FORT COLLINS, COLO. — When it starts at 10,000 feet and slices through the mountains in the canyon that bears its name, the Cache la Poudre River is a shock of water in this dry land.
But by the time it winds its way out to this laid-back college city of 120,000 people, most of its water has been grabbed by farmers and other cities that control the maze of canals and diversion dams that turn the river into a trickle.
Now a new dam and reservoir project could pull even more water out of the river before it reaches Fort Collins. A key juncture in the process comes this month, when the Army Corps of Engineers releases an environmental impact statement that will determine if and how the $400-million project can proceed.
Both sides expect the Corps to sign off on the proposal and are bracing for an old-fashioned showdown over that most precious of resources -- water.
"Mark Twain said of the West that whiskey's for drinking and water's for fighting, and that applies here," said Fort Collins Mayor Doug Hutchinson.
The Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, which is spearheading the project in partnership with 15 cities and communities that want the water, says the reservoir and dam are the most environmentally and economically sensitive ways to deal with water needs in the booming area.
"The 15 participants have done their homework; they've decided it's economically viable for them," said Brian Warner, a spokesman for the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. "They need water in the future. Heck, they need water yesterday."
Opponents, mainly environmentalists who argue that Fort Collins deserves as much river water as possible since it's closest to the source, contend the project is a boondoggle that could deal a death blow to the Poudre.
"We thought the era of big dams was over," said Will Walters of the Sierra Club's Fort Collins-area chapter. "Turns out there are still some holdouts."
The project's proponents bristle at those arguments. They note that 20 years ago, when they first proposed the dam, it was to be located right on the Poudre. But they were persuaded that it was destructive, Warner said, and they now call for pumping water from the river to a 6-mile-long reservoir in an isolated valley, rather than blockading the main river.
"We live here," Warner said from the district offices in the city of Berthoud, 29 miles from Fort Collins. "We're not out to ruin the river.
