With more than 20 years of planning, permit applications and courtroom fights behind it, the Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP) is edging closer to construction.
The ambitious plan, led by the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, calls for two new reservoirs and a network of pipelines to help supply water from the Poudre River to up to 15 northern Front Range communities.
But, with the rising price tag and NISP’s largest participant — the Fort Collins–Loveland Water District — openly weighing whether to walk away, the project’s feasibility is getting renewed scrutiny. For officials at Northern Water, however, the once-in-a-generation investment in future water security is too important to abandon over what it considers to be “hiccups” rather than major setbacks.
“From our standpoint, the project’s still moving forward,” Northern Water spokesman Jeff Stahla said. “It’s a regional need, which is why we view it as being so important and, because we have the permits in hand, we recognize that those are extremely valuable assets that we can’t walk away from.”
Project details
NISP’s centerpiece is Glade Reservoir, a 170,000 acre-foot storage facility planned north of Fort Collins, paired with the smaller Galeton Reservoir east of Ault, which would hold about 40,000 acre-feet. Together, the reservoirs would capture water from the Poudre River during high-flow years and release it in dry years to help serve fast-growing Front Range communities, including Erie, Windsor, Firestone and Severance, among many others.
The project also includes pipelines, pumping stations and the relocation of seven miles of U.S. 287, which now cuts through the future Glade Reservoir site.
First proposed in the early 2000s, NISP has faced a long road to approval. Northern Water began pursuing federal and state permits more than two decades ago, triggering years of environmental review, feasibility studies, public hearings and lawsuits.
In 2022, the project reached a major milestone when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued its permit, but the final barrier to construction was only cleared earlier this year, when Northern Water settled a lawsuit with nonprofit Save the Poudre, leading to the establishment of the $100 million Poudre River enhancement fund.
Costs
But with those obstructions out of the way, a couple of new ones have emerged in their place. The most pressing is the ballooning cost of the project, which is now estimated at $2.69 billion, more than 30% higher than earlier estimates of $2 billion.
Stahla said inflation and higher construction costs are the main drivers of the increase, and that the jump didn’t happen all at once.
“Those estimates actually are from 2020 and now,” he said. “This didn’t happen this summer.”
Nor is the Save the Poudre settlement a major factor in the jump, he continued.
“The structure of that settlement adds up to $100 million, but it’s actually, more like an O and M (operations and maintenance) cost in terms of how it’s being budgeted, with a few million every year, going out 20 years,” he explained.
To keep costs in check, Northern Water is reevaluating some design elements, including the planned size of Glade Reservoir. Stahla characterized that process as a temporary pause, not a delay in the overall project.
“This is a pause of months, not years, on some storage elements,” he said. “Other components, like the inlet canals and the relocation of U.S. Highway 287, are still moving forward.”
There could also be some relief from state agencies such as the Colorado Water Conservation Board, which has the ability to extend low-interest loans to help soften the blow of unexpected expenses. A recent example came with the Chimney Hollow Reservoir project west of Loveland, where the 11 participating entities were hit last year with an additional $65 million in construction costs. With financing assistance from the state, they were able to absorb the increase and keep the project on track.
A similar initiative at the federal level, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA), could also provide some relief, Stahla said.
Largest partner considers exit
The rising costs have prompted at least one major partner to reevaluate its role. The Fort Collins–Loveland Water District, accounting for the largest share of NISP’s participation, announced earlier this month that it is weighing whether to withdraw. District officials cited concerns about the project’s costs, delivery guarantees and water quality. They are expected to make a final decision next month when participants sign their next interim agreements.
Fort Collins-Loveland Water District officials did not respond to the Reporter-Herald’s request for comment on the issue.
If the district does pull out, it could either walk away from its investment or attempt to sell its shares to another community.
Stahla said such transactions are not unusual in projects of this scale; over the course of NISP’s planning, participants have reduced or traded shares, just as they did with earlier efforts such as the Colorado-Big Thompson and Windy Gap projects.
“It was the Platte River Power Authority who actually stepped in and said, ‘Well, no, we really need this,’” Stahla said, referring to Windy Gap. “I would say that that allowed that boost for what happened for the region in the 80s and 90s, as all these diverse industries moved in.”
So far, no other participants have approached Northern Water about withdrawing, Stahla said. The Left Hand Water District told the Reporter-Herald on Thursday it remains committed for the long haul, while officials in Erie said they are monitoring the situation closely.
“…As a partner for more than 20 years, we will take a methodical and measured approach as we collaborate with other project partners to find a path forward,” said Gabi Rae, the town of Erie’s communications and community engagement director. “We look forward to participating in future meetings.”
One of those future meetings is coming up next month, when NISP participants are scheduled to sign their next interim agreement with Northern Water, a routine step that could take on added significance in light of the Fort Collins–Loveland Water District’s pending decision.
For Northern Water, though, the calculus remains the same: demand for reliable supplies on the fast-growing Front Range is only going up.
“When you’re dealing with big projects, you wish that they would all go super smoothly, but history shows that they don’t,” Stahla said. “And so here we are — we’re recognizing this is a hiccup, but we also know that generational projects sometimes get the hiccups. So we’ll take a drink of water and move forward.”
