Memo from Water Valley CEO Martin Lind
RE: Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP) / Glade Reservoir
To all Friends, Members and Neighbors,
Water! It’s why we exist in Colorado. As you know, the Eastern portion of Colorado is technically part of the “Great Plains” of the United States. Even more technically, with our annual rainfall of less than 15 inches per year, we live in a desert.
Our entire existence here, in this fantastic region of Northern Colorado, is attributable to our forefathers who had the prudence and the fortitude to design and build reservoirs and diversion structures. In my entire lifetime of 55 years here in Windsor, short of minor reservoir capacity alterations, creatively designed out of gravel pits, we have never built a new reservoir. There are many reasons for this, some having to do with site and water rights and restrictions, however, most reasons seem to be brewed from environmental fear-mongering by affluent organizations that simply have a “NO DAM – NO WHERE – NO HOW” mantra. Our children’s future opportunities are damned [no pun intended] by these folks and their overwhelming hypocrisy. Be it not for the “dams of Northern Colorado”, we would not exist here. If those brilliant and courageous founders had not saved the snow melt with dams and diversion structures, we would not be named “best place to live, best place for a business, best place to retire.
I implore you to pay attention to the NISP (Northern Integrated Supply Project) progress included in this notice and get involved in supporting and demanding this project be built. If you have seen Lake Mead lately, outside of Las Vegas, it’s too late for them to get courageous and build something. California has been successful in stopping every single diversion proposal since the 60’s. It’s also too late for them.
Conservation is an ingredient in the overall greatness of Northern Colorado’s sustainability. However, it is ludicrous to watch flood after flood… year after year… washing away bridge after bridge… costing our Public Works Departments and Emergency Services operations millions upon millions annually. All this harm because our generation is simply too comfortable with what our founders left us only to do the same for our children. We need to stand and be heard! We must demand this fantastic project no longer be the victim of fear mongering and environmental stall tactics by a very affluent minority with an un-defendable argument from a hypocritical position.
For the record, this project does not “Dam the Poudre”; it operates similar to Horsetooth Reservoir (hard to argue the value of Horsetooth to our communities and daily livelihoods) and it will create a much better Poudre River by shaving off the peak flood waters and releasing it into our river at times, when the river is low and water is needed. Just like the water projects our forefathers envisioned AND built.
Make a difference. Let’s build this reservoir.
Respectfully,
Martin Lind
Water Valley
Click HERE for More Information About the Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP)