Pleasant Valley Pipeline: buried treasure in Bellvue

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

It takes a lot of work, a lot of time and a lot of steel to get water where it's needed along the fast-growing Front Range. It also takes a lot of patience, with the Preble's jumping mouse appearing at every turn to challenge engineers.

One big project, the Pleasant Valley Pipeline, wraps up this month after six years of planning and almost a year of construction. The underground pipeline will bring additional water to Fort Collins, Greeley and the Tri-Districts, which include East Larimer County, Fort Collins-Loveland and North Weld County. The Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District coordinated the project.

The pipeline runs from the Munroe Canal northwest of Ted's Place to a point west of Laporte Avenue, where it connects with an existing pipe from Horsetooth Reservoir. In the summer months, the pipeline will bring river water from the Munroe Canal to treatment plants on Laporte Avenue owned by Fort Collins and the Tri-Districts. In the winter, the system will be reversed, bringing water from Horsetooth Reservoir to Greeley's treatment plant near Ted's Place. No water will be diverted from the river during winter months. The entire system operates on gravity flow.

The Pleasant Valley pipe allows Fort Collins and the Tri-Districts to access Poudre River water through the Munroe Canal, and it also gives Greeley better access to water it owns in Horsetooth Reservoir. Greeley can now get Horsetooth water year-round, instead of just in the summer months.

With the new pipe, Fort Collins has a more reliable way to get Poudre River water to its treatment plant. Previously, it relied on two old pipelines from Gateway Mountain Park that had limited capacity plus frequent maintenance problems.

River crossing

The last big challenge for pipeline builders was crossing the Poudre River west of Ted's Place, a milestone accomplished in mid-January. The pipeline had to be buried about 10 feet below the riverbed and covered with concrete. To get the job done, workers had to divert the Poudre first to one side and then the other, with half the pipe installed at one time. Project manager Jeff Drager said the river crossing was especially challenging because, to minimize impact on the Preble's mouse, the work area along the riverbank was quite narrow.

Since March 2003, when construction began, the Pleasant Valley pipeline has marched across the Bellvue foothills with little fanfare compared with public attention focused on large reservoir projects planned for the area. But despite its low public profile, the pipeline boasts some impressive numbers. The total project cost was $30.2 million, according to Drager. The buried steel pipe is huge - 67 inches in diameter - and it stretches over 8.7 miles. It has a capacity to deliver 120 million gallons of water per day, mostly during summer months when demand is high. Besides crossing the Poudre River, an undertaking that required 700 cubic yards of concrete, the pipeline also crossed canals in six locations. About 40 easements had to be negotiated for the project.

Most important, the additional water that is now available to municipal users is significant. "For the participants," said Drager, "it's going to really make a difference in the reliability of their water supply systems."

One of those participants is the East Larimer County Water District, which serves subdivisions north and east of Fort Collins. Until now, ELCO was solely dependent on Colorado-Big Thompson water from Horsetooth Reservoir, because there was no way to deliver river water to its treatment plant on Laporte Avenue.

The district has already seen a big change in its operation as a result of the Pleasant Valley pipeline. "Our motivation was to wean ourselves from C-BT water for future customers," said ELCO general manager Webb Jones. He predicts that the availability of C-BT water will become extremely limited in the next 10 to 20 years, and the water will be prohibitively expensive.

ELCO acquires water rights from developers, who must provide water to go along with new residential or commercial developments. "Until we had the Pleasant Valley Pipeline, we couldn't take any river water rights," Jones explained.

As a result of the pipeline project, ELCO has acquired shares of Poudre River irrigation water equal to about 1,400 acre-feet, a sizable addition to its 3,900 acre-feet of C-BT water. The district is now in the process of converting the ag water to municipal use through the water court. The new water rights are adequate for about 4,000 homes, Webb said, "enough capacity to take care of future demands."

Webb, whose district invested $3 million in the pipeline, said it "opens up more development possibilities," since a good deal of land in development's path has river water rights attached to it. Since river water costs less than C-BT water, Webb hopes the new pipeline will help keep homes more affordable.

Less water for rafting

While water districts are delighted to have the additional water, rafters could notice a negative impact. Water for the pipeline is diverted into the Munroe Canal about 1 mile above the new Gateway Mountain Park, resulting in lower streamflows during the peak runoff months of May, June and July. For fishermen, conditions could actually improve during the runoff period since the water will be lower, but fall water levels will also be lower than before.

Use of the pipeline is expected to increase gradually for several years, according to Drager. At full capacity, September streamflow could be reduced by 24 percent below Gateway Mountain Park.

During pipeline construction, Bingham Hill Road was closed for 12 weeks, but Drager said he received no complaints from residents.

Two contractors built the Pleasant Valley Pipeline - High Country Pipeline of Penrose and Barnard Construction of Bozeman, Mont.