06 ‎(3)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 9/16/2008
• Description: IWMD Section - Presentation on Northern Integrated Supply Project ‎(NISP)‎
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

City of Fort Collins NISP DEEIS Comments
September 10, 2008
The health of the Cache la Poudre River is vital to tl;~e City and its residents. The City developed
along the Cache la Poudre River and is now focusing some of its key economic redevelopment
along it. The City's more than 1,400 acres of Natural Areas and several Parks along the River
are integral to the City's quality of life. Businesses value the City's quality of life due to the role
it plays in attracting and retaining high-quality emplloyees. The River is a focus for recreational
activity such as boating, cycling, walking, tubing, fishing and bird-watching. Degradation of the
River threatens the quality of life of City residents.
2. The Corps Has Not Fulfilled its Obligation to Analyze and Protect the
River and City's Drinking Water Supply
The Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District (the District or NCWCD) is required to
secure a permit from the Corps under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act before developing
NISP. Under Section 404 and its implementing regulations, the Corps may not issue permits to
projects that will cause significant degradation of the aquatic ecosystem. 40 C.F.R. § 230.11.
To meet its permitting duty, the Corps must assess adverse impacts by analyzing the
consequences of proposed discharges on the "physic;al, chemical, and biological components of
the aquatic environment." 40 C.F.R. § 230.11. It must also consider potential adverse impacts
to municipal and private water supplies, and possible loss of quality, including effects on color,
taste, odor, chemical content and suspended particulate concentration. 40 C.F.R. § 230.50.
Clean Water Act regulations further require the Corps to evaluate effects on recreational
fisheries, water-related recreation, aesthetics, parks and wilderness areas, and similar preserves.
40 C.F.R. §§ 230.51 - .54. The Corps must take a hard look at the environmental consequences
of the proposed action, including the downstream innpacts to the Cache la Poudre River in Fort
Collins.
Despite the clear legal duty to analyze the impacts of NISP on 1:he River and the City's water
quality, the DEIS fails to do so. The DEIS is riddled with omissions, inaccuracies, errors,
inconsistencies and improper approaches that make lit inadequate as a matter of law. The DEIS
fails to adequately and accurately acknowledge the serious impacts of NISP. For example, the
DEIS provides no meaningful plan for the operation of NISP, making it impossible to understand
exactly how NISP would affect the River or Horsetooth Reservoir. And, because the DEIS
underestimates the impacts associated with NISP, it also fails to provide adequate measures to
avoid and minimize these impacts.
3. The DEIS Does Not Adequately Analyze the Impacts of NISP on Fort
Collins
The following paragraphs summarize some of NISP's impacts and the DEIS deficiencies of
greatest concern to the City, which are treated in dletail in later sections of these Comments.
These are not technicalities, but fundamental concerns that affect real people's lives. At stake is
the ability of parents to bring their children to the River without algae blooms, for fishermen to
still use their favorite close-in spot for catching large brown trout, for families to wade or tube in
the River, for the City and Northern Colorado to continue to succeed in attracting the best high-
technology employers, and for homeowners and businesses to avoid the ravages of floods.