Palisade sewer project moving into easement acquisition phase

By DAN WEST

Dan.West@gjsentinel.com

The Palisade Board of Trustees were given an update on the town’s sewer project, which is moving into the easement acquisition phase, at a work session last week.

Bret Guillory with J-U-B Engineers gave a brief background of the project for the board, which has three new Trustees that were elected in April.

The town currently operates a lagoon system to treat its wastewater. Guillory said the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will be instituting more restrictive regulations in 2027 to reduce the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen discharged into the Colorado River.

“The town’s lagoons are not capable of treating the sewage to that amount and eliminating those nutrients,” Guillory said. “So the town was faced with a couple different options — build a mechanical plant or figure out some way to convey their sewage to Clifton Sanitation District.”

In 2020, J-U-B produced a report for the town that estimated the cost of a new plant, as well as two routes to construct a sewer line to Clifton’s mechanical plant. The cost of a new plant was much greater than sending a sewer line to Clifton. The town also chose a route for that line that would be mostly gravity fed and follow the Grand Valley Canal and F Road.

Last year the town was awarded a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant and loan to help fund the $24 million project. Since then, Guillory said J-U-B has completed a 30% design of the project.

“Thirty percent is basically we’ve got confidence that we have utilities located properly, we know how deep the line is going to be, we know some surface features that we’re going to need to address during construction or we need to avoid,” Guillory said. “It’s a plan set that doesn’t have a lot of notes on it yet, but a basic skeleton and some of the meat is on the bone.”

EASEMENTS

Much of the discussion Tuesday centered around easement acquisition, which the town will need from a number of property owners along

See SEWER, page 3A ➤

The lagoons used to treat Palisade’s wastewater are seen, with Mount Garfield and the Bookcliffs in the background.

SCOTT CRABTREE

. Continued from page 1A

the Grand Valley Canal. The F Road section will utilize the existing road right-of-way.

Brad Rodenberg with TRS, a right-of-way services company, said he has already had preliminary discussions with many of the property owners. As part of the design process the town needed permission to survey the properties. Rodenberg said most agreed to the survey, though six property owners denied the request. A few others did not respond at all.

Rodenberg said that three of the properties on the western side of the project could be bypassed with a slightly altered route.

“With regard to those that are in red that seem to be most against this project, they also have dwellings that are probably the closest to the canal,” Rodenberg said. “So I think that’s a piece of the aversion to this. It’s not uncommon.”

Rodenberg said they were in the process of coming up with legal descriptions of the easements the project would need. That will include a permanent 20-foot easement over the path of the pipe to allow for future maintenance.

Part of that process is determining the fair market value of the easement, which the town would pay to the property owner, Rodenberg said.

“Easements are generally valued as a percentage of the value of the property,” Rodenberg said. “So if the land is worth $20,000 an acre, this type of easement would be half of that. They still own the property. They still have the ability to use it for things that aren’t in conflict with the town’s uses inside the easement … You can farm right over top of it.”

The Trustees were also asked to give the town staff direction over whether they would like to allow the properties they are seeking easements from to connect to the sewer line. Town Administrator Janet Hawkinson said that could help during the negotiations.

“If the board is in favor of this we thought it would be a nice way for Brad to be able to negotiate,” Hawkinson said.

There is an added complication for a few of the properties that fall in the buffer zone between Palisade and Clifton. Those properties are not allowed to connect to sewer due to an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between Palisade, Mesa County, Grand Junction and Fruita. Hawkinson said the IGA would need to be altered to allow them to connect.

However, Guillory noted that the town would not be “pre-selling” sewer taps.

“My opinion is just whatever it takes to get this done,” Trustee Jamie Somerville said.

Somerville also asked whether, in the case of a property owner that would not agree to an easement, if eminent domain would be an option. Eminent domain allows governmental entities to take private property for a public use like a road or a pipeline with fair compensation.

“I know it’s a nuclear option, but is it (an option)?” Somerville asked. “Or would there be a redesign? What would come first?”

Rodenberg said there would not be a redesign, but that eminent domain, while an option, was not one that is often used.

“I’ve done this for 27 years. Ninety-eight percent of these things get worked out,” Rodenberg said. “Most projects there is nothing that leads to any litigation or anything like that.

“Even with eminent domain you still get paid. It isn’t that the agency gets to just take it and give you nothing. That’s not how it works.”

There is a statutory process, Rodenberg said, that they will follow throughout the easement acquisition phase. He said there are both federal and state regulations that are in place intended to protect private property owners.

“The federal rules are in place to ensure that property owners get treated fairly and get fair market value and it’s the same with the state rules,” Rodenberg said.

Guillory said the project design work will continue and that it will be ready to file bid documents by spring of 2025. There will also be a USDA review at that point.

The pipe that will be extended to the Clifton sewage facility.

SCOTT CRABTREE