Boulder County Cancels Gross Reservoir Expansion Hearings Citing Denver Water Lawsuit
BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) – The Gross Reservoir Expansion Project is on hold, according to officials in Boulder County. The announcement comes nearly two weeks after Denver Water sued the county over application processing delays.
In the complaint filed on July 14, Denver Water claims Boulder County overreached its authority through repeated requests for information about the project. In a statement, Denver Water said the delays put the entire project at risk:
"Boulder County is endangering the project through delays, repeated and expanding requests for information — information demands that duplicate the already completed federal permitting process in which Boulder County participated — the potential for months of additional hearings and the fact that two of the county's three commissioners have already publicly stated their opposition to, and desire to stop, the expansion project."
The process to obtain environmental permits for the $380 million project began in 2003. Denver Water received federal approval to proceed with the Gross Reservoir expansion in July 2020.
In September 2020, Denver Water submitted an Areas and Activities of State Interest (1041) application to the Boulder County Community Planning and Permitting Division. In June 2021, Boulder County moved the 1041 review to public hearings after Denver Water failed to provide the requested information.
Boulder County officials say Denver Water's attorney requested to place the 1041 application on hold because of the lawsuit. As a result, the county canceled the public hearings.
"It makes sense to have the court resolve the legal issues about whether Boulder County can proceed before conducting hearings on the 1041 review," said CPP Director Dale Case. "We have already devoted significant time and resources to processing Denver Water's application, and it would take even more county resources to proceed with public hearings."
The Gross Reservoir Project aims to balance water supplies and enhance water security for more than 1.5 million people. The request to enlarge the dam would increase the capacity of the reservoir by 77,000 acre-feet, and includes 5,000 acre-feet of storage dedicated to South Boulder Creek flows that will be managed by the cities of Boulder and Lafayette.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment approved the project in 2016, followed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2017. Environmental groups sued to block the expansion in 2018, claiming the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated environmental laws when it granted a permit to increase the height of Gross Dam by 131 feet.
In 2019, a district court judge sided with Boulder County's request to review the project. Denver Water filed to appeal the ruling.
