PRESS RELEASE: Thornton Pipeline TABLED

For Immediate Release June 11, 2018 Contact: Gary Wockner, Save The Poudre: Poudre Waterkeeper, 970-218-8310 June 22/23, 50th Anniversary Celebration, Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, Cache la Poudre Fort Collins: Toyota USA, the Waterkeeper Alliance, and Save The Poudre are joining together on June 22nd and 23rd to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Wild and Scenic Rivers Act with a SPLASH event. The celebration will be on the Cache la Poudre River, the ONLY Wild and Scenic River in the state of Colorado designated by an Act of Congress. The celebration will feature: June 22: Photography presentation by renowned Colorado nature photographer John Fielder featuring his photographs of beautiful rivers in Colorado, at the Lincoln Center in Fort Collins at 7:00 pm (Information and tickets here). June 23: Free half-day rafting on the Cache la Poudre River for 100 guests, including a free Save The Poudre t-shirt, funded by Toyota. The rafting trips will be hosted by Mountain Whitewater and Wanderlust, both long-term professional rafting companies on the Cache la Poudre. "The Cache la Poudre is a beautiful river and we are lucky to have it here in northern Colorado," said Gary Wockner, Director of Save The Poudre. "Please join the celebration to enjoy this Wild and Scenic River, and if you can't join us, try to get out on the river as often as possible this summer." “Beyond our own water conservation and watershed protection activities, through this partnership we aim to drive awareness in the community about the importance of protecting our water resources,” said Kevin Butt, general manager of environmental sustainability, Toyota Motor North America. “The SPLASH series provides a fun way to contribute to water conservation projects and make a difference.” “Engaging people with their local waterways is a crucial part of securing drinkable, fishable, swimmable water,” said Marc Yaggi, executive director of Waterkeeper Alliance. “The SPLASH Event Series strengthens connections between communities and waterways across the country. We thank Toyota for their commitment to the environment, clean water, and another great year of SPLASH.” See more about the national Toyota/Waterkeeper SPLASH series here. ***end***        

For Immediate Release March 6, 2019 Contact: Gary Wockner, Save The Poudre, 970-218-8310 Dam To Nowhere? Massive Northern Colorado Dam Project Must Now Buy "100 Or More Farms" Fort Collins, CO: Last week, the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District (Northern Water) revealed that they would have to buy "100 or more farms" containing 25,000 acre feet of water to supply the proposed Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP) and its huge proposed Glade Reservoir. For sixteen years, and through three iterations of federally required Environmental Impact Statements, Northern Water has claimed that farmers in Larimer and Weld County would willingly "exchange" 25,000 acre feet of water for NISP. But on Thursday, Northern Water completely changed their story, announcing that it bought its first farm, and proclaiming in the Loveland Reporter Herald: "We need to tie up 25,000 acre-feet of water however we can do it," Warner said, adding, "We're not using eminent domain or anything." To obtain the 25,000 acre-feet, he estimated it would take about a decade and 100 or more farms, depending on their size. The massive farm-buying scheme continues to reveal the highly speculative and completely unpredictable nature of the NISP, as well as the continued escalation of cost. In the first Environmental Impact Statement in 2008, NISP was estimated to cost $350 million; in the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) in 2018, NISP was estimated to cost $1.1 billion. Further, in the FEIS, NISP said the cost to buy water for their proposed alternative was "0" (zero).  Now, NISP proposes to buy 25,000 acre feet of water with an estimated cost of at least $275 million or more just to have the water to make the project feasible. As of last week, NISP announced that it had so-far bought one 28-acre farm yielding "30 acre feet of water" for $330,000, at the same time that the price of farmland and water continues to skyrocket across northern Colorado over the last decade. "Everything we said over a decade ago was correct and true," said Gary Wockner of Save The Poudre. "We said NISP was a billion-dollar boondoggle that would drain the Poudre River and require massive purchases of farm water to fill Glade Reservoir, and to a point, NISP is now well over a billion dollars, would further drain the Poudre River, and is now trying to buy 100 or more farms to fill Glade Reservoir." The new farm-buying scheme raises huge legal issues for the permits NISP needs from the Army Corps of Engineers, the State of Colorado, and Larimer County, all of which were predicated on the farmers "willingly exchanging" their water instead of NISP having to buy it. "This new scheme completely changes the permitting requirements," said Wockner. "In the coming weeks, we will be communicating with Army Corps about the necessity of a 'Supplemental EIS' that examines the new impacts of this scheme on flows in the Poudre River, the cost of the project, and the impact on northern Colorado farms and open space."…

Great news -- Downtown FoCo Poudre River Whitewater Park permit near the goal post! Read the story in the Fort Collins Coloradoan here:  http://www.coloradoan.com/story/money/business/2017/11/10/downtown-fort-collins-river-park-awaits-green-light/844895001/  Save The Poudre was proud to spend $10k funding an economic study that inspired this park!