By now you know about how the City of Greeley’s current pipeline project is threatening local natural and historic resources. And because of the way water law is historically structured, there’s not much Larimer county elected officials or residents can effectively say about that.
But that could change tomorrow night, Monday, Nov. 2. The County Commissioners are meeting to discuss amending the county code so that large pipelines that threaten local resources will need to go through a much more rigorous permit process from OUR county government when going through our county.
It’s the same process utilities like electrical power plants, nuclear plants, electric lines, already follow.
Mary Humstone writes,
Currently pipelines, such as the City of Greeley’s 60″ water transmission pipeline, only have to clear a “location and extent” review process at the planning commission level. This means that projects planned and implemented by an agency outside of Larimer County can destroy historic resources, destroy natural areas, and condemn private property through eminent domain without any public comment and without their projects being reviewed by elected officials in our county. The current system gives the public no effective say in these projects.
Humstone and her neighbors have already spent tens of thousands trying to preserve historic resources on their property because of decisions made in the next county.
If you think local government should be more involved when local property is threatened, Humstone invites you to show up at the meeting tomorrow night to show your support. Being there does matter.
You can be sure the City of Greeley’s Water Department will be there to fight it. In force.
What: County Commissioners’ hearing to adopt 1041 powers for water and sewer transmission pipelines.
When: Monday, November 2 at 6:30 pm
Where: First floor hearing room. 200 W. Oak
Read more: Get the technical details here. (Yes, this is the kind of tedious part, but it’s how regular people like you make a difference!)
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I have had SUCH a hard time keeping this quiet– I didn’t want to say anything until it was done. But for several weeks the Armstrong Hotel has been preparing a nice souvenir map of the neighborhood markets that the Lost Fort Collins blog wrote about last year.