Northern Water, environmental groups settle legal battle over Chimney Hollow Reservoir

DENVER — The Northern Water Municipal Subdistrict has reached an agreement with a cadre of environmental groups to settle federal litigation to halt plans to build the Chimney Hollow Reservoir west of Berthoud, ending 18 years of fighting and litigation over the project.

In a statement, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District said it will pay $15 million over multiple years to the Grand Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to Colorado River watershed protection in Grand County. In exchange, Save the Colorado, Save the Poudre, WildEarth Guardians, Living Rivers, Waterkeeper Alliance and the Colorado Sierra Club will drop their joint lawsuit that was most recently brought into the federal appeals court in February.

In that suit, the groups argued that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers incorrectly issued construction permits for the project by failing to take into full account the environmental impact of the reservoir’s construction and didn’t examine alternatives to the Windy Gap Firming Project that will feed the reservoir.

“This settlement shows there is an alternative to costly litigation that can provide benefits both to the environment in Grand County and the Colorado River, as well as acknowledging the need for water storage,” Northern Water general manager Brad Wind said in a statement.

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 and to the Front Range. 

Chimney Hollow is sited west of Carter Lake and would store up to approximately 90,000 acre-feet of water to be divided between 12 water suppliers ranging as far south as Broomfield to as far northeast as Greeley.

The settlement clears the way for Northern Water to begin construction on the $600 million reservoir this summer.

But in a joint statement, representatives from the environmental groups were unhappy over the long-term impacts of the project.

Kim Dike, a board member of the Colorado Sierra Club, called the state’s water laws antiquated for allowing Western Slope water to be siphoned en masse to the Front Range in a time where climate change is straining supply of an already-precious resource.

“The lack of focus on water conservation in Front Range communities, and the threat multiplier of Colorado’s precious water resources being used for dangerous fracking for oil and gas, puts us on a dangerous path forward,” she said in a statement.

Gary Wockner, the director of Save the Poudre and Save the Colorado, told BizWest in an interview that the settlement came about due to what he called weak water laws and court interpretations over the years that are overly-friendly to groups that aim to drain rivers for municipal use.

Although the groups fear for the health of the rivers, they believe the settlement is the best way for them to minimize the impact of the projects.

“The federal political system is unlikely to create new laws,” he said. “You’re kind of stuck with 50-year old law in the National Environmental Policy Act and Clean Water Act.”

Wockner said the settlement doesn’t establish a precedent, and the groups will continue to fight against any damming project in the state.

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