Denver Water may continue shoring up its partially-finished Gross Dam expansion in southwestern Boulder County until a May 6 U.S. District Court hearing detailing long-term safety issues of a permanent injunction against further construction, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals said late Friday.
The appeals court granted Denver Water’s request for a temporary stay of the halt to construction at least through the May hearing. “Denver Water makes numerous allegations of immediate and irreparable harm from the district court’s injunction of further dam construction,” the appeals court order said.
U.S. District Court Judge Christine Arguello had previously issued the injunction against further Denver Water construction on the dam raising, saying the Army Corps of Engineers had violated the Clean Water Act in issuing permits for the expansion without evaluating alternatives or accounting for how climate change might cut the amount of water Denver is able to store. But she then stayed her own injunction to allow Denver Water to take safety measures stabilizing construction, and to appeal the ruling to the Tenth Circuit.
Denver Water officials have said they are prepared to argue for the Gross expansion all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
Opponents of the dam expansion said they were fine with the short-term implications of the appeals court decision.
“We appreciate the court’s swift ruling, and we will continue to focus on the May 6 hearing, where we will argue that the dam can be made safe and functional at its former height while the case proceeds through the court of appeals,” said Gary Wockner, co-founder of the nonprofit Save The Colorado and leader of a coalition fighting a larger Gross Reservoir in the courts.
“At the hearing on May 6, the district court will hear evidence concerning the need to permit additional construction on the dam in the interest of safety and stability and may modify the total ban on continued construction, based on the evidence presented, as part of its contemplated permanent injunction. The pending proceedings are expected to develop factual information that may result in a more precisely tailored limitation on construction of the dam and will assist us in our resolution of the stay motion,” the appeals court ruling says. “. . . It is therefore ordered that our temporary stay of the district court’s order enjoining dam construction shall continue in effect.”
Denver Water has dug into the foundations of the existing 340-foot-high dam as part of adding new concrete to raise Gross Dam to 471 feet by later this year to nearly triple the reservoir’s storage capacity. The utility has said about 60% of the work was done by the time construction paused for the winter. Rock cliffs at the dam are being held back by temporary safety rods and bolts, Denver Water has said in previous statements.
The water agency, the largest in Colorado with 1.5 million customers, says it needs a larger Gross Reservoir to store water rights it owns in the Fraser River, across the Continental Divide in Grand County. Denver Water also argues it is under a deadline from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates the hydropower plant inside the dam, to finish construction by 2027 and therefore cannot pause.
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Safety work on Gross Reservoir dam can continue, appeals court rules
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