Glade plan evaluation allows time for scrutiny

Having heard from both backers and opponents of a $430 million-plus water supply project for Northern Colorado, the Business Report’s editorial board has chosen to await a summer’s worth of expert analysis before weighing in on the issue.

Larimer County and Fort Collins have decided wisely to appropriate funds to undertake thorough and independent reviews of a 700-page draft environmental report on the Northern Integrated Supply Project, with the proposed Glade Reservoir northwest of Fort Collins its most controversial feature.

Those studies, plus those that are being independently conducted by other interested parties, will illuminate the issues that could either sink the supply project or pave its way.

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The report released last month by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers raises legitimate concerns about the potential harm the project could do – especially its effects on the Poudre River downstream from the mouth of the canyon.

Even the project’s architects at the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District were surprised by the report’s conclusions that Poudre River flows would be drastically reduced along the stretch that skirts the north edge of downtown Fort Collins.

The opposing Save the Poudre Coalition makes a compelling case that the Poudre River is an economic development asset for Fort Collins, an argument that the Business Report has made in print long before this massive water supply project was designed.

Beyond Larimer County, and apart from environmental concerns, the complex project’s impact will be measured in the finances of the 15 municipalities and water districts that are partners in owning it. They will bear the burden of paying the costs of building the dams and pipelines upon which the project depends.

It’s difficult to imagine a water-project scenario with so many moving parts and unknown costs as this one presents. That is why so much time has been set aside, with the recent extension of the public comment period on the Corps of Engineers report, to delve into all of its ramifications.

Once all the data have been thoroughly crunched, and after all the summaries have been written and presented, a clearer picture surely will emerge of what the Northern Integrated Supply Project will mean for Northern Colorado. This is a project that will then have to stand on its own or be set aside in favor of another, less threatening alternative. The gift of time makes that call easier to make.