Cabin owners take city water permit to court

By Bill Harlan. Journal Staff Writer | Saturday, February 12, 2005

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A couple who owns a cabin on Spearfish Creek is going to court to get more water flowing in front of their property in the lower reaches of Spearfish Canyon.

"I have no animus towards anyone," plaintiff Keith Williamson said Friday. "I just want water returned to the canyon. It's a jewel of the Black Hills, and this is a blemish on it."

Spearfish Creek currently is diverted at Maurice, eight miles up the canyon, into a long tunnel that feeds a small hydroelectric plant on the edge of Spearfish City Park.

Williamson and his wife, Diana, own a cabin about five miles up the canyon, where the streambed is mostly dry.

The Williamsons' attorney, Michael Hickey of Rapid City, said the lawsuit will ask a judge in Lawrence County to order the state of South Dakota to reconsider last year's transfer of Spearfish Creek water rights from Homestake Mining Co. to the city of Spearfish.

Homestake built the hydroelectric plant in Spearfish in 1910 to generate power for the company's gold mine in Lead, which now is closed.

The city of Spearfish bought the hydro plant and the water rights last year for $250,000.

Spearfish Mayor Jerry Krambeck said at the time that buying the plant would ensure that Spearfish Creek would continue to flow through town. Krambeck and others in Spearfish fear that if the water is put back into the original stream channel at Maurice, it would disappear underground into aquifers before it reaches town.

The creek feeds the D.C. Booth Fish Hatchery in Spearfish, then runs through the city park and through town.

The hydroelectric plant, renovated in the 1980s, generates enough electricity to pay for upkeep on the plant and the 5-1/2-mile tunnel that feeds it, city officials say.

Last year, the state granted Spearfish a water right of 120 cubic feet per second, which is more than twice the usual stream flow.

Hickey said 120 cubic feet per second also was far more water than necessary to run the hydroelectric plant, and he said repairing leaks in the tunnel could further increase the amount of water that could be redirected into the main channel of Spearfish Creek.

Williamson emphasized that he agreed with city officials that the creek should continue to run through town.

"I would never in my life want the water to disappear in Spearfish," he said.

Dick Fort of Lawrence County-based ACTion for the Environment, which is supporting the Williamsons' claim, said returning water to Spearfish Creek could add four miles to the trout stream in Spearfish Canyon without hurting the city's ability to generate electricity and without endangering the flow of the creek through town.

"There are legitimate concerns on the part of the city, but there is room for win-win possibilities," Fort said.

The lawsuit asks a judge to order the state Department of Water and Natural Resources to hold hearings on the transfer of the Homestake permit.

Garland Eberle, chief engineer for water rights with the state Department of Water and Natural Resources, had not seen the lawsuit as of Friday. Last week, Eberle told the Rapid City Journal that the state had not held hearings on the permit because the city was using the water for the same purpose as Homestake — generating electricity.

Hickey said the lawsuit will argue that the city's use of the electricity, which it sells to Black Hills Power & Light, is different than Homestake's use, which was to power a gold mine.

A hearing should have been held, Hickey said.

Mayor Krambeck declined to comment on the lawsuit Friday.

Contact Harlan at 394-8424 or at bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com