Northern Integrated Supply Project: A Regional Water Supply Solution

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The population of Colorado’s northern Front Range continues to increase, leaving many area water providers with potential water shortages. Without other alternatives, these water providers will meet most of their future demands by drying up irrigated farmland. Colorado has lost three million acres of farmland since 1992, and the State predicts that northern Colorado may lose an additional 225,000 acres by 2030. The Northern Integrated Supply Project will provide 40,000 acre-feet of new water supplies to 15 water providers without contributing to agricultural dry-up.

NISP is needed. The NISP partners’ future water needs are expected to increase almost three-fold by 2050. Because of the long-term nature of water supply planning, we must begin preparing for our future today.

NISP is environmentally sensitive planning. The project will not dry up the Poudre River. Glade Reservoir also will provide new recreational opportunities in Larimer County.

Fifteen partners are working with the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District to build NISP. The water providers in NISP are emerging communities that are experiencing rapid growth. As with all projects Northern Water undertakes, NISP is truly regional in scope. It will benefit residents of Larimer, Weld, Boulder and Morgan counties. The project will provide 40,000 acre-feet of firm water yield each year.

The partners will be responsible for all costs to permit, design, construct and maintain NISP. A mixture of cash, bonds and low-interest loans will finance the project, which is estimated at $400 million, or $10,000 per acre foot of water. It is an affordable option to meet future needs: an equivalent amount of Colorado-Big Thompson water is approximately $14,000 per acre foot and many communities on the Front Range are paying much more for new water supplies. In addition, project construction would be phased, allowing the NISP partners to pay for the project on an as-needed basis.

Financial analyses show that even with a low rate of future population growth, current residents will not have to pay for the project. In most cases, growth already adopted in master plans will pay for the project.

In the past decade, Colorado’s population increased more than 30 percent. Experts predict the South Platte Basin will gain 1.9 million additional residents by 2030. Yet many water providers have built little new infrastructure in the last 15 years and no major storage reservoirs have been built in three decades. Just like school or fire districts, water suppliers must expand their services as populations increase. Projects that plan for future water needs are desperately needed.

NISP is meant to provide water for the near-term. Without new supplies, the NISP partners could see shortages by 2010. Even with NISP, five NISP partners may still experience a water shortage by 2025, and all may have shortages by 2050. See the Water Supplies and Demands for NISP Participants Report for additional information on future water needs.

In the absence of a regional water supply project like NISP, communities will turn to the historic supply of choice: irrigated agriculture. This is already happening. Approximately 3,000 Colorado-Big Thompson (C-BT) units are transferred from agricultural use to municipal use each year. Transferring C-BT units has provided needed water to northern Colorado municipalities for decades, but in less than 10 years there will be few, if any, C-BT units left to transfer from agriculture. This leaves the dry up of irrigated farms as the next best option, unless water providers invest in new supplies through projects like NISP.

NISP will meet growing urban water needs while also maintaining water for agricultural purposes. Its construction will slow the dry up of irrigated farmland in northern Colorado and will protect at least 25,000 acres of farmland from water transfers. Many northern Colorado residents greatly value agricultural lands. They are a rich part of Colorado’s history, a vital part of the state’s economy and provide open space and wildlife habitat. For these reasons, projects like NISP that provide an alternate water supply for future demands are crucial.

Water conservation savings, while important, are not enough to meet all of the NISP partners’ needs. A long-term conservation program can reduce a city’s water use by 10 to 15 percent. The NISP partner’s water needs will nearly triple by 2030, meaning that even with strong conservation efforts, the NISP partners will need additional supplies.

The NISP partners are already saving water through conservation measures. During the recent drought, they reduced their average water use by almost twenty-five percent. The NISP partners also employ practices such as metering, increasing block rate structures, education, leak detection and repair and irrigation audits. This conservation is working: most NISP partners currently have water consumption rates below other Front Range cities and the South Platte basin.

In addition, Northern Water provides regional leadership in water conservation, offering educational programs, agricultural irrigation services, turf and urban landscape management expertise and assistance with municipal water conservation programs.

There is no single solution to Colorado’s water future. The strategy supported by the NISP partners, Northern Water, the State of Colorado and environmental groups such as Trout Unlimited and the Colorado Environmental Coalition favors a combination of conservation, agricultural partnerships and new infrastructure. Northern Water and the NISP partners are actively pursuing projects in all of these areas.

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