Glade EIS still three months out

LARIMER COUNTY – A draft Environmental Impact Statement on a potential Glade Reservoir near the mouth of Poudre Canyon, expected earlier this summer, will now likely be released in the fall, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“Hopefully, it’s going to be October,´ said Chandler Peter, regulatory project manager for the Corps’ Wyoming Regulatory Office, which is gathering data and writing the EIS.

“One of the things that was raised as a scoping issue was the stream’s morphology,” he said. “What’s going to happen to the Poudre River when you pull the water out when it comes to riparian habitat, stream flow and so on.”

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Peter said diverting water from the Poudre – it’s estimated that only about 10 percent of the river’s annual flow of 300,000 acre feet will be diverted to the reservoir – will have impacts on the stream’s ability to move out sediment, bank erosion, wildlife utilization, fishing capacity and visual aesthetics.

“All those things are affected based on how much water is removed,” he said.

Peter said an expected June delivery of the draft EIS was delayed after an initial analysis by the consultant, ERO Resources Inc. in Denver, didn’t contain enough information to fully perform the morphology study.

“It wasn’t detailed enough,” he said. “Until you actually see it written up, that’s when you say this isn’t what I was thinking.”

Peter said more information will be gathered this summer to fill in the analysis gaps.

Glade Reservoir is the central feature of the Northern Integrated Supply Project, or NISP, which aims to provide 40,000 acre feet of new water supplies to Northern Colorado cities, towns and water districts at a cost of about $10,000 per acre-foot.

The NISP project is proposed by the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, which is charged with developing water supplies for growing upper Front Range communities and Northern Colorado farmers who need irrigation water for their crops.

Planning for the $400 million NISP project began in 2002 and is now going through the required reviews by regulatory agencies. A total of 12 partners are lined up to receive varying shares of water from the project if it gets a permit and the reservoir is constructed.

Berthoud bows out

A 13th partner – the town of Berthoud – recently withdrew from NISP, citing other spending priorities and enough water supplies on hand to carry it until at least 2012.

Carl Brouwer, NISP project manager, said he understands that the Corps of Engineers has numerous projects under review and a project like NISP is very complex.

“(Peter) has to review all this stuff and the amount of technical stuff coming in is phenomenal,” he said. “He is a very careful reviewer and this project is controversial, so he is making sure the review is as thorough as necessary.”

Brouwer said delays in the project – the EIS was expected back in January, then bumped back to June and now October – have been frustrating.

“We’re at the five-yard line and it’s taking forever,” he said. “But we all see the end and that’s very different from a few years ago.”

Local environmental groups have expressed criticism of the project, saying it has the potential to suck the Poudre River dry and that not enough emphasis is being placed on conserving existing water supplies.

“It isn’t surprising that the Corps of Engineers has asked for more analysis into the great damage this project would cause to the Poudre River,´ said Mark Easter, a member of Poudre Canyon Group of Sierra Club. “The more we look into (the project), the more problems we find. It is becoming more and more clear that the communities involved need to take a hard look at the project and re-evaluate their participation, as the town of Berthoud has done.”

Another potential bump in the road for the project could come from the city of Fort Collins, which is not a NISP partner and has concerns about how the project might affect stream flows through the city.

“Obviously, the concerns we have are stream flows on the Poudre River and the treatment of the water,´ said Darin Atteberry, Fort Collins city manager. “We have a team of folks in Natural Resources and the water utility who are looking at the issues, and we’ll come back with a recommendation to the city council. It’s been identified by the council as a very high priority, so we’re taking this matter seriously and will come forward with an informed position.”

Atteberry said he plans to bring the matter to the council “later this fall.”

Brouwer said he knows Fort Collins is watching the NISP project closely. “The Poudre through Fort Collins is a hot-button issue and whatever’s put in the EIS will be scrutinized with a fine-tooth comb,” he said.

Could increase flows

Peter said the project actually has the potential to increase stream flows along the Poudre through various water exchanges.

“We’re looking at the effect on water flows and the potential to even enhance the flows,” he said. “That’s part of the complexity of these kinds of projects – different players want different amounts (of water) at different times and how can you accommodate all of these? When you look at all the points of diversion along the Poudre it’s very complex.”

Peter said his office will release a draft EIS that will then go through a 90-day public review process. A final EIS in the spring of 2008 would contain the Corps’ decision on the NISP project and – if favorable – a construction permit would then be issued to the water district.

Peter said if nothing arises to kill the project, ground could be broken “within three years.”

Brouwer said delaying the release of the draft EIS to October won’t significantly affect the project’s timetable and added that NISP participants have all indicated they have enough water to meet their needs until 2014, the projected date to begin delivering water from Glade Reservoir.

“Originally we were hoping to have it ready by 2012, then we went to 2013,” he said. “Then about a year or so ago we realized it would probably be 2014 and the participants said that was OK.

“If we get a permit by next May, we can start the project by 2010 and be done by 2014,” he said.