Severance faces tough sell in securing Greeley solution for water treatment

SEVERANCE — Officials with the town of Severance have been exploring interim solutions to a moratorium on new taps issued by the North Weld County Water District, but a favored option — Greeley — might be a difficult sell.

Severance mayor Matt Fries told BizWest that town management has been in communication with Greeley officials about securing water-treatment and delivery services from its larger neighbor to help address a halt to water taps imposed by North Weld, which in turn prompted the town to freeze issuance of new building permits.

“Thus far, those conversations and talks have been positive as it relates to Greeley being a potential redundant treatment and delivery source for the town of Severance,” Fries said.

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He said Greeley appears to be the best option geographically due to its close proximity to Severance.

“We believe that, geographically, it appears to be the best choice in terms of the shortest distance needed in order to install pipeline to make that connection,” he said.

Greeley and Severance’s large transmission and distribution mains are just three miles apart. Fries said that engineers from both communities have been meeting to locate the best connection point.

“And then once we know what that feasibility is, the next step would be to negotiate the cost, obviously, and all of the logistics necessary to make something like that happen,” he said.

He said the town has had conversations with other potential partners, but “geographical logistics have caused those conversations to go no further.”

Other options seem “to be not feasible just from a monetary standpoint,” he added. “It would just be too expensive to run that length of pipe. So the best choice for us, as I’m being told right now, is the city of Greeley, and they are seemingly amenable to bring us on as a treatment and delivery customer.”

However, that may be easier said than done.

Sean Chambers, Greeley’s director of water and sewer, said the city would be very cautious about committing its resources to other communities.

“I think it’s appropriate for Greeley to investigate ways in which it could assist with assuring those communities that they have ample water for existing residents, existing businesses, existing development,” he said. “We’re also open to having conversations with the district and with these communities about what long-term solutions and partnerships look like. But we’re going to be very cautious about how we approach providing Greeley’s capacity to another community that hasn’t been as planful as Greeley has.”

Chambers’ emphasis on existing residents and businesses might not address the problem at hand for Severance and Eaton, which have had to curtail building permits as North Weld halted issuance of new water taps.

Severance imposed a moratorium on new building permits in October after the North Weld County Water District imposed  a moratorium on new taps, citing uncertainty over the 1041 regulatory process in Fort Collins and Larimer County for the NEWT III pipeline, a 5.3-mile pipeline extending from North Timberline Road in Fort Collins east into Larimer County.

The 1041 process — named for Colorado House Bill 1041, passed in 1974 — allows local governments to exercise greater control over certain land-use projects, such as pipelines. Fort Collins initiated a process to write 1041 regulations, in part to exercise greater control over Northern Water’s planned $1.1 billion Northern Integrated Supply Project, known as NISP, and the city late last fall considered a moratorium on new projects while the new 1041 regulations are written.

But the process could also have ensnared the NEWT III pipeline, being constructed by the North Weld County Water District and the East Larimer County Water District.

The Fort Collins City Council in October granted NEWT III an exemption from its moratorium, but Larimer County has not.

Eric Reckentine, district manager for the North Weld County Water District, told BizWest that the district board would consider a partial lifting of the tap moratorium at its February meeting but would not lift the moratorium fully. The moratorium is slated to extend to at least May 31.

Productive, substantive meetings

Chambers said the city has had substantive and “productive” meetings with Severance, Eaton and North Weld.

“We have dug into better understanding the challenge that North Weld and its … consecutive systems face” in terms of water-treatment capacity, water-conveyance capacity and financial capacity, he said.

“Understanding the problem is fundamental,” Chambers said. “And then analyzing and understanding what proposed solutions are and what their impacts would be on the Greeley system and on Greeley’s existing rate base — who financed our infrastructure and our capacity that we would be utilizing — to support or back up somebody else’s is the critical next step. And so, while I wouldn’t say the characterization from the mayor is inaccurate, I think there’s probably an overly optimistic perspective about how quickly this type of comprehensive analysis could be done and to what extent Greeley could support these regional demands.”

Chambers said an existing intergovernmental agreement between Greeley and North Weld, signed in 2019, allows for emergency backup during operational or maintenance outages.

He said Greeley and North Weld have implemented the agreement several times, including when Greeley shut down its Bellvue treatment plant for construction-related activities, with its water temporarily treated at the Soldier Canyon Filter Plant in Laporte, operated by the water districts.

“Right now, what Greeley is discussing or considering that it could do is ensure that communities on the North Weld system don’t find themselves in any emergency condition based on their existing demands and existing customer base,” he added.

That’s different than using Greeley’s excess capacity to help drive communities’ future growth, he said.

“We recognize that the capacity that Greeley has invested in developing its pipelines and its water-treatment plant have been investments made by Greeley’s existing rate base over the past 15-plus years, at least for the current facilities,” Chambers said. “And we’ve been making those investments, and those investments have been paid by our rate base and by growth and development fees. And so, to provide that capacity for another community and their growth, another community that didn’t necessarily plan for that growth in the same way as us, wouldn’t really be an appropriate use of our excess capacity.”

Chambers said simply understanding the current situation and potential solutions will take time, including:

• Connections among and capacities of North Weld, ELCO and the Fort Collins-Loveland Water District, which operate some common infrastructure.
• Determining “how did this sort of crisis or emergency come to be?”
• The role of the different parties.
• The role of the dairy industry in North Weld’s capacity and demand.
• What steps North Weld and associated consecutive systems such as Eaton, Severance, Windsor and others are doing to manage peak demands.

“All of those are critical components of our understanding of the problem and how we could provide short-term or interim emergency backup support without fostering the prolific growth that has been largely responsible for this problem,” Chambers said.

Additionally, understanding commitments that towns have made for residential and commercial growth would be essential, he said, including how a water district ensures that it has adequate capacity “and protects against growth in the number of taps that exceeds their ability to serve. 

“And if that issue can’t be adequately understood and addressed in detail, Greeley will not be in a position to step into that fray and expose its system to the same kind of unrestrained growth that has essentially created the problem that we face today in Severance and beyond,” he said.