Water project’s backers unfazed by year’s delay in final impact study

BERTHOUD — Backers of a planned water-storage project in Northern Colorado are not sounding alarm over this week’s announcement that a final environmental assessment of the project has been pushed back a year.

The Northern Integrated Supply Project would supply 40,000 acre-feet of water annually to participating water districts and communities through the construction of two reservoirs. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers won’t rule on whether the Berthoud-based Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District can build the reservoirs until it releases a final environmental impact statement. Release of that document, which had been projected to be released next summer, won’t be…