NISP/Glade Reservoir Delayed Again

 

Fatally Flawed Project now at least five years late and millions over budget

Fort Collins, CO -- The Army Corps of Engineers today announced yet another very long delay and cost overrun for the fatally flawed Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP) and its highly controversial Glade Reservoir.

The Corps announced that it was doing a "Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement" (SEIS) that would not be released until at least June of 2010. The SEIS will add "additionally analysis" ..."due to the number and complexity of significant comments..." said the Corps press release.

"With a team of 25 scientists, the Save The Poudre Coalition spent months analyzing the Glade Reservoir scheme," said Gary Wockner. "Everything we've said so far has turned out to be dead-on accurate. NISP/Glade is an environmental and debt disaster in the making."

The huge coalition of environmental groups representing the Save The Poudre Coalition inserted dozens of pages of scientific comments into the public record during the public comment period for the Draft EIS. In addition, the Coalition created a "Healthy Rivers Alternative" that they want the Army Corps to evaluate as the process moves forward.

"The SEIS needs to analyze the Healthy Rivers Alternative. This Alternative is a positive win-win solution that is cheaper, better for farms, and will better protect the Poudre River than NISP/Glade," said Wockner. "If the SEIS just re-analyzes the fatally flawed Glade Reservoir scheme, it is probably a waste of money and time."

The NISP/Glade scheme is now scheduled to be at least five years late and millions over budget. With more analysis and public comment periods now planned, there's no end in sight for the communities that are participating in NISP.

"If you're a NISP-subscribing city, you should look at the Healthy Rivers Alternative," said Wockner. "NISP/Glade is going nowhere fast."

In its comments to the Corps during the DEIS process, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also endorsed an alternative analysis similar to the Healthy Rivers Alternative.


The Save The Poudre Coalition is made up of 13 national, state, and regional groups including Clean Water Action, Defenders of Wildlife, American Rivers, Western Resource Advocates, Colorado Environmental Coalition, Environment Colorado, Sierra Club – Rocky Mountain Chapter, Fort Collins Audubon Society, Citizen Planners, Wolverine Farm Publishing, Poudre Paddlers, Friends of the Poudre, and the Cache la Poudre River Foundation. Membership in these groups totals over 2 million American citizens

Healthy Rivers Alternative is described here: http://savethepoudre.org/docs/stp_healthy_rivers_alternative.pdf

Save the Poudre: http://www.savethepoudre.org