Colorado’s Cache la Poudre River tumbles 80
miles from its high-alpine headwaters in Rocky Mountain National
Park down to the South Platte River on the plains below. The upper
Poudre is the only designated wild and scenic river in the state
– but after it exits Poudre Canyon, 90 percent of its flow is
siphoned off for farmers and homeowners around Fort Collins. Now, a
local water district wants to tap the remaining 10 percent to fill
two new reservoirs.
Municipal planners in northern
Colorado say the prospect of drought combined with a booming
population (predicted to increase three-fold by 2050), leaves only
one solution: more water storage, in the form of the Northern
Integrated Supply Project. “This is not a case of ‘if
you don’t build it, they won’t come,’ ”
says Carl Brouwer, project manager. “Bottom line: More people
equals the need for more water.”
The Army Corps of
Engineers project includes not only the two reservoirs, but also
pump stations and pipelines. Water from the South Platte River will
fill the 40,000 acre-foot Galeton Reservoir, on the plains five
miles northeast of Greeley. The much-larger Glade Reservoir –
with a capacity of 170,000 acre-feet – will use Poudre River
water to inundate a mountain valley about 10 miles north of Fort
Collins.
Two-thirds of Glade’s water would come
from existing diversions for agriculture, while the remainder would
be pulled from the Poudre in peak-flow years, which occur about
once every four years. That would cause a significant decline in
peak-flow volumes – and therein lies the problem.
“The peak flow is absolutely critical to the ecological
health of the river,” says Gary Wockner, ecologist and member
of Save the Poudre, a citizen’s group opposing the project.
Peak flows recharge the wetlands that filter out pollutants such as
ammonia, and redistribute silt, which creates spawning beds for
trout and seedbeds for new cottonwoods. “If there is no peak
flow, critical habitat and sand bars disappear and seed dispersal
no longer occurs,” says Wockner. “Lose the peak flows
and lose the wetlands.” Municipal planners, however, say
mitigation efforts, such as minimum stream flow levels and the
construction of “low flow channels” for fish during
drought periods, will protect the Poudre’s fragile ecosystem.
The Northern Colorado Water Conservation District says
that the new reservoirs are crucial for preserving Colorado’s
agricultural roots. The project would provide an annual 40,000
acre-feet of water to 15 communities and water districts in Weld,
Larimer, Boulder and Morgan counties. Those counties face the loss
of much of their farmland as cities buy agricultural water rights.
By providing municipal users with an alternative water supply, the
project will prevent the permanent dry-up of 25,000 acres of
farmland, according to the water district.
But because
the $400 million project is debt-funded, it relies on population
growth and the subsequent newcomers to pick up most of the costs.
“What the general public doesn’t realize is that (the
Northern Integrated Supply Project) actually promotes a vehicle to
pave over farms,” says Wockner. “The exact growth that
NISP relies on financially will occur on 20,000 acres of irrigated
farmland in northern Colorado.”
Wockner and other
conservationists say that northern Colorado can meet its future
water needs without further draining the lower Poudre. They
recommend conservation and education, coupled with modest
improvements in agricultural irrigation efficiency. “Northern
Colorado has lots of small towns with big dreams of growing as
quickly as possible,” says Mark Easter, conservation chair
for the Sierra Club’s Poudre Canyon Group. “And most of
them don’t have any water conservation or efficiency plans in
place.”
Municipal planners agree that water
conservation efforts are important, but say that conservation alone
cannot solve the region’s long-term water shortage. The Army
Corps of Engineers is expected to release its draft environmental
impact statement near the start of the New Year, and members of
Save the Poudre are already calling for a doubling of the
traditional 90-day comment period.
“This is a huge
decision – ground zero for the next phase of dam building in
the West,” says Wockner. “This truly is a watershed
issue.”
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