Thornton files new permit to build Larimer County water pipeline

The city of Thornton took a second shot Monday at finishing a key 70-mile water pipeline by renewing its request for Larimer County to approve the first 10 miles, as more than 10,000 potential homes in Thornton await certainty on finding a water tap. 

Thornton has staged a quiet public relations blitz with Larimer County residents bordering the redrawn pipeline route after the northern Colorado county’s commissioners rejected the first map. Larimer County has the right to review Thornton’s pipeline under state “1041” regulations on land use for big projects. 

Thornton, in Adams County, has for decades reached across county borders to buy up farms and water rights for Cache la Poudre River flows, and now needs to take delivery through a pipeline to keep growing…