Northern Water, Fort Collins still willing to talk on reservoir plans

FORT COLLINS and BERTHOUD — Parties in a dispute over the Northern Integrated Supply Project said they’re still willing to discuss it, including an option where NISP is ‘grandfathered’ in as regulations against developments of its scope are being written.

Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District in Berthoud, commonly known as Northern Water, wants to build NISP to supply water to 15 towns, municipalities and rural water providers, including two reservoirs.

The 170,000 acre-foot Glade Reservoir and 45,600 acre-foot Galeton Reservoir would deliver 40,000 acre feet of water — 13 billion gallons a year — to 500,000 people starting in 2028. Glade is northwest of Fort Collins; Galeton is northeast of Greeley. The project is projected to cost $1.5 billion.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Exploring & expressing grief

Support groups and events, as well as creative therapies and professional counseling, are all ways in which Pathways supports individuals dealing with grief and loss.

Most of the project is outside Fort Collins, but some elements will cross land within the city or involve the Cache la Poudre River within city limits.

“Some smaller communities in Northern Colorado … asked us to help them develop a new water supply,” said Northern Water spokesman Jeff Stahla. “This project came together after looking at a lot of options.”

The Fort Collins City Council voted 6-1 on Oct. 19 to spend a year writing new regulations on such projects, preventing NISP’s advance. Councilwoman Shirley Peel cast the “no” vote.

“I’m for local control, and I’m still supportive,” Peel said. “The reason I voted no is there’s been a rush to do this.”

The city’s vote imposes a moratorium on projects such as NISP in Fort Collins.

“The city’s position right now is that NISP is under the moratorium,” said senior environmental planner Kelly Smith. “This isn’t to stop projects; it’s a mechanism to give us a stronger voice.”

Water works

The October Fort Collins City Council vote followed Northern Water’s “Site Plan Advisory Review” via city planning channels. Northern Water sought permission in May to build NISP components in the city.

Fort Collins planning commissioners on June 30 voted 3-2 to deny permits for the construction. But state law governing relationships among municipalities lets public entities proposing projects override SPAR decisions with two-thirds vote of their board. The full Northern Water board did this unanimously in August.

Two groups, Save the Poudre and No Pipe Dream Corp., had filed a lawsuit in June before the planning commission vote seeking to block the review. A Larimer County District Court judge allowed SPAR but said the groups could amend their complaint afterward.

The groups did so Aug. 31, questioning state SPAR rules and seeking to vacate the concluded process.

Larimer County approved NISP in Sept. 2020. Northern Water had secured a Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment permit eight months before, in January.

Between those two permits, Fort Collins City Council in August 2020 voted to oppose NISP and in May of this year had begun to consider municipal regulations on projects like it. Its vote last month blocked NISP in Fort Collins.

Next steps

All parties agreed that Northern Water and Fort Collins have worked together on water issues over the years and said they continue to discuss NISP. One possibility is that the work could be ‘grandfathered’ in, perhaps with agreement related to how the project will proceed — e.g., mitigation methods of the work’s effects.

Stahla told BizWest in August that Northern Water’s override of the planning commission’s vote to deny NISP its permits included seven pages of self-imposed conditions on the work, for instance. These gave some structure on how the conservancy district could coordinate with the city in building NISP including elements related to easements, paying for property damage and environmental mitigation.

In addition, the City Council vote came after earlier wording of the measure was ratcheted downward, in part to keep the moratorium from excluding smaller-scale work, Smith said. These changes could guide a deal, as well.

“‘Large-scale’ is going to be further defined” as the city’s rules are written and adopted, she said. Smith said the moratorium’s downsizing was based on Larimer County rules “narrowed down to include more projects” in Fort Collins. NISP “is the only project subject to the moratorium at this point,” she said.

“I can’t say about grandfathering,” Smith said. “We do have ongoing negotiations with Northern Water, we are talking with them … Nothing is impossible.”

Shirley Peel said the “compromise on second reading” of the moratorium exempted projects underway, among other changes. She voted ‘no’ so the city could do more work before blocking projects.

“We still haven’t done our homework,” she said. “I’m a little concerned we passed this” but continuing talks are encouraging, she said.

“I’m open to grandfathering them in,” Peel said. The city and Northern water “are working together to try and figure this out and I hope that continues.”

“Our position is we have already gone through the city process,” Stahla said. Asked about grandfathering the project in, integrating a work with the city’s ongoing goal to craft a city of the particular sort it wants, Stahla was cautious but firm.

“We feel like we have permission” to proceed because of SPAR, he said, “but we’re not ready to begin (yet) for other reasons.”

Northern Water is awaiting a federal permit — NISP involves navigable waterways, which brings in the federal oversight — and “we’re also still in the design phase” on the project.

“There’s time to talk to Fort Collins about a compromise,” he said.