Court: Larimer County properly denied Thornton pipeline permit

FORT COLLINS and THORNTON — A Larimer County district court has determined that the county Board of Commissioners was within its authority to deny the city of Thornton’s request for a permit to build a pipeline that would take water from north of Fort Collins and move it to the Denver suburban city.

The decision, rendered this week by Judge Stephen Jouard, upholds the board of commissioners decision about a 1041 permit but not on all the grounds that the commissioners used in justifying it.

Thornton bought thousands of acres of farmland — and their related water rights —  in Northern Colorado decades ago, intending to dry up the farms and move the water by pipeline to its city to support its continuing growth.

While ownership of the water is not in dispute, how Thornton gets the water south to the city has resulted in contention.

The county determined in early 2019 that the pipeline routes proposed by Thornton did not meet criteria it demanded before it would approve the 1041 permit. The commissioners said that Thornton met five criteria but not seven others.

Thornton filed suit March 16, 2019, and the court’s decisions this week determined that the county was within its authority but erred on some of the criteria. The court said that of the seven criteria in dispute, the evidence presented in hearings and testimony supported use of three of them but not four others.

“We’re glad the court told the commissioners that they can’t tell us to put our water in the [Poudre] river,” said Thornton spokesman Todd Barnes.

Barnes’ reference was to one of the criteria that required additional alternative routes for the pipeline, including an alternative that would leave the water in the Poudre River, let it flow through Fort Collins and take it out at a point east and south of the city.

Thornton contended that such a strategy, while desired by the city of Fort Collins, by Poudre River environmental groups and by property owners who would otherwise be disrupted by construction of a pipeline north of Fort Collins, was at odds with the water court decree giving Thornton ownership of the water. The decree required diversion of the water from the Poudre at a specific point above Fort Collins.

The court said that requiring consideration of a Poudre River alternative was beyond the county’s authority.

The court also said that the county exceeded its authority in considering the impact of the pipeline on agricultural interests and failed to cite sufficient evidence to deny the permit on the basis of impacts on wildlife.

But, “BOCC’s denial of Thornton’s permit application based upon the lack of a more definite location of the pipeline … provides a proper basis to determine that Thornton’s permit application failed to meet the requirements…,” the court said.

Barnes said the Thornton City Council was briefed on the decision Tuesday night and that city staff would be evaluating alternatives over the next couple of weeks in order to prepare a recommendation for the council.

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