Legal disputes, funding delays hinder flood recovery

Nearly a year and a half after devastating floods ravaged Boulder, Larimer and Weld counties, the massive task of recovery remains hampered by jurisdictional disputes in some cases and funding shortfalls in others.

Key decisions only now are being made or altered — and some projects have yet to be started.

This month alone, governments, residents and businesses still are wading through the process of obtaining permits and financial assistance, some roads and trails are being reopened for public use for the first time, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency published a list of changes to flood-hazard determinations that will affect thousands of property-insurance policies.

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What meteorologists called a 1,000-year rain event on Sept. 11-13, 2013, left an estimated $2.9 billion in damage, more than 1,800 destroyed homes, nearly a dozen deaths and tens of thousands of displaced residents – some of whom still haven’t returned home.

Officials largely attribute the sometimes excruciatingly slow process to the scope of the disaster and massive amount of work to be done, triggering a manpower-challenging flood of paperwork.

For some, it’s money.

“I think the biggest delay seems to be getting federal funds out of the state,” said Longmont City Councilwoman Bonnie Finley. “Colorado’s gotten money from FEMA, but it has to go through the governor’s office, and there’s a bottleneck there.”

In other cases, problems such as jurisdictional disputes have had to be sorted out.

One such example is the Sunset Street bridge over the St. Vrain River in Longmont. The span was one of several that were taken out by the surging floodwaters, cutting off the city’s northern and southern portions. North-south arteries such as Main, Martin and Hover streets were made passable in fairly short order in the wake of the deluge, but Sunset had to wait until a partnership could be formed between the city and Boulder County because even though the bridge connects areas within Longmont, the bridge itself is outside the city limits. That project is expected to begin this summer, nearly two years after the deluge. It’s not expected to be completed until next winter.

Another example highlights a conflict between county and state codes, in Larimer County. The county may need years to figure out if it can help displaced homeowners – including those in the Willow Creek subdivision in Laporte – who want to move back but have been blocked by county codes that say homes in a floodway that are damaged beyond half of their market value can’t be rebuilt. State law would allow the reconstruction, but only if the homes are raised a foot above the projected levels of a 100-year flood. Some residents want the county to differentiate canyon properties that are susceptible to rushes of whitewater from those on the plains that would deal with slower-moving floodwaters. The county will decide by June whether to change its rules.

Even if that conflict is resolved, governments, residents and businesses in flood-prone areas will have to carefully study the modifications issued by FEMA on Feb. 9. The new standards are the basis for floodplain-management measures that communities either have to adopt or show evidence of compliance in order to remain qualified for participation in the National Flood Insurance Program. The new or modified flood-hazard determinations also are used to calculate flood-insurance premium rates for new buildings and their contents.

In most cases, the wheels of recovery are slowly but inexorably grinding forward.

Nonprofit Long-Term Recovery Groups in Larimer and Boulder counties still are helping residents secure federal community development block-grant disaster-recovery funding through the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The first wave of federal money was released last June, and officials say more is still to come. The grants include a $50,000 down-payment program to help people buy a replacement home, and the Loveland Housing Authority alone has secured more than $7 million for home repair or rebuilding.

In Weld County, construction continues on a $22 million project to rebuild sections of U.S. Highway 34 near Greeley that were torn up by the South Platte River. Meanwhile, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission released proposed rules this month designed to keep wells and storage tanks in floodplains more secure after several incidents during the flood led to oil spills. The commission is expected to vote on the proposed rules March 2.

In Boulder County, commissioners voted Feb. 3 to approve $26,065 to help cover some of the initial repairs that had to be done to three historic structures in the Fourmile Canyon community of Salina, including two structures that are 140 years old. The Salina Community Association chipped in $6,065 to help.

A few miles to the north, James Canyon Drive, which connects Lefthand Canyon with flood-ravaged Jamestown, is only now being opened to cyclists and vehicles – but only on Sundays. The road remains restricted to construction and service crews, school buses, mail trucks and local residents with permits as repair work continues.

Mountain roads aren’t the only ones yet to be rebuilt. A flood-damaged 30-foot stretch of Dillon Road just east of U.S. 287 between Boulder and Broomfield counties remains closed 17 months after collapsing into the rushing waters of Rock Creek – leading to the dramatic, widely televised rescue of at least one stranded driver – and officials have yet to draw up designs for its repair. Once that’s done, they say, construction could begin by fall.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment told Boulder County last month that more than $4 million in state funds would be made available to redesign and repair drinking water and wastewater systems in Boulder, Longmont, Lyons, Louisville, Eldorado Springs, Nederland and Pine Brook Hills. With that funding in hand – approved last year by the Legislature in a bill carried by Sen. Matt Jones, D-Louisville – as well as several federal and county permits, a contractor hired by Longmont finally can begin work on repairing nearly a half-mile of two-foot-wide pipeline that carries raw water from the South St. Vrain drainage to the Nelson Flanders Treatment Plant.

Lyons should complete reconstruction of its own treatment plant by October, town officials say, and begin construction of 50 to 70 units of housing for displaced residents on a 5- to 7-acre parcel carved out of Bohn Park if voters endorse the Town Board’s decision in a March 24 referendum.

The city of Boulder hopes to have several projects done by the end of March, public works officials say, including storm sewer repairs and restorations of some fishing ponds. Longmont is also completing restoration work on the St. Vrain Greenway, but other projects took precedence.

“I think everyone’s really done a good job of prioritizing,” Finley said. “That utility work is most important, and so the greenway – which we love – has had to wait.”

Dallas Heltzell can be reached at 970-232-3149, 303-630-1962 or dheltzell@bizwestmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DallasHeltzell.