PRESS RELEASE: Judge Allows Save The Poudre To Intervene Against Thornton Pipeline

April 20, 2020 PRESS RELEASE Contact: Gary Wockner, Save The Poudre, 970-218-8310 Save The Poudre and Neighborhood Groups Challenge Larimer County's "Completeness" of NISP Application Fort Collins: On Friday, April 17, Save The Poudre and two neighborhood groups -- Save Rural NoCo and No Pipedream -- filed a formal appeal with the Larimer County land use director requesting a reversal of the County determination that Northern Water's NISP application is "complete".   (the appeal is posted here). The 10-page appeal lists numerous issues completely ignored by the NISP application that Save The Poudre and neighborhood groups claim are required by Larimer County's land use regulations. The issues ignored in the application include a broad range of serious violations of regulations, including the evaluation of: the lack of  a permit for the "realignment" of Highway 287, the lack of water rights to operate the project, inconsistency with the County Master Plan, the complete lack of an alternatives analysis, the impact on public health and safety, the inability of the County to fund the project, the impact on the Cache la Poudre River of draining vast amounts of its water, the project relies on a huge farm-buying scheme that the Army Corps said was not feasible and too expensive, noise caused by power boats and recreation at the proposed Glade Reservoir, and the lack of mitigation. The challenge requires that the County Director of Community Development, Lesli Ellis, respond and either reverse the completeness determination or counter the challenge with justifications. "Everything NISP does continues to be a half-baked billion-dollar boondoggle," said Gary Wockner, Director of Save The Poudre. "Larimer County will be held to the strict letter of the law in its own land use regulations if this permit process moves forward." Just last week, Save The Poudre challenged and appealed the State's "Water Quality Certification" for NISP. The 17-year battle over NISP will likely reach its peak in 2020, with potential legal battles at the County, State, and Federal level. "We've been girding for this battle for 17 years," said Gary Wockner. "We intend to run through the tape in a full sprint to keep the Poudre River healthy and flowing." ***end***

For Immediate Release March 24,2020 Contact: Gary Wockner, Save The Poudre, 970-218-8310 PRESS RELEASE: Larimer County Unleashes 42-Day Permitting Process For Massive Proposed Dam Amidst Pandemic Fort Collins: Today, the Larimer County Commissioners created a 42-day permitting process for the biggest, most environmentally destructive, most controversial project in Larimer County history, all amidst the global coronavirus pandemic that has paralyzed Colorado's government and economy. The first public hearing is set for May 6th. The permitting documents made publicly available today include 62 highly technical documents totaling 911 pages (see County webpage here), which is the culmination of a 17-year process to create a permit for the proposed "Northern Integrated Supply Project" (NISP), a massive proposed dam and pipeline project that would further drain and destroy the Cache la Poudre River through Fort Collins. NISP proposes a massive dam and reservoir near homes that adamantly oppose it, a highway relocation near neighbors that oppose it, and two huge pipelines, one of which would go through neighborhoods that vehemently oppose it. In fact, just last year, hundreds of neighbors and Fort Collins citizens turned out for multiple public hearings against the Thornton Pipeline which would have gone along the exact same route proposed by NISP (Above: a photo of public participants at one of the hearings). The Larimer County Commissioners unanimously denied the Thornton Pipeline and the project is now in court. The permitting process for NISP -- called a "1041 permit" -- is proposed exactly when Governor Polis has ordered statewide "social distancing" and the closure of businesses, and when -- just yesterday -- the Larimer County Dept of Public Health said it was considering a county-wide "shelter-in-home" order (see Coloradoan story today here). "The Larimer County Commissioners must indefinitely suspend this 1041 permitting process for NISP until the pandemic passes and the public engagement process can be normalized," said Gary Wockner, director of Save The Poudre. "The public participation window of 42 days is insanely short for this massive technical project, and creating this public process for this extremely controversial project during the coronavirus pandemic violates all standards of government ethics and transparency, and likely violates Larimer County landuse regulations requiring public participation." ***end***