While two of the three Douglas County Commissioners continue to look favorably at a project that would siphon water out of the San Luis Valley, an attorney the commissioners hired to review the proposal remains convinced the project faces a host of legal and other hurdles that show no signs of being resolved.

The attorney, Stephen Leonhardt, said in May he would not recommend the county accept the Renewable Water Resources proposal, based on “major impediments” to its completion. He reiterated his views in a September memo provided to the commissioners.

The most recent memo from Leonhardt of Burns, Figa & Will has not been made public. But a one-page executive summary, dated Sept. 28 and sent to Colorado Politics last Friday through an open records request, says the most recent meeting among Leonhardt, RWR principal John Kim, engineer Bruce Lytle and attorney Glenn Porczak “did not alter my initial analysis and conclusions and there remain many hurdles to a successful project, which are not resolved at this time.

“The legal concerns with the project remain unchanged,” the memo said.

Leonhardt’s latest memo was discussed by the commissioners in an executive session held Sept. 13. 

RWR’s proposal claims it would develop “up to 22,000 acre-feet per year from a series of groundwater wells in the northern part of the San Luis Valley. The project is premised on the development of renewable groundwater that is replenished by the hydrologic cycle.” 

But an executive summary tied to the March 23 Leonhardt memo said there is “no unappropriated water” available in the confined aquifer.

In addition, RWR has not come up with an augmentation plan in sufficient detail to demonstrate that its plan will meet the requirements of the state water rules and avoid injury to other water rights, the memo added.

Leonhardt’s May memo put it this way: “We still cannot recommend acceptance of RWR’s proposal at this time; the recent meetings have confirmed the major impediments to the completion of this project. The two reasonable options would be to (1) reject the proposal; or (2) continue discussions with RWR (and perhaps other interested parties in Douglas County and/or the San Luis Valley) to see if agreement can be reached on an acceptable proposal.”

The commissioners initially hoped to invest $10 million from American Rescue Plan Act money into the project, but that idea has since been abandoned. 

The proposal does not identify the water provider who would control the water coming from the San Luis Valley. Colorado Politics surveyed most of the water providers in Douglas County, including the largest in the county, and none said they had any intention to obtain water from the RWR project. 

In addition, the proposal claims the pipeline that would bring the water to Douglas County would have to be stored in one of several reservoirs: Antero, Strontia Springs, Elevenmile or Chatfield. The first three are owned by Denver Water, which told Colorado Politics they had had no interest in participating in the project.

Aurora Water also said they would not be involved, should RWR propose to bring the water to the metro area through that water provider’s infrastructure that begins in the Arkansas River basin.

DougCo Commissioner Lora Thomas has been opposed to the project from the beginning. She recently told Colorado Politics: “It’s time to stop wasting time and resources on a concept our water providers don’t support. They are the subject matter experts in DougCo on water.”

Burns FIga Will March 23, 2022 memo to Douglas County regarding RWR projectDougCo memo from water attorney Stephen Leonhardt, dated May 2, 2022The Sept. 28 memo from attorney Stephen Leonhardt to Douglas County commissioners, reiterating his previous position regarding the Renewable Water Resources project.