A Larimer County District Court judge ruled against Save the Poudre, a nonprofit environmentalist group, in a lawsuit the organization filed against Larimer Board of County Commissioners that alleged the board had improperly handled a permit application related to a pipeline project to deliver water to the city of Thornton.
The decision, issued July 3, means that Thornton can continue work on the pipeline as well as greenlight development projects that had been on hold because of uncertainty over whether there would be water to accommodate the new buildings.
Save the Poudre Executive Director Gary Wockner said the nonprofit was weighing whether to appeal the decision.
Thornton purchased water rights in northern Larimer County in the 1980s, and the pipeline project represents an effort to enable further development in the growing suburb by bringing the city’s water from Larimer County to the city proper.
Because the pipeline would pass through Larimer County, the city needed a 1041 permit, a local permitting process for statewide activities, to be issued by Larimer County.
Thornton first sought such a permit in 2019; the Larimer County Commissioners found that application to be incomplete and rejected it, an analysis later upheld by the Colorado Court of Appeals.
Thornton returned in 2023 with a new permit application, this one found satisfactory by the Larimer County Commissioners, a board with different members than those who had heard the previous application. This board approved it unanimously in May of 2024 after a lengthy process. All three members noted at the time that they were not pleased with the outcome but voted for it because the application had satisfied all statutory requirements, and making that determination was the extent of their jurisdiction.
Save the Poudre sued the board last summer, alleging that the board had “abused its discretion” at three public hearings in May of 2024, in part because the board did not compel Thornton to present a “Poudre River Option,” the nonprofit’s preferred outcome, as a possibility.
The Poudre River option refers to an alternative to the pipeline suggested by Save the Poudre that would allow the water owned by Thornton to travel downstream along the Poudre rather than through the pipeline, an option that Thornton has argued is not a viable alternative. In the Poudre River option, a pipeline would pick up the water east of Fort Collins.
According to Brett Henry, executive director of utilities and infrastructure for Thornton, allowing drinking water to pass through an urban area exposes it to more pollutants, as well as introducing logistical problems like storing the water, currently stored in reservoirs and other existing storage areas that would not be possible within Thornton itself.
“Deliberately polluting water that you’re going to drink is not a good idea, and not something any utility would do in the country,” he said.
The judge ruled in favor of the Larimer County commissioners, declining to force the process to begin again, and allowing Thornton to proceed with the project. The ruling added that simply because a Poudre River option was a possibility did not compel the county to consider it.
“The fact that a Poudre River Option is an option alone does not mean under these circumstances it is reasonable or that the Board was within its authority to compel its consideration,” the decision read in part.
Henry said Thornton was encouraged by the ruling.
“I think it really validates the work that Thornton and Larimer County did through the very long process,” he said.
Wockner, the director of Save the Poudre, disagreed, and said his organization is weighing whether to appeal.
“We believe the Poudre River Option is the most reasonable option,” he said. “It would get Thornton their water and help the river itself. Whereas this option, the pipeline option, is the most unreasonable option.”
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