Fall brought both good and bad news for the Telluride
Ski and Golf Company. The western Colorado company got another
green light Oct. 22, to double its skiing terrain, when the Forest
Service rejected an appeal by environmentalists.
But in a separate agreement with the Environmental Protection
Agency, Telski will pay a $1.1 million fine and up to $2.5 million
to create and restore 19 acres of new wetlands near the resort. If
approved by a federal judge, the consent decree will end six years
of legal haggling over the company’s illegal filling of wetlands.
The company destroyed the wetlands when it developed the ski area,
golf course and new town of Mountain Village in the
1980s.
The matter was thought settled in 1993,
but a judge ruled that an earlier consent decree was too lenient.
Specifically, he asked for a higher fine and wetlands mitigation
near Mountain Village, rather than at a previously selected site
outside the county.
“The judge
let us know in no uncertain terms how he felt about the previous
consent decree,” said John Brink, a wetlands enforcement officer
for the EPA in Denver. The new settlement, he adds, represents “the
court and the public giving us another chance to prove we could do
this right.”
” Eric
Whitney
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline One win, one loss.
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