The Boulder County Board of Commissions is calling a federal evaluation of Denver Water’s plan to bring more water from the west side of the Continental Divide “inadequate.”
In a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers, which oversaw the evaluation, the commissioners said the study fails to consider the bigger picture.
The plan includes a $140 million expansion of Gross Reservoir in Boulder County.
Denver Water is seeking a permit from the Corps of Engineers to nearly triple the size of the reservoir.
Water to fill the enlarged reservoir would be pulled from tributaries of the Colorado River in Grand County, including the Fraser, and pumped across the Continental Divide through the Moffat Tunnel.
Water shortfall feared by ’16
Denver Water says it needs the expansion to address a projected water shortfall in the metro area beginning in 2016.
The Army Corps of Engineers released a draft environmental-impact statement for the project at the end of October.
Wednesday, Boulder County commissioners submitted a comment letter lambasting the project.
“We were surprised by how many things there were that the EIS did not adequately address,” Commissioner Will Toor said.
The commissioners expressed concerns over taking more water from the Fraser River and the fact that the study does not take into account the cumulative effects of other proposed projects seeking to divert water from the Colorado River watershed.
The commissioners said they are concerned about the flooding of hundreds of acres of high-quality forestland and the impact of construction trucks on county roads.
“We are hopeful that the federal agencies will really require a full explanation of these issues and an adequate analysis,” Toor said, “and, if the project does move forward, adequate mitigation.”
More study urged
Western Resource Advocates, an environmental law and policy group in Boulder, also voiced concern that the need for the project wasn’t adequately explained and that Denver Water hasn’t fully explored its conservation options.
Denver Water does plan to meet half of the water shortfall it projects in 2030 with water-conservation measures.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency also weighed in on the study, saying it had environmental objections based on “insufficient information.”
Travis Bray, Denver Water’s project manager for the proposed reservoir expansion, said these types of comments are all part of the process.
“This is exactly why the draft is released — to get comments,” he said. “It’s normal for a lot of different entities to say it’s inadequate. That’s just part of the process.”
