Environmental groups take dispute with feds over Windy Gap project to appeals court

DENVER — A coalition of environmental groups is bringing claims to a higher court that federal regulators incorrectly issued permits to an upcoming reservoir project on the Front Range.

In documents filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver, the groups say that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers erred in issuing approvals to the project after years of public comments and environmental analysis, saying the agencies failed to include alternatives to the Windy Gap expansion as proposed, didn’t fully consider the environmental impacts of the project and used population projections as its basis for pursuing additional water supplies rather than actual water use data.

Berthoud-based Northern Water Conservancy District is leading the construction on the project. The plaintiff groups include Save the Colorado, Save the Poudre, Poudre Waterkeeper, Wildearth Guardians, Living Rivers, Waterkeeper Alliance and the Sierra Club.

The filing is only a notice of the case coming into the next level of litigation. Gary Wockner, director of Save the Colorado and Save the Poudre, told BizWest that the groups are not at liberty due to ongoing litigation to offer more specifics on where it believes the prior ruling was legally wrong, but said they still have concerns over the ecological impacts of the water sources.

“We believe the lower court erred in its ruling, and we remain seriously concerned about the negative impact of the project on water quality in Grand Lake as well as flow levels in the Colorado River,” he said.

The Windy Gap project moves water from the Western Slope as part of the Colorado-Big Thompson project and has been in operation since 1985. It partially redirects water from the Colorado River through the mountains.

In 2003, Northern Water proposed an expansion to Windy Gap by building a new reservoir and dam west of Carter Lake near Berthoud so it can store excess water from the Western Slope during wet cycles. The project, which is now estimated to cost around $600 million, was originally scheduled to start construction this year. The agency is now trying to determine when it could start to build the project, assuming an injunction doesn’t halt further development.

If completed, the reservoir would dispense up to 30,000 acre feet of water per year to several Front Range communities, including Lafayette, Fort Lupton, Louisville, Superior, Erie, Longmont, Greeley, Loveland and areas served by the Platte River Power Authority.

However, Broomfield stands to gain the most water from the project by far. It and Northern Water joined the lawsuit as intervenors as part of the initial litigation.

Northern Water spokesman Jeff Stahla said the agency believes the lower court’s ruling will stand upon review.

“It showed how comprehensive the permitting process was and how we met all the requirements of the federal permit,” he said.

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