Larimer County commissioners held a public hearing session for the city of Thornton’s water pipeline permit application Monday evening but did not make a decision on the application.
The session, which was paused to accommodate the start of Passover, will resume May 6.
Last year, Thornton applied for the construction to carry water through Larimer, Weld and Adams counties to a treatment plant in Thornton to support its growing population.
Thornton first applied for the 1041 permit for its pipeline in 2018. That application was denied in 2019 by the commissioners, who said the project failed to meet more than half of the criteria. The city sued Larimer County, but a state appeals court upheld the decision in 2022.
Monday’s hearing started with a presentation from county staff, during which the Larimer County Planning Commission recommended approval of the project if proposed conditions were met.
Thornton then gave another presentation to talk about how the city’s new application is different from the previous. After that, the session was open to public comment, which will continue at the next hearing.
Here’s what each party had to say:
Planning Commission recommends approval
According to Larimer County’s website, the 1041 regulations give “local governments the authority to regulate matters of statewide concern. This includes regional transportation and utility infrastructure development.
“It can also be used to protect specific geographic areas that may have some kind of important regional or statewide significance — historic, cultural, or natural,” said Rebecca Everette, the county’s community development director.
Thornton’s permit application is for water transmission line that’s 10.4 miles long and 42 inches in diameter as well as its corresponding pumphouse, Environmental Planner John Barnett said. This project would carry up to 14,000 acre-feet of water per year to Thornton’s treatment plant.
This is part of a 70-mile pipeline project, 85% of which is either in place, under construction or in design, according to Thornton’s presentation.
The primary land use on the proposed route in Larimer County is agricultural and rural residential.
“It’s important to note the water rights were approved in 1996 and the decree is in place. So, we are not discussing water rights here,” Barnett said, noting that the question was whether Thornton’s project met the criteria in the county’s land use code, with or without reasonable conditions.
There are 22 criteria all 1041 applications must meet, Barnett said, these can be divided in 10 categories, which include neighborhoods and property, environmental resources, public safety and others.
You can read more details on the categories on the county’s website.
Barnett said there are 76 conditions staff set to bridge the current project to the criteria.
“With the proposed conditions of approval in place, this application meets the review criteria for a water transmission pipeline,” Barnett said. “… Therefore, the development service team recommends approval of the Thornton water project.”
Thornton says it realized need for ‘greater focus on the impacts to people’
“The last time Thornton came before you … we presented information focusing on what we needed to do technically to meet your 1041 criteria,” said Todd Barnes, communications director for the city of Thornton. “We learned through that last process that what we needed was a greater focus on the impacts to people — not just the land that would be disturbed.”
Barnes said the current application includes:
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Precise alignment of the pipeline
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A pump station on Water Supply and Storage Company property, half a mile from the nearest resident, instead of on a resident’s property.
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A pipeline that’s 10.4 miles long, compared to nearly 27 miles long in the previous application.
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Twenty-two properties crossed by construction, only 17 of which are not owned by Thornton or Water Supply and Storage Company. The previous application had the potential to allow pipeline alignment across 55 to 114 properties.
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No significant traffic impacts to major roads or neighborhoods.
Barnes said all affected property owners have been directly contacted, and that the city gathered feedback from a survey sent to 409 addresses and two open houses.
“This kind of community feedback was foundational to how Thornton developed multiple pipeline alternatives and ultimately selected its final alignment,” Barnes said.
Emily Hunt, Thornton’s deputy director of utilities, said the city’s current supply is at its limit.
“This long plan for supply from the Thornton water project is necessary to implement our comprehensive plan which includes providing affordable and attainable housing to Coloradans. … As a water provider, Thornton has the responsibility to provide our residents with safe drinking water,” Hunt said.
Carolynne White, the city’s legal representative from the Brownstein firm, said the “down-the river” or “Poudre River” option was not an appropriate part of the conversation.
“This application is not about the Poudre River, it’s not about Thornton’s water rights, it’s not about changing the diversion point,” White said, and added, “there’s numerous evidence throughout the packet which clearly demonstrates that this project does not reduce the river flows in the Poudre River.”
What the public had to say
Save the Poudre Executive Director Gary Wockner said this application is the same as the last one.
“Welcome to Earth Day, for us this feels like ‘Groundhog Day,’ ” Wockner said.
While Wockner opposes the pipeline, he said he supports the option where Thornton would take the water further downstream, “which was their idea from the get-go and still a great idea.”
That’s the option White referenced in her comments.
Unlike White, Wockner said this has “everything to do with the Poudre,” and asked commissioners to pause and to appoint a working group for this matter.
“This is an unbelievable amount of information in a short period of time for the public to digest,” he said, referring to packet that contains over 3,000 pages.
Morgan Cullen, director of government affairs for Home Builders Association of Metro Denver, said the cost of housing has skyrocketed over the past decades and the only way to bring down the cost is to increase the supply.
“Given that Thornton’s population is projected to increase by 100,000 residents in the coming years if they have access to the additional water supply, it’s imperative that they are granted access to the water rights so that the residential construction industry can begin building out of the current crisis we find ourselves in,” Cullen said.
Tom Moore, who participated via Zoom, lives in Thornton and has been a custom home builder for 17 years in the Denver Metro area.
“I’m here to say that housing prices are complicated. Affordability isn’t only about supply, it’s about interest rates, and gas prices, and inflation. Water is not the limiting factor for development in Adams County,” Moore said, adding he disagrees with Thornton’s approach.
“If Thornton really were super interested in getting water ASAP, what they would do is they would have gone with the Poudre River option from Day 1,” Moore said.
Several Colorado State University students voiced their appreciation of the Poudre River and concerns over climate change.
“I deeply have a love for this river, and its surrounding area,” student Ashlyn Nelson said. “For me, I’m personally concerned as the Poudre River is Colorado’s only Wild and Scenic River and is designated as a National Heritage Area. I want to make sure that it is protected as policy says that it will be.”
“We’re all affected by climate change, we really need to come together on this issue,” said Mila Garelle-Essam, a conservation biology major, and suggested an agreement where Fort Collins could add water pollution mitigation in exchange for Thornton allowing the water to go through the river.
Eric Steidl is an alfalfa hay producer where the proposed pipeline would cross over one mile of the farm’s property, in a portion where Thornton’s pipeline would co-locate with the Northern Integrated Supply Project’s pipeline. Steidl felt the city’s response to his concerns over the impacts on his business were dismissive.
Steidl said Thornton’s project packet does “not address the impacts or mitigation matters from the affected landowner’s perspective.”
Next steps
The public hearing session will resume at 6 p.m. May 6 via Zoom and in person in the First-Floor Hearing Room of the Larimer County Administrative Services Building, 200 W. Oak St. in Fort Collins.
For more details on how to sign up for public comment and the 1041 regulations, visit www.larimer.gov/planning/1041-regulations.
You can also track the progress on the permit and access related documents on this county portal.
Pending steps of the hearing include more public comment, petitioner rebuttal (if applicable), staff clarifications and board action.
Ignacio Calderon covers climate and Larimer County government for the Coloradoan. Contact him at ignacio@coloradoan.com.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Here’s what happened at Larimer County’s Thornton pipeline hearing