WHAT'S NEXT

Tell the State of Colorado that destroying the Poudre River is not an economic development strategy!
  1. Signatures
    5,206 out of 7,500
    Petitioning
    1. Colorado Director of Economic Development (Dwayne Romero)
  2. Created By
    Save the Poudre: Poudre Waterkeeper
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates
How We Won

Jul 01, 2011

A controverisal proposed dam in Fort Collins, which would drain 71 percent of the water from the Poudre River as it runs through the city and dry up 123,000 acres of small Colorado farms, will not have the backing of Colorado's Office of Economic Development, thanks to a push from the Save the Poudre: Poudre Waterkeeper.

Economic Development Dircetor Dwayne Romero cited a "lack a broad consensus of agreement in the region and/or local community" in making his decision.

"The Cache la Poudre River is the lifeblood of Fort Collins and is enjoyed by tens-of-thousands of local citizens and tourists alike," said Gary Wockner of Save the Poudre: Poudre Waterkeeper.

"When we launched the online petition at Change.org, we'd thought we'd get a couple hundred signatures in 5 days," Wockner said. Instead, more than 5,000 signatures poured in from the Fort Collins community, flooding Dircetor Romero's inbox.

It became clear that this controversial and misguided project does not have the local support to be considered for a major state economic development program.

Please Help -- The State's public comment period for this issue closes tonight.  Thank you for your support!

Governor Hickenlooper launched a "Bottom Up" economic development process for Colorado in early 2011.  Unfortunately, the public process was subverted in northern Colorado -- without any public input at all, biased insiders in Larimer County inserted "Supporting NISP" (an extremely controversial proposed dam and reservoir project on the Poudre River) as one of the economic development strategies that the Governor should support!  Read about this nonsense here:  http://poudreriver.home.comcast.net/~poudreriver/STP_NISP_BottomUp_Economic_Scheme.pdf

We now have 1 last day to generate comments and input to the State to let them know that NISP is a terrible economic development strategy for northern Colorado.  In fact, NISP would drain and destroy the Poudre River whereas alternatives to NISP could enhance both the river and economy.  Read more here:  http://poudreriver.home.comcast.net/~poudreriver/STP_HRA_BETTER_THAN_NISP-5-17-2011.pdf

Please sign the petition today!  NISP is not an economic development strategy -- NISP will destroy the Poudre River and its economic value!

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Destroying the Poudre River is not an economic development strategy!

To: Dwayne Romero, Director, Colorado Office of Economic Development

I am writing to inform you that the Region 2 northern Colorado economic development plan submitted to your office has a fatal flaw (http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/OEDIT/OEDIT/1251588901359). Without any public input, insiders who controlled the process in Larimer County inserted "Supporting NISP" as an economic development strategy for our region. This flaw must be corrected. This plan does not represent my values nor the facts and science.

NISP -- the proposed Northern Integrated Supply Project and its huge proposed Glade Reservoir -- would drain over 1/2 of the water out of the Cache la Poudre River through downtown Fort Collins. The impacts to the Poudre would be so bad that the Fort Collins City Council voted unanimously to oppose NISP. (Read the newspaper article: http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20080903/NEWS01/809030322/Council-blasts-Glade) Further, the U.S. EPA and the State of Colorado also issued scathing critiques about NISP's negative impacts on the Poudre River.

I strongly believe that protecting and restoring the Poudre River is a much better economic development strategy for our region. In fact, the "Healthy Rivers Alternative" to NISP protects the Poudre River, protects farms, and supplies water to cities -- now THAT'S a great plan! Read about it here: http://poudreriver.home.comcast.net/~poudreriver/STP_HRA_BETTER_THAN_NISP-5-17-2011.pdf

I request that you remove "Supporting NISP" from the economic development plan for northern Colorado. I agree with the Northern Colorado Business Report -- the region's only business newspaper -- when it said: "NISP is a mistake we can't afford to make."

Thank you for protecting the Cache la Poudre River!

Sincerely,


[Your name]

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