City of Greeley enters agreement with Fort Collins, Larimer County to share work, costs of Cameron Peak Fire damage mitigation

By Kelly Ragan
Remember last summer when the sky turned orange and rained ash? Even if the Cameron Peak Fire didn’t burn up buildings in Greeley, it did burn around the watersheds the city (and other northern Colorado communities) uses.  There are people at work now to ensure your drinking water doesn’t look like that as well. 

As the snow begins to melt and rain begins to fall, ash and debris from the burn  carried down by the water can gunk up the water supply. 

But there’s some good news. Both Greeley City Council and the Greeley Water and Sewer Board approved an agreement this month between Greeley, Fort Collins and Larimer County to mitigate the damage. 

More than 200,000 acres were burned by the Cameron Peak fire, and the city and other agencies are developing ways to mitigate at least 10,000 acres, according to a news release. The mitigation work, which can begin as soon as the snow melts in mid-June, involves stabilizing hillslopes, building erosion controls and stabilizing stream channels. When the fire burns the vegetation off a slope, not only does that create ash, there’s nothing to hold back debris. All that can go directly into the water, especially during downpours or fast melts. That mitigation helps control it. 

At a city council meeting in November, Sean Chambers, director of the Greeley Water and Sewer Department, said those solutions were proven to work in the aftermath of the High Park Fire. 

That work is estimated to cost more than $35 million. 

According to the news release, partnering agencies are working with a small budget to begin those mitigation efforts while continuing to seek state and federal funding to help with the project.  

“While mitigation needs are urgent, the recovery effort will be a multi-year project requiring significant funding and work coordinated with federal agencies,” Chambers said in the  news release. 

Between the Cameron Peak fire and the East Troublesome wildfires, more than 402,000 acres were burned in 2020.

In November, Chambers called the damage to Greeley’s watersheds “unprecedented.”

As it stands, there is wildfire damage in all of Greeley’s source water basins, including: 

• Poudre River 

• Big Thompson 

• Laramie River 

• Upper Colorado River (Windy Gap and Colorado Big Thompson)