Greeley City Council unanimously approves Terry Ranch acquisition

GREELEY — The Greeley City Council unanimously approved the acquisition of the Terry Ranch aquifer as part of a long-term water storage project at its meeting Tuesday night.

The acquisition is not for the Terry Ranch roadside attraction at the Colorado/Wyoming border but for the underground aquifer below it. City officials plan to mine the aquifer for water it can purify for current use and to install pumps so it can store water below the surface.

The project would create space for 1.2 million acre-feet of water, enough to fulfill Greeley’s current water usage for 48 years. City officials began pursuing Terry Ranch after spending millions of dollars and years trying to acquire the permits needed to expand its Milton Seaman Reservoir in the mountains.

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Instead of paying cash or using bond funding to finance the Terry Ranch project, the city plans to issue water-rights credits to the aquifer’s current owner, Wingfoot Water Resources LLC. In turn, Wingfoot would sell the credits to developers seeking to fulfill their raw water requirements for building within the city’s limits.

The project is estimated to cost $506 million by the year 2100.

During the public hearing, multiple representatives from business and civic groups urged approval of the deal as a way to secure a scarce resource.

Four people spoke in opposition, accusing the council of not reading through the purchase agreement and ignoring environmental concerns, including small amounts of uranium that city staff say occurs naturally and is removed via purification before reaching taps.

John Gautherie, a former manager of engineering and planning at the city from 1979 to 2011 before starting his own firm, said the perception of having unclean water could ruin Greeley’s appeal as a place to live in the future.

“At that point, future development may not be possible,” he said.

Councilman Tommy Butler said he had several questions about the project when he first heard about it but now believes the project is safe and a decent investment in the city’s future. That sentiment was echoed by the rest of the council.

“If I felt this project was unsafe, I’d absolutely vote against it,” he said.

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