PRESS RELEASE: Larimer County Unleashes 42-Day Permitting Process For Massive Proposed Dam Amidst Pandemic

For Immediate Release Save The Poudre: Poudre Waterkeeper Contact: Gary Wockner, Director, 970-218-8310 Groundhog Day On The Poudre River: With Release of NISP FEIS, Nothing Has Changed In 15 Years As Massive Dam Project Would Still Drain The Poudre Through Fort Collins Fort Collins, CO: Today, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released the long-awaited "Final Environmental Impact Statement (link here)" (FEIS) for the "Northern Integrated Supply Project" (NISP), a massive proposed new dam/diversion that would further drain the Cache la Poudre River through Fort Collins. Although 15 years has passed by, nothing has changed -- the project would still dramatically reduce river flows and have huge negative impacts on the river. In fact, right off the bat on page 15 (link here, image below), the FEIS indicates that the NISP "preferred alternative" ("2M") would drain 45% of the water out of the river in May during high-flow periods and 39% of the water in June, the two peak flow months in downtown Fort Collins. Further, these impacts would occur exactly where the City of Fort Collins will begin construction of a new whitewater park this Fall (See graph below for the "Lincoln Gage" which is right across the street from New Belgium Brewing). "It's Groundhog Day on the Poudre River," said Gary Wockner. "Every day for 15 years we've been waking up and nothing has changed -- and now this FEIS clearly indicates, again, that NISP would further drain and destroy the Poudre River through Fort Collins." Further yet, the Poudre River has already had 63% of its water drained out by farms and cities at the same point in the river, and thus this new diversion would dramatically decrease river flows compared to the river's natural state. The FEIS weighs in a 2,272 pages plus 23 additional "technical reports", but the Army Corps has given the public a paltry 45 days to review the massive document. "The first thing we will do is send the Corps a request to extend the public comment period," said Wockner. "And then our team of scientists and attorneys will dig in for our summer of reading." "We've been at this for 15 years, and we are digging in for the home stretch," continued Wockner. "We are bigger, stronger, and better funded than ever, and we will never stop fighting to protect the Poudre." This press release is posted here. ***end*** -- Gary Wockner, PhD, Director Save The Poudre: Poudre Waterkeeper PO Box 20, Fort Collins, CO 80522 http://savethepoudre.org http://www.facebook.com/SaveThePoudre https://twitter.com/savethepoudre 970-218-8310

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."…