Water project calls for use of gravel pits

LAPORTE — Water rights in Colorado come with a twist.

If you don’t have a place to store your rights, they gush — or trickle — downstream into the wrong hands.

The city of Greeley alone estimates that at least 10,000 acre feet, or 3.25 billion gallons, worth of its rights go unused each year.

On the other hand, Colorado’s political climate frowns on building major water-storage projects due to environmental impacts on river basins. The most notable example was the failed attempt to build the massive Two Forks dam and reservoir on the upper South Platte River west of Denver.

Two Forks was killed in 1990, and even if it had been approved, it wouldn’t have been ready until 2013, having no bearing on the current drought.

A handful of landowners on the banks of the Cache la Poudre River near Laporte think they have the makings of a quick and low-impact solution.

The landowners, working with aggregate mining company LaFarge West Inc., have proposed the Overland Ponds project, a chain of ponds near the river that could hold about 2,000 acre feet of water — about 650 million gallons.

The plan seems simple enough. Water storage on private land and no need for the drawn-out federal regulatory process that faces most dam projects.

Still, Overland Ponds faces neighborhood opposition that could derail the project. Some residents of nearby subdivisions don’t want LaFarge digging close to their homes, worried about the impacts of dust and noise.

The two sides have discussed a compromise, calling for limited mining hours at the site.

A decisive hearing on the project is scheduled before the Larimer County Commissioners at 6:30 p.m. June 2.

As proposed, LaFarge would create the ponds while digging for aggregate rock. The Overland Ponds would be then lined to retain water and keep it from seeping into the groundwater table. Afterward, the landowners would sell or lease the storage space to needy water providers.

Overland Ponds proponents are negotiating with the city of Greeley and three local water districts — the Fort Collins-Loveland Water District, the East Larimer County Water District and the North Weld County Water District — to acquire the storage ponds.

“It’s the perfect place,´ said Mark Linder, one of five landowners working with LaFarge. “It’s high enough on the river to be above the cities and above the major diversions.”

Both Greeley and the three water districts, also known as the Tri-Districts, have water treatment plants near the Overland Ponds site. Linder also emphasized that existing ditch networks and the planned Pleasant Valley Pipeline are all in close proximity and easily plugged into the ponds.

Pending approval from the county, LaFarge would start digging for gravel this year, leaving a string of five ponds behind. As LaFarge finishes collecting the rock, the ponds could then be filled with the storage water.

LaFarge expects to take 10 years to complete mining at the site.

Reclamation of gravel pits has won the praise of at least one group that was openly opposed to the Two Forks project. Rocky Mountain Flycasters, the local chapter of Colorado Trout Unlimited, has endorsed the Overland Ponds.

The fishing group likes the idea of a “bucket at the bottom” of the Poudre Canyon. Currently, major water providers that own higher-elevation reservoirs are sparing with how much water they release into the Poudre River in fall and winter months because it’s a low-demand period. Consequently, stream flows in the river are inconsistent and unfavorable to fish habitat.

If the water providers could count on storage at the bottom of the canyon to retain the water, they might release more water from the top, Rocky Mountain Flycasters contends.

Because of the proximity of the Overland Ponds site to residential subdivisions, LaFarge West faces a number of conditions on its mining project, including the required use of conveyors to move gravel instead of trucks.

LaFarge officials won’t comment onthe economic impact of the conditions.

“The only comment we have is we have a good application,´ said Mary Harnett, Land/Resource Manager for LaFarge. “We’ve covered all the bases, and we’re going to go in and ask the county commissioners for approval.”

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