Plan to fill lake hits a snag with state

Keeping the town of Palmer Lake’s namesake full might not be as simple as just turning on the water.

The Colorado Division of Water Resources has withdrawn its support of filling Palmer Lake with the town’s unused water rights from Monument Creek, halting a plan to open a valve and let water gush into the lake.

Filling the lake with the town water, which rushes down the creek from two reservoirs above town, then connects to the lake via a closed-off pipe, would be illegal, Division 2 Water Engineer Steve Witte said in a letter to the town.

“I don’t believe the intended use of those direct flow rights were for anything other than domestic uses,” Witte said. Those domestic uses include water for drinking and running the town’s wastewater system, he said.

The town’s Awake the Lake committee, a volunteer group looking for permanent solutions to filling the lake, says the town has plenty of water for the lake in unused water rights.

Until last month, the state water office supported using these rights. But that opinion came from river operations coordinator Joe Flory, who ranks below Witte in the water office chain of command.

Witte revisited Flory’s opinion at the request of Palmer Lake water attorney Ronnie Sperling, Witte wrote in the letter.

Awake the Lake consultant and geologist Kim Makower thinks the proposals, developed with a Colorado Springs water attorney, are still feasible until a judge decides otherwise.

For years, the town has searched for a way to keep the evaporating lake, which is filled by rain runoff and natural springs, at a healthy level. Thanks to a wet summer, the lake is fairly full right now.

Earlier this year, the council ordered Sperling to begin filing paperwork to divert water to the lake and store it — rights it doesn’t have now.

Dissatisfied with Sperling’s progress, Awake the Lake asked the town to suspend the process so the volunteer group could hire an attorney and pursue its own solutions.

Awake the Lake returned with two main options: exchange treated wastewater for creek water, and use creek water the town has the rights to but the town’s water-filtering plant can’t handle.

The Town Council last month voted 6-1 to go with these options and open the valve while simultaneously ordering Sperling to resume legal proceedings. The lone dissenting vote came from Mayor Max Parker.

But Sperling told the council that simply opening the valve connecting the creek to the lake without these storage rights might leave the town open to lawsuits.

With the state’s support withdrawn, the valve likely won’t open soon, officials say.

While it waits for the legal paperwork to wend its way through the courts, the town will look at other options, including possibly buying water and exchanging it for creek water, Parker said.

The complex Palmer Lake water debate has drawn attention from many downstream users, he said.

“When it comes to water the drum beats really loudly,” Parker said.

Town Council member Richard Allen, who initiated the 6-1 vote, said he’s not giving up on the lake yet, but the town needs to make sure opening the valve is legal.

“When we do that we need to do it with diligence and be careful and make sure what we’re doing is legal and not in violation of the water courts,” Allen said.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0274 or jennifer.wilson@gazette.com