Douglas County decides against piping SLV water across Chaffee County … for now

The northern San Luis Valley in summer (photo by Joe Stone).

Posted By: Joe Stone May 25, 2022

Douglas County Commissioners decided Tuesday not to continue pursuing, at this time, the controversial Renewable Water Resources proposal to pipe groundwater from the northern San Luis Valley across Chaffee County for delivery to the Front Range.

A statement released by Douglas County cites “objective legal recommendations from outside counsel” as the basis for the decision, including a determination that the RWR proposal “is not eligible for American Rescue Plan Act funds under current federal regulations.”

The Douglas County statement also notes, “RWR has significant additional hurdles to overcome … . That said, Douglas County welcomes ongoing discussions with RWR, should they be able to provide new information or otherwise overcome these hurdles.”

Eyeing Douglas County’s federal ARPA monies, RWR had initially asked the county for $20 million to initiate the project. That initial ask was reduced to $10 million but still hinged on use of ARPA funding.

The legal memo, written by attorneys Stephen Leonhardt and April Hendricks with law firm Burns, Figa and Will, concludes, “We cannot recommend acceptance of RWR’s proposal at this time. There are several enormous hurdles to the completion of this project.”

A map from the Renewable Water Resources proposal shows potential routes for delivering San Luis Valley groundwater to the Front Range, all of which entail crossing parts of Chaffee and other counties.

Hurdles identified in the legal memo include:

  • “The (SLV) water may be taken and used only if the Water Court in Division 3 (Alamosa) approves a plan for augmentation that meets all legal requirements for preventing injury to other water rights.”
  • “RWR has not yet developed an augmentation plan in sufficient detail to demonstrate that its plan will meet the requirements of the Rules and avoid injury to other water rights.”
  • RWR cannot meet current Rules for augmentation and “is developing a legislative strategy to address this issue.”
  • If Douglas County is able to obtain a Water Court decree to use the SLV groundwater, the County will still face “numerous hurdles to obtain federal, state and county permits for the project after a decree is entered.” Obtaining the required permits “likely will take several years, at a substantial financial cost to Douglas County, with a risk that one or more permits will be denied.”
  • “The project facilities will require 1041 permits from Saguache, Chaffee and Park counties, and likely will also require federal and state environmental permits and/or right-of-way approval.”
  • “The RWR project is not consistent with the Colorado Water Plan.”

The legal memo also recognizes, “The San Luis Valley is genuinely in crisis, with persistent drought conditions … , sustainability requirements for the aquifers, increasing difficulty in meeting those requirements, and the likely loss of agricultural production that will be needed to do so. Many in the SLV are legitimately concerned that RWR’s proposal will only exacerbate the crisis by threatening further risks to local water supplies.”

Joe Stone
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