County commissioners reluctantly settle over Gross Reservoir expansion

The Boulder County Commissioners Tuesday grudgingly approved a $12.5 million settlement with Denver Water over the utility company’s plan to expand Gross Reservoir. The settlement includes an increase of $2.5 million in funds to mitigate the impact of the expansion for impacted residents, a Boulder County news release states.

Boulder County Commissioner Matt Jones said the agreement with Denver Water helps soften  the Gross Reservoir expansion for residents without the county facing difficult litigation to block the expansion.

“We faced an impossible choice between more litigation which we would certainly lose and agreeing to a settlement that mitigates some of the impacts of this project and provides meaningful benefits to the neighbors and the environment,” Jones said in the news release.

“We would not have agreed to a settlement if we thought we had a better outcome; unfortunately, the courts have held that Federal Power Act law overrules local law,” Jones said.

The settlement proposal requires Denver Water to pay more than $12.5 million for mitigation. In addition, Denver Water will transfer 70 acres of land to Boulder County which will be added to the Walker Ranch open space, the news release states. In exchange, Boulder County cannot dispute Denver Water’s claim that the project is exempt from review.

The commissioners received more than 100 written comments on the settlement, expressing concerns that there is no reason to settle the lawsuit between the county and Denver Water. Residents also said the proposal did not adequately address the impacts of the project and environmental groups also suing Denver Water were left out of the settlement discussions, the news release states.

The commissioners agreed with many of the citizen comments and said the project, as proposed, should not proceed, especially in the face of the current climate catastrophe, the news release states. The commissioners also want Denver Water to work towards alternatives that make more sense and go beyond the settlement agreement, the news release states.

“The project represents outdated planning and thinking,” Commissioner Marta Loachamin said in the news release. “Unfortunately, instead of using our land use process to review this project to address the concerns we heard from the public, we are faced with trying to address these issues in a legal arena with a large corporation that holds all the power in the legal framework.”

Loachamin said being put in a position that does not allow the county to stop the expansion of Gross Reservoir and Dam is “heart wrenching and very ‘unsatisfying.’”

“We were forced to look at what would be the worst outcome — the expansion of Gross Reservoir and Dam without any additional mitigation — or accept a settlement agreement with Denver Water and ask others to begin to put pressure directly on those who are responsible for the immense destruction planned in their project.”

Denver Water sued Boulder County in July, claiming the county did not have the authority to review the expansion plan because the Federal Energy Regulatory Agency approved the dam expansion in 2020. The FERC approved the dam expansion in 2020, even though the project is located exclusively in Boulder County and significantly impacts neighbors who live in Boulder County, the news release states.