The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 5/1/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Brian Swanson Water trickles through rocks as it flows down the Poudre on Sunday. The river has been under fire for some time now as locals continue to fight to prevent the construction of the Glade Reservoir.

The proposed Glade Reservoir north of Fort Collins has heightened in debate among citizens, municipalities and cities along the Front Range after the Poudre River became ranked third in a top 10 list of endangered American Rivers.

Construction is projected to begin in 2009, and the reservoir is slated to be operational by 2012, according to the Northern Integrated Supply Project, which supplies water to communities in northern Colorado.

Its capacity would be 170,000 acre feet and surpass the size of Horsetooth Reservoir. Annually it will yield an extra 40,000 acre feet of water, which would provide water to an estimated 80,000 additional households, Carl Brouwer, a project manager for NISP, said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a draft statement Wednesday, providing an in-depth analysis of the potential effects the reservoir may have on areas surrounding the Poudre River.

Over the next 90 days, a draft of the proposal will be open to the public for review. Concerns and additional suggestions can be addressed to the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District.

Water providers from Larimer, Weld, Boulder and Morgan counties will fund the nearly $400 million project, which many say will not be the only cost.

John Stednick, a watershed science professor, said there are alternatives to building the Glade Reservoir that will meet the demands of municipalities and the community without sacrificing the Poudre River and ecosystems surrounding it.

He said conservation and better water management are two areas that need to be improved.

Stednick said NISP's current argument for building Glade Reservoir is if they don't, someone else will take the water.

"There's a fear that if you don't use your water rights that someone else will use them," Stednick said.

Stednick said, there needs to be more incentive for water right holders to keep water in the stream, adding that under the current appropriation doctrine, water rights can be lost by abandonment if water right holders do not use enough water. He said there needs to be better schedules for water rights withdrawals and water right holders should not be penalized for not taking out water.

Continued...

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