over the fence has dragged on for four years. Construction was halted in 2023, after about 20 miles of fenceline were erected, when Costilla County commissioners won a temporary injunction against ranch owner William Harrison, who purchased the ranch in 2017. The battle moved to courtrooms. And in May, Gov. Jared Polis signed a law that could block future attempts to expand the fence and gave county commissioners responsibility for determining whether the benefits of the fence outweigh the harms.
The latest order, from the state health department’s Water Quality Control Division, comes after local residents called the media, Attorney General Phil Weiser and their state legislators, who invited state environmental officials to the San Luis Valley to see the fence for themselves.
“I’m just happy for our citizens that the ranch will be held accountable for the damage done by the fence,” said Bernadette Lucero, who lives in Costilla County and is concerned that heavy metals disturbed by the bulldozing are now in the water supply. “We couldn’t get anybody to listen to us. We’ve called. We’ve sent letters. Then all of a sudden, things started moving.”
Locals say the bulldozed path that uprooted earth and left ruts in the dirt has captured rainwater and snowmelt, sending it down the mountain in a wash. The fence also has disrupted wildlife patterns, cutting off water sources for deer, elk and smaller animals, they said.
“Sediment can smother stream beds, suffocate fish eggs and bottom-dwelling organisms, degrade the quality of water for drinking, and interfere with recreational uses,” said Brent Temmer, spokesperson for the state water quality division. “Sediment may carry adsorbed chemicals, chlorinated pesticides and heavy metals.”
An attorney for Cielo Vista said the ranch had received the notice and is reviewing it. “Because this is an active administrative matter, we are not able to comment on the specifics,” attorney Jamie Dickinson told The Sun via email Wednesday.
Harrison, the son of a Texas oil baron, bought the ranch after it was listed for $105 million. He has said in court records and through his attorney that he began constructing the fence because trespassers entered his 88,000 acres to dump trash and collect antlers, to fish illegally and ride ATVs. He also said he needed a fence to contain his herd of bison, which locals have estimated at about 60 animals.
The land, though, is part of the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant of 1844, which guarantees the heirs of the grantees access to the mountain to gather firewood and graze livestock. The deal was made when the valley was subdivided in the mid-1800s and the settlers each got a plot of desert with access to an acequia irrigation ditch, but were allowed to go into the high country to graze animals and harvest timber. It is more than 100 square miles that includes a 20-mile stretch of the Sangre de Cristo range, which the heirs call “La Sierra.”
The committee, which calls itself the “Guardians of La Sierra,” said the ranch’s concern for wildlife “has already been found to be lacking as demonstrated by his 8½ -foot-tall fence project that is highly detrimental to wildlife migration patterns and separates wildlife from water, food and shelter.”
The fence’s “tightly woven grid” with 3-inch openings at the bottom has restricted the movement of large and small animals “across their natural habitat, and was even restricting their access to water for miles at a time in multiple places,” the guardians wrote via email.
The ranch has 30 days to respond to the notice, which was issued Nov. 12. It cites multiple violations of the Colorado Water Quality Control Act. According to the cease and desist, the ranch began building the fence in June 2020, installing several miles of wire fencing without asking for a stormwater permit.
The state notified the ranch in March 2024 that it needed a permit, which the ranch applied for that month. The state health department gave the ranch permission to discharge stormwater from the construction area into Sanchez Reservoir, the Rio Grande and other state waterways. But in June 2024 and October 2024, site inspections by state water quality officials found several problems, which state officials told the ranch to fix. Follow-up inspection found that problems remain, including failing to use control measures on about 20 areas along the fence.
The ranch was cited for having a stormwater management plan that lacked descriptions of stream crossings and runoff of water flowing into several arroyos, Culebra Creek, San Francisco Creek and the Rio Grande. There was no stated plan to restore vegetation, and no control measures in some areas that would have minimized the potential for sediment and polluted stormwater to flow down the hillsides.
An erosion blanket, typically made of straw or other biodegradable material, was not secured to the ground. Inspectors found straw bales in an arroyo that were “not installed with good engineering” or “pollution control practices,” according to the notice. The bales were not preventing sediment or water flow, it said.
The state water quality’s investigation will continue, the notice said. A wildlife study approved by Costilla County is also ongoing.
