Commissioners approve PUD

On September 14, the decades-old saga of Green Mountain took a significant step forward as the Board of Carbon County Commissioners (BOCCC) unanimously approved the Planned Use Development (PUD) for Green Mountain at Brush Creek Ranch.

The approval of the PUD followed nearly two hours of public comment in the Great Hall of the Platte Valley Community Center in Saratoga. Along with testimony from representatives for Brush Creek Ranch, Valley residents spoke both in favor and against the PUD presented to the commissioners. Many of the Encampment residents in attendance expressed the same concerns they had voiced in two public hearings with the Carbon County Planning Commission and in meetings of the Encampment Town Council, namely the protection of the Town of Encampment’s source water.

To begin the public hearing, Planning Director Sarah Brugger gave a brief overview of the history of the project, beginning with Grand Encampment Mountain Resort’s ownership of Green Mountain. Though the idea of developing Section 36 outside of Encampment began in 1988 and was spearheaded by, among others, Pat Lynch, it wasn’t until 2000 when significant progress began to take place.

Following the approval of a land swap between Grand Encampment Mount Resort and the State of Wyoming, both the Carbon County Planning Commission and the Board of Carbon County Commissioners at the time approved rezoning of the 620 acre parcel from Open Range to Residential. Included within that zone change were plans for a 285 unit ski resort.

Representatives of Brush Creek Ranch specifically made mention of this previous approval during the September 14 meeting, stating their proposal would make far less of an impact on both the watershed and the surrounding landowners. Ben Jordan of Weston Engineering, speaking on behalf of Brush Creek Ranch, stated the previously approved development would have had approximately 100,000 gallons per day returned as waste water.

The proposal from Brush Creek Ranch was, several times, cited as being far more modest than the original plan. Jordan stated the number of facilities listed on the PUD application would produce approximately 17,000 gallons of wastewater per day. He added, citing a pollution study developed by him, that if all the planned septic tanks for Green Mountain at Brush Creek Ranch were to fail, it would raise the nitrate concentration levels of the downstream water users by .09 milligrams per liter.

“In other words, it’s nearly impossible to impact the water quality,” said Jordan.

Later in the meeting, under public comment, Encampment resident Gary Dowdy would appear to respond to Jordan’s assessment.

“If you have a barrel of sewage and you put a tablespoon of wine in it, what do you have? You have a barrel of sewage. If you have a barrel of fine wine and put a teaspoon of sewage in it, what do you have? You still have a barrel of sewage,” said Dowdy. “The fine wine is our water and, of course, sewage is just sewage.”

Throughout the public hearing, a number of locally well known water protectors would speak to the BOCCC about the PUD and their concerns. Jeff Streeter, a project manager for Trout Unlimited and Encampment resident, requested the county commissioners find the balance between private property rights and source water protection.

“I am not in favor of preventing Brush Creek from developing Green Mountain, after all it’s private property, nor am I in favor of granting Brush Creek with the PUD as it now stands. I favor establishing a statistically defendable baseline of both water quality and quantity,” said Street. “Commissioners, we only get to do this once. It’s essential that we get it right. I believe it is possible to honor private property rights and ensure the Town of Encampment enjoy plentiful pure water for generations to come. The way that we do this is by contracting sampling done by a qualified third-party resulting in statistically defendable baseline data.”

Streeter was not the only speaker to call for having baseline data. Jon Nelson of North Fork Engineering, who is currently contracted with the Town of Encampment as their engineer, made the same request and cited Wyoming State Statute.

Section 18-5-316(a)(ii)(B)(II) of the state statute reads “The board may require a study relative to the potential availability and quality of groundwater proposed within the subdivision which may consist of new data, existing data on other working wells in the area, or other data, including drilling logs from a test well drilled within the proposed subdivision indicating soil types, depth, quantity and quality of water produced in the test well.”

“It is a may, it’s not a shall,” said Nelson. “The point is, that I think the commissioners have a duty to ensure that the land use does not injure or damage the downstream users or adjacent land users and I think an important step in doing that is using the right you have under state statute to require a study that establishes a baseline that is statistically defensible.”

Additionally, Jeb Steward, a former Carbon County Commissioner and House District 47 Representative, addressed the current BOCCC. Steward, citing the irrigating experience three of them had, reminded them, “We live in a world where there is no new water to develop here in the Upper North Platte River. You can only have new water development if you take it from someone else.”

Of the nearly three hour public hearing, two hours were used for public comment while the final hour was used for commissioner discussion. The five members appeared to weigh the concern of source water protection alongside the importance of private property rights. Following a motion and a second to approve the PUD, Commissioner Byron Barkhurst proposed two amendments to the document.

The first, following several minutes of discussion between Barkhurst and Brugger, was the Town of Encampment would receive baseline water quality data along with Carbon County Planning and Zoning prior to any building permit being issued. The second was changing the word “will” to “shall” in any reference to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality - Water Quality Division in the PUD. The first amendment passed 4-1 with Commissioner Sue Jones dissenting and the second amendment passed unanimously.

The PUD, as amended, passed unanimously.

The next meeting of the Board of Carbon County Commissioners will be at 9 a.m. on October 5 at the Carbon County Courthouse in Rawlins.