Ditch company settles with RMNP for $9 million

A water supply company that provides water to 40,000 acres of farmland in Larimer and Weld counties must pay $9 million for damages to Rocky Mountain National Park, federal officials said Monday.

The settlement is the largest in the history of the national park system's Resource Protection Act.

It stems from a lawsuit after a 2003 breach of the Grand Ditch, formerly the Grand River Ditch, which takes snowmelt across the Continental Divide and stores it in Long Draw Reservoir (near the northern border of the park), ultimately flowing down the Cache la Poudre River.

The ditch, which pre-dates the park by more than 20 years, carries nearly 20,000 acre-feet of water through the park to communities on the Eastern Plains. About 40,000 acres of farmland near Pierce and Ault are irrigated by Grand Ditch water.

Dennis Harmon, general manager of the Water Supply and Storage Company, which owns the ditch, said a trial had been scheduled to begin Monday, but attorneys reached an agreement.

Insurance will cover some of the costs, but not all. Harmon said he did not want to be specific, but added that the 117-year-old company has several assets, including valuable water credits from the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, that will help meet the costs.

The breach happened May 30, 2003, after snow and ice backed up in the ditch and water flowed over its side. About 105 cubic feet per second of water surged through the ditch and plunged to the valley below, excavating a gully roughly 167 feet wide and 60 feet deep.

The rushing water and tumbling vegetation largely obliterated the mountainside beneath the breach, according to the park service. The Justice Department filed a suit in August 2006 on behalf of the park service.

The ditch company argued the breach happened because of a snow-slide or landslide above the ditch.

"That was going to be one of the points of contention at the trial. We think it was an act of God," Harmon said.

The settlement funds will be used to restore the damaged areas, said Park Superintendent Vaughn Baker.

Rebecca Boyle is a staff writer for Fort Collins Now. For the complete version of this story, go to www.fortcollinsnow.com.