From The Pueblo Chieftain (Peter Roper):
Black Hills Energy believes the best use of its limited water rights for the old Power Stations 5&6 is to donate that water — and the equipment that carries it — to the Pueblo Board of Water Works and the city of Pueblo.
The utility makes that argument in a Dec. 20 filing with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.
Black Hills was ready to carry out that water transfer last month when Commissioners Joshua Epel and Glenn Vaad stopped the process and asked that Black Hills explain why it wasn’t attempting to sell the water rights instead of donating them.
Vaad said the sale of the water could be used to lower costs for Black Hills ratepayers.
In practical terms, the Black Hills water is used to help fill the channels of the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo, so having the water sent elsewhere would pose a major problem to the Pueblo attraction.
Commissioner Frances Koncilja, a Denver attorney but Pueblo native, disagreed with Epel’s and Vaad’s interim order and said her colleagues were meddling with a win-win agreement for the Pueblo utility, but the order was issued.
In its Dec. 20 response, Black Hills officials explain that the limited amount of water it has rights to for cooling the old power station has such limited uses that selling them seemed impractical while donating them to the city and the water board was a better option.
“Our donation of the water rights . . . will provide an immediate benefit to the Pueblo Board of Water Works, the city of Pueblo and the community at large, because it will be a significant contribution towards the continued viability of the hub of Pueblo’s Downtown and a key tourist attraction — the HARP,” the brief says.
What the commission will do next is less certain. Epel, who’d been chairman for six years, resigned from the commission effective Jan. 3 and Vaad announced he would retire. Gov. John Hickenlooper on Wednesday nominated Jeff Ackerman and Wendy Moser to the commission for terms effective Monday, but both have to be confirmed by the Senate.
State Sen. Leroy Garcia, D-Pueblo, was one of a group of Southern Colorado lawmakers who backed Koncilja’s appointment to the commission earlier this year and in December, he said he would urge Hickenlooper name her chairman.