Greeley given green light to put pipe along Poudre

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

In a late-night session Oct. 17, the Larimer County Planning Commission gave Greeley the go-ahead to take a 60-inch water pipeline through LaPorte along the Cache la Poudre River.

The northern segment of the pipeline is the western-most leg of a 30-mile line that will connect the city's water treatment plant in Bellvue to water users in Greeley.

Several property owners along the route, however, have vowed to fight Greeley, citing harm to the river corridor, harm to historic features such as an old railroad line, and loss of potential income from gravel mining and development.

Objectors referred to the river corridor in LaPorte as a "special place" as defined in the county's master plan and said it should be protected.

Planning commission approval came on a 4-3 vote, after members expressed concerns about impacts on the Poudre River and on LaPorte residents. Several commissioners chided Greeley officials for failure to communicate with property owners who could be affected by the project.

"We don't want these people bullied," said chairman Jeff Boulter.

Boulter voted for approval, however. "I believe there's an inevitability to a public works project like that," he said in a later interview. "It's their water, and their right to move it."

Even if the commission had denied the Greeley request, the Greeley City Council could have overturned the decision with a majority vote.

Boulter expects that would have happened if the commission had voted no. "Greeley is self-interested here," he said, noting that cost is an important factor for the city. The chosen route is most direct, and it relies on gravity-feed rather than pumping.

"It's their duty to do the best they can in terms of cost efficiency," Boulter said.

Greeley makes offer

A surprise offer from Greeley water officials came late in the Oct. 17 discussion. Jon Monson, director of the city's water and sewer department, announced that Greeley "does want to do the right thing" and offered to fund a third-party engineering study of best practices for putting the pipe along the river.

"We extracted from Greeley a little extra that you don't normally get," said Boulter, adding that Greeley would not have offered the third-party study if the commission had denied their request. The study, added as a condition of the planning commission's approval, will look at preconstruction design, construction and post-construction reclamation.

Other conditions of approval included working with conservation groups to monitor the impact of pipeline construction, working with landowners to preserve local historic resources as much as possible, and coordinating with DOW to avoid conflicts with nesting raptors.

In the course of discussion, several commission members voiced concerns about the Poudre River corridor.

"This is a very special corridor, not just some gully," said commissioner Roger Morgan, who also voted to approve Greeley's request. "We have messed with the river a lot. Where do we draw the line?"

He said the pipeline would likely impede return flows that keep the river corridor healthy.

Greeley originally studied 18 different routes and narrowed those down to three. The final preferred route goes from Shields Street, about one-half mile south of U.S. Highway 287, to the treatment plant. The route runs north of the river to Lion's Park in LaPorte, then crosses the river and goes through agricultural parcels and Division of Wildlife land near Watson Lake to reach the plant.

The other two finalists were along County Road 54G through LaPorte and along Greeley's current pipeline easement through LaPorte. Even the preferred route stays along the current easement for 65 percent of the way, noted Dan Moore of Greeley's water and sewer department.

Greeley officials said the 54G route would be too disruptive to LaPorte businesses, would require pumping and is not favored by Larimer County officials. The current Greeley easement goes through school property and would require relocation of some homes.

Greeley's preliminary cost estimates put the preferred route at about $16 million, the 54G route at $18.7 million and the existing easement route at about $18 million.

Several property owners at the Oct. 17 meeting argued for putting the pipeline farther north than any of these three routes, along the U.S. Highway 287 bypass.

What's next?

Moore said the next step is to work with property owners along the route to identify their concerns. While a preferred corridor has been identified, an exact route has not, and the city is willing to work with landowners in terms of the exact location of the pipe. After these discussions, the city will establish an exact route that inflicts "the least amount of damage," Moore said.

Moore estimated that right-of-way negotiations with property owners will be completed in six months to a year, and final design should be completed during that same time frame. Greeley's goal is to begin construction of the northern segment by late fall, 2009.

In the meantime, LaPorte property owners along the preferred route are still hoping to steer Greeley in other directions. Rose Brinks, whose land would be dissected by the pipe, plans to muster public opposition to the route through education.

"Of the 18 routes studied, it's the most destructive to agriculture and historic structures," she said. "If all else fails, we will file an injunction to stop them from tearing up our mineral deposits."

Mary Humstone, an affected property owner and a professional historic preservationist, has submitted a preliminary application to include a section of the 1881 Colorado & Southern Railroad line on the National Register of Historic Places. The half-mile segment is still partially intact and lies along the preferred pipeline route. If Humstone is successful, Greeley would have to mitigate impact on the historic site.

Ed Stoner and others are also appealing directly to the Greeley City Council to consider other routes.

The Greeley proposal was a "location and extent" matter, so the final county decision rested with the planning commission. The request will not go to the board of county commissioners.