Components of the 1041 Permit

Different aspects of the NISP project have been permitted or are being permitted at Federal, State and local levels. Following several public hearings, the State approved a Fish and Wildlife Mitigation and Enhancement Plan. Similarly, the Corps of Engineers will be making its Clean Water Act section 404 permit decision pursuant to its standards and based on information in the record for the project components, alignment and locations including the pipeline.  To proceed with construction, NISP will require applicable local permits.  In particular, and pursuant to Colorado statute section 24-65.1-101, et seq., Larimer County has enacted regulations for designated “areas and activities of state interest,” commonly referred to as a County “1041” permit.  By law and per Larimer County’s Land Use Code, the Board of County Commissioners, after staff recommendations and public input, shall take action on matters within the scope of its permitting authority (including, but not limited to, NISP pipelines) within 60 days of receipt of a complete application.  

Thank you for your question.  The number of recreation users who choose Glade Reservoir as a destination has been estimated using standard and commonly accepted traffic engineering methodologies. We don’t know how many visitors will also travel to other regional recreation facilities. However, the Glade Reservoir recreation area will work in concert with those other areas to meet the need to provide additional recreation space to offset consistently expanding recreation demand identified in the Larimer County Reservoir Parks Master Plan (LCRPMP) and Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP).  As described in LCRPMP, “as populations in Larimer County and the region increase, and with most of the recreation areas built out, there will be continued challenges with crowding both on water and land.”  This new facility will also address demand management issues “in which land managers are struggling with basic upkeep of the areas and structures they oversee while at the same time, lacking the capacity to handle increasing public demand.” as identified in the SCORP.

Thank you for your question.  Yes, Larimer County will manage the Glade recreation area and have full-time staff assigned to this facility.  It’s anticipated that many portions of the facility will be open to day use only, and operating hours for those areas are anticipated to be from dawn to dusk similar to some other Larimer County recreation areas.

Thank you for your question.  A list and description of the water supplies associated with the Northern Integrated Supply Project can be found in Section 2.6.2 of the Final Environmental Impact Statement linked here for your ease of reference.

Thanks for reaching out to us.  To answer your questions, the NISP project participants anticipate that their communities will grow in the future, which will require the development of additional water supplies.  The NISP project will supply a portion of those future water needs.

The NISP participants are motivated to implement and have implemented water conservation measures.  The Participants have reduced use by nearly 30% by implementing water-saving measures such as public education, watering restrictions, low-flow fixture requirements, and landscaping regulations for new construction.  All of the NISP participants have water conservation plans. These conservation efforts, however, will not supply enough water to meet all future needs. 

A Draft, Supplemental Draft, and Final Environmental Impact Statement have been developed for the project over the past 15 years of study, which analyze the environmental impacts of the NISP project and alternatives to that project.  The details and conclusions of those analyses can be found at the following link: NISP Environmental Impact Statement

Thank you for your question! The planned start date for the construction of the project is in approximately 2023. Northern Water has been going through an extensive permitting process with federal, state, and local entities. After the permitting processes are complete, final land acquisition and design will be done to get ready for construction in 2023. Learn more about the overall NISP project at www.gladereservoir.org. 

Thank you for your question! This project site was just launched on June 28, 2019, so we appreciate you registering and being one of the first to ask questions. All feedback received on this site will be reviewed by Northern Water and Larimer County as part of the public record on the project. Please visit https://www.nisptalk.com/about-the-nisptalk-site to learn more about why we ask you to register to provide feedback. 

Thank you for your question. NISP is strongly committed to conducting public outreach to receive feedback to make the project stronger and more comprehensive.  That feedback, along with acquisition of required permits and certifications, will enable us to move forward with a well vetted and comprehensive project. If you would like to see an analysis of the need for the project, as well as the alternatives that were explored as part of the federal permitting process, please see the Final Environmental Impact Statement, located here: https://www.nwo.usace.army.mil/Missions/Regulatory-Program/Colorado/EIS-NISP/

Thank you for your question. If NISP is not approved, the towns and water districts participating in this project (the Project Participants) would acquire water by buying existing farms from the Poudre River and Big Thompson River basins and transferring those farms’ water supplies from agricultural use to municipal and industrial use.  This is commonly referred to as buy-and-dry.  As described in the project Final Environmental Impact Statement, 64,200 acres of irrigated farmland would be dried up in this process.  The Project Participants have been completing the federal permitting associated with NISP since 2004.

Thank you for your question.  In response, other no-action alternatives were studied and are either not feasible or not able to provide the amount of firm yield needed for NISP participants. Several aspects of this question suggest a misunderstanding of the NISP operations that will involve substitutions of water from Galeton Reservoir and exchanges to Glade Reservoir, and of the WaterSecure program that is a companion to those operations. NISP will collaborate with the New Cache la Poudre and Larimer & Weld irrigation companies in Weld County to provide water from Galeton Reservoir to these companies in much the same way those companies already use existing reservoirs to provide water to their shareholders directly or by exchange. NISP will then exchange water from the Company headgates up the Poudre River to Glade Reservoir.

First, and most importantly, the substitutions and exchanges do not require farms to be dried up. Rather NISP will encourage farms to remain under irrigation so that NISP can deliver substitution water to the New Cache and Larimer & Weld canals for irrigation—the opposite of “buy and dry.” Second, NISP will not have to buy any farms to secure permitting for this project, and NISP does not need to buy farms to “tie up 25,000 acre-feet of water.” The water supply for the substitutions will come from the new Galeton Reservoir, which already has decreed water rights. The exchanges will be made in cooperation with the New Cache and Larimer & Weld companies. There are currently over 80,000 acres being irrigated under these two systems. Should the amount of irrigated acreage decrease dramatically, however, because of pressure from development or “buy and dry” practices by other entities, the NISP substitutions and exchanges could be affected.

That’s where the WaterSecure efforts come into play. To avoid water permanently leaving farms through other entities’ buy-and-dry purchases, Northern Water and the NISP participants are willing to buy land and water from willing sellers in the two ditch systems, and explore various avenues to keep the water on the farms so those supplies remain available for the NISP exchanges. Rather than “buy-and-dry,” this is an outside-the-box, “buy-and-supply” approach to address tightening water supplies.