MEEKER | Seeking answers to multiple questions posed about the White River Water Storage Project (Wolf Creek Reservoir), Meeker’s Board of Trustees welcomed Rio Blanco Water Conservancy District District Manager Director Alden Vanden Brink and project manager Wade Haerle of Vanoco Consulting to Tuesday’s meeting. Vanden Brink and Haerle responded to a dozen questions submitted to the district by the Meeker trustees and heard additional questions from members of the public in attendance.
“Lake Avery is a very real possibility. It seems to me that you’re fixated on Wolf Creek even if it makes no sense whatsoever in solving the problem. It needs to be a countywide solution, and Wolf Creek is not that.”
~ Meeker resident Jeff Madison
They began by announcing the Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to be a co-regulator on the project and encouraging the Town to become a cooperating agency, along with 26 other entities. “95% of the benefits of this project are countywide,” Haerle said. “If you elect to be a cooperator, you’ll have more information than we will.”
Vanden Brink addressed the stolen CCITF funding, stating the District has been “the victim of multiple federal crimes” that are under investigation. The District has received two disbursements of recovered funds at this time, and Vanden Brink is hopeful more of the funds will be recovered. Asked what security measures the District is taking, Vanden Brink said he “would not divulge our security measures in public” and asked the board if they have asked the same questions about their own funding through ColoTrust. “Don’t feel you’re exempt from this happening to you.”
Other questions discussed included funding, estimated cost, the timeline, water usage, economic benefits for Meeker, evaporative loss, the call on the river imposed in December 2022 and lifted earlier this month, district transparency in its pursuits, and the potential size of the reservoir. Haerle and Vanden Brink said it’s difficult to give specifics, as preliminary estimates made in 2015 will be revised during the NEPA process.
“We’re only going to build what we can afford,” Vanden Brink said. “Willingness and availability to pay will determine the size of the project.”
The District has intergovernmental agreements with Rio Blanco County, the Town of Rangely and Yellow Jacket Water Conservancy District, and will request state and federal funding.
“We don’t have to pay for the whole project at once,” Haerle said, noting that the reservoir will be a “debt service project.”
Comments and questions from members of the public included many of the same concerns expressed by the Board of Trustees regarding water use, economic benefits, expanding Lake Avery instead of building a new reservoir, and transparency issues in that the District’s board meetings are not accessible to the public via telephone or Zoom, among other concerns.
During the regular meeting, trustees accepted the invitation from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to become a cooperating agency for the project. BLM is the lead agency, with the intent to issue a single decision.
“Cooperating agences can be involved early, you don’t lose anything but you gain the ability to join the other agencies before it goes out to the public,” Heather Sauls, BLM White RIver Field Office Planning and Environmental Corrdinator, explained.
Trustees also heard updates to the draft Land Use plan based on public comments received thus far. Community Development Director and Town Planner Carly Thomson said no negative comments have been received on the proposed updates to the plan and zoning changes. The next public hearing for the Land Use Plan is set for May 16.
By NIKI TURNER – editor@editorht1885.com
