The Northern Integrated Supply Project aims to divert water from the Cache la Poudre and South Platte rivers into two new reservoirs in an effort to support the growing population in the region.

Despite local groups’ environmental objections, state and federal regulators have signed off on the project: Friday’s announcement follows the issuance of two state permits, plus a third from Larimer County, in recent years, and the project is on a path to break ground in the next three years and be completed in the next 10.

The Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, which is backing the project, says on its website that the work is “on track” to be completed by 2032, at an estimated cost of $2 billion. Fifteen partner municipalities and water districts will foot the bill for the project.

Jeff Stahla, spokesman for Northern Water, said the district is still reviewing the entirety of the permitting documents. But he described its issuance as the last of four major permits the project needed, 18 years after that process began.

“Now, there is still work for us to do,” he said. “We do need to get some land use permits from city of Fort Collins, for instance. But this is the big federal milestone for this.”

The final designs should be completed in 2024, Stahla said, and work could begin that year or, more likely, in 2025. Once completed, the project is projected to supply its 15 participating entities with 13 billion gallons of water each year, which it says is enough to support roughly 80,000 families.

Gary Wockner, whose Save the Poudre group opposes the project, told the Post that the permit’s issuance was expected but still disappointing. He said the group plans to sue both the Corps of Engineers and Northern Water to contest the decision.

“We still adamantly oppose the project, we have for 20 years, and we have every intention of fighting in court as long as it takes,” he said. “I have notified our legal team, and we expect that lawsuit will be imminent.”

Should the project go through, it would create two new reservoirs: the 45,600-acre-foot Galeton Reservoir northeast of Greeley, and the 170,000-acre-foot Glade Reservoir northwest of Fort Collins. The former, which will come from the South Platte, will go to farmland, and the Glade, which will come from the Poudre, will be used for drinking water, Stahla said.

opposing the project, and they contend it will harm the river and their water supply. The city’s zoning commission had rejected an infrastructure application for the project in June 2021, according to the Fort Collins Coloradoan, but Northern Water’s board overturned that decision later that summer.

A city spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment Friday afternoon.

The project is needed, the district says, because the region’s population will double by 2050. Supporters also say the new reservoirs — the larger of which is projected to be bigger than the Horsetooth Reservoir — will be an economic boon to the region, bringing in an estimated 500 new jobs for contractors and suppliers, along with investments in and expansion of outdoor activities.

In a late Friday statement, the district praised the Corps’ decision to issue the permit and said the process determined that the project “is the least environmentally impactful means of satisfying that need. ”

“This action is the culmination of nearly 20 years of study, project design and refinement to develop water resources well into the 21st century,” Brad Wind, Northern Water’s general manager, said. “This project will also allow participating communities to serve their customers without targeting water now used on the region’s farms.”

the project will harm the Poudre River and impair its ability to recover from extreme events like the High Park Fire, among a litany of other concerns. Save the Poudre had pledged on its website to fight the issuance of the permit before Friday’s announcement. The organization and its allies have already sued the Larimer County commissioners after the commission issued a permit for the project.

Asked about the potential litigation, Northern Water spokesman Stahla said the district’s successful effort to obtain a permit “shows that sound science went into all the decision points along the way.”

High Park fire

Evacuation orders for the High Park fire, burning in Teller County, have been lifted and County Road 11 has been reopened.

The fire, which is burning about 5.5 miles west of Cripple Creek, is 69% contained, according to fire officials. It has scorched about 1,572 acres, or about 2.5 square miles since starting on Thursday.

The gain in containment is mostly on the east side of the fire, behind homes on Lakemoor Drive. The Lakemoor had been under evacuation prior to Wednesday. Only residents will be able to access the area, according to the Teller County Sheriff’s Office. County Road 11, also known as High Park Road, has been reopened between County Road 112 and mile marker 3.

Ground crews are removing brush from areas and fighting the fire along uncontained perimeter of the fire. Smoke will continue to be visible within the fire interior, according to fire officials.

Firefighters are scouting in the Cripple Creek Ranches area, which had also been under evacuation, making plans to fight the fire should it run east. Work in the Mount Pisgah area is ongoing.

There’s a 65% chance of afternoon precipitation in the fire area, according to the fire command. A red flag warning for high fire danger, because of strong winds and high humidity, is set to be posted for the area at 11 a.m. Thursday, and set to expire at 9 p.m. Teller County is under Stage 2 fire restrictions — a ban on outdoor fires.��The cause of the fire is unknown.

Plumtaw fire

The Plumtaw fire has burned 613 acres in the San Juan National Forest, about 7 miles north of Pagosa Springs. There is zero containment.

The fire was first reported on Tuesday.

The is burning 7 miles north of Pagosa Springs on the . Follow InciWeb for complete info: . Overnight, the fire reached Fourmile Rd, and firefighters tied it into Plumtaw Road. Today, priority is holding the fire west of Fourmile Rd.

— SanJuanNF (@SanJuanNF)

The fire has reached Fourmile Road where firefighters are prioritizing holding west of the road.

The Lost Valley of the San Juans neighborhood has a standing evacuation order, according to fire officials. Firefighters are working in the neighborhood on structure protection.

A wildfire Type 3 Team took command of the Plumtaw fire on Wednesday. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Wildfire map

Click markers for details, use buttons to change what wildfires are shown. Map data is automatically updated by government agencies and could lag real-time events. Incident types are numbered 1-5 — a type 1 incident is a large, complex wildfire affecting people and critical infrastructure, a type 5 incident is a small wildfire with few personnel involved. Find more information about incident types at the bottom of .

The fire is about 37% contained, mostly on the north and west sides of the blaze, according to fire command. Helicopters fought the fire on Monday, making water drops and supporting ground crews who were building containment lines.

A small amount of rain fell in the fire area on Monday, however, fuels in the area remain “critically dry.” A ground on the Tuesday worked in the Mount Pisgah are to remove hazardous fuels. Crews also worked in the evacuation area removing fuels. A weak cold front is expected to pass through the area overnight, according to fire officials. The fire started on Thursday and about 279 personnel continue to work on the fire.

Ute Pass fire

The Ute Pass fire in Durango started accidentally when a heavy-duty lawn mower hit a rock, causing a spark, according to the Durango Fire Protection District.

Investigators have determined that the fire started on private property on 57 Ute Pass Trail, according to the Durango Fire Protection District. The property owner was cooperative in the investigation.

The fire started on Friday and pre-evacuation notices were lifted on Monday. The fire, which burned more than 30 acres, was 80% contained on Monday. Firefighters are hoping to have the fire declared 100% contained by late in the day Thursday.

Manitou Springs grass fire

Firefighters in Manitou Springs doused a fire on Monday of U.S. Highway 24. The fire, near the Cave of the Winds, started at about 6:30 p.m. and firefighters said that it was under control later Monday night.

Manitou Springs Fire Department, U.S. Forest Service, Crystal Park Fire Protection District and Colorado Springs Fire Department responded to this fire. Firefighters monitored the burn area overnight.��The cause of the fire is under investigation.

��

Wildfire map

Click markers for details, use buttons to change what wildfires are shown. Map data is automatically updated by government agencies and could lag real-time events. Incident types are numbered 1-5 — a type 1 incident is a large, complex wildfire affecting people and critical infrastructure, a type 5 incident is a small wildfire with few personnel involved. Find more information about incident types at the bottom of .

Fire crews increased containment on the blaze to 27% from 11% the previous day, according to the fire’s .

Officials issued a red flag warning for the fire area Monday, with chances of isolated afternoon thunderstorms that could bring gusty, erratic winds but little chance of rain.

Firefighters continue to battle the flames from the air, with helicopters running drop cycles every three minutes, officials said.

“Fuels are critically dry, and the fire wants to grow in any direction, following slope, wind, and fuels,” fire officials said in Monday’s update.

Mandatory evacuation orders��remain in place for the Lakemoor subdivision and pre-evacuation notices are in effect for Cripple Creek Ranches.��Click here��for an of the evacuations and closures.

Burn ban and Ute Pass fire

In nearby Colorado Springs, officials enacted a sweeping in response to the recent fires there that killed one woman and destroyed eight trailers at a mobile home park. That means no smoking or outdoor cooking at city parks, among other restrictions.

All pre-evacuation notices near the Ute Pass fire outside Durango, meanwhile, were lifted Monday morning, as fire crews reached

Wildfire map

Click markers for details, use buttons to change what wildfires are shown. Map data is automatically updated by government agencies and could lag real-time events. Incident types are numbered 1-5 — a type 1 incident is a large, complex wildfire affecting people and critical infrastructure, a type 5 incident is a small wildfire with few personnel involved. Find more information about incident types at the bottom of .

1. Marshall fire, Boulder County • 2021 — 991 homes

2. Black Forest fire, Colorado Springs • 2013 — 489 homes

3. Waldo Canyon fire, Colorado Springs • 2012 — 347 homes

4. East Troublesome fire, Grand County • 2020 — 300+ homes

5. High Park fire, Larimer County • 2012 — 259 homes

6. Cameron Peak fire, Walden • 2020 — 224 homes

7. Fourmile Canyon fire, Boulder County • 2010 — 169 homes

8. Spring Creek fire, Costilla and Huerfano counties • 2018 — 141 homes

9. Hayman fire, Lake George • 2002 — 133 homes

10. Iron Mountain fire, Cañon City • 2002 — 106 homes

Its landing site sits in a broad field at the base of Poudre Canyon. Every few minutes, a helicopter arrives to lift a net loaded with about 1,300 pounds of shredded wood. The payload arcs from a cable as the aircraft banks toward a line of fire-charred mountains, waiting to spread the mulch over a section of scorched forest.

The daily airshow is meant to protect water supplies. Last year, the Cameron Peak Fire — the largest in state history — burned through the Cache la Poudre River watershed, leaving many slopes vulnerable to destructive erosion during rain events.

“Our fear is the debris and ash will come into the reservoir and make the water undrinkable,” said Randy Gustafson, a water resource administrator overseeing the project for the City of Greeley. “What we’re trying to accomplish here is to stabilize these slopes.”

Forests have long served as a reliable piece of natural infrastructure across the American West. Experts now warn they’re increasingly vulnerable as climate change drives more frequent and intense wildfires. Without any vegetation, the scorched landscapes left in wildfire burn scars lack the treetops to slow rain or roots to hold back hillsides.

The mulching project is an attempt to help the forest recover as quickly as possible. Sean Chambers, the Sewer and Water Director for the City of Greeley, said it stands as an example of what����ap likely required by climate change: rapid, collaborative work to preserve natural resources many take for granted.

“The forest is more prone to burn every summer,” Chambers said. “In our future, that����ap going to be part of our business model.”

High-flying costs

Those long-term consequences of wildfire are already proving deadly in Poudre Canyon.

Last July, heavy rain triggered a mudslide near Black Hollow Road, about 50 miles west of Fort Collins along State Highway 14. Authorities have confirmed the flood killed three people. Another person is still missing.

The event also loaded the river with sediment, forcing Fort Collins and Greeley to shut off their intakes along the waterway. Both communities are now relying on a backup supply of water in Horsetooth Reservoir. It����ap unclear when the river might again carry treatable water, but utility managers don’t expect the problem will have any immediate effect on customers.

Chambers said the disaster showed the urgency of the aerial mulching project, which has required a coordinated effort to win government approval and gather funding. With the helicopter team costing between $2,500 and $3,000 an acre, it����ap unclear if the project can be completed.

After the Cameron Peak Fire, Greeley worked with the City of Fort Collins, Larimer County and Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed to map where mulch could best protect water resources. It identified thousands of acres across the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest, but some fell inside wilderness areas. Since federal law bans mechanized landscaping in those places, the U.S. Forest Service only permitted work on less protected public land.

Daniel Bowker, the forest and fire project manager for the Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed, said the experience has him reconsidering the idea of wilderness. While he supports saving some areas of human development, he wonders if it might be necessary to make exceptions in an era of rapid climate change.

“We have to take an active role in the management of these landscapes. Just standing back and doing nothing is a management technique. It����ap just not the one we need,” Bowker said.

The group outlined a $31 million project for aerial mulching across about 11,000 high-priority acres. So far, it����ap cobbled together funding from local, state and federal resources to pay for about half of the project. It����ap now hoping to finalize an additional $5.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Emergency Watershed Protection Program. However, the federal funding would still leave a $7 million shortfall, according to Chambers.

And if it doesn’t come through, he expects the helicopters will be forced to stop flying on Aug. 24.

A proven balm for burn scars

While the financing remains uncertain, Chambers is far more confident the mulching process will work.

That����ap because his department tried the technique after the 2012 High Park Fire. The blaze burnt up almost 90,000 acres in the Cache la Poudre River watershed. A coalition of government agencies responded with an aerial mulching program, trying out various materials, including agricultural straw, wood straw and shredded wood.

A 2017 review published by the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station found mixed outcomes from the aerial mulching work. One study measured more sediment in the water below a fully treated watershed compared to a partially treated watershed. Still, the researchers cautioned that could be because foresters mulched more severely burned areas.

On the other hand, researchers showed the treatment slowed erosion. One study found fences on mulched hillsides gathered far less sediment than untreated slopes, especially in the first few years after a fire. The difference disappeared as vegetation recovered across the landscape.

If hillsides stay put, Chambers said the benefits would be profound. Intake pipes won’t clog with ash and dirt. Reservoirs won’t require expensive excavation projects. People might even face less risk from flash floods during the next major rainstorm. All amount to reasons he is scrambling to keep the helicopters flying into the fall.

“It might seem crazy, but the risk to life, property and water supply is just too important not to protect our natural resources. And this is the best science-based strategy to do that,” he said.

Damage to water supplies in reservoirs can be disruptive and cost millions in repairs down the line. To reduce that risk, Denver and its partners are spending $66 million for tree thinning and reforestation above critical watersheds.

Their work comes as a new , by researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder, warns that wildfires spreading over the western United States already taint nearby streams with unhealthy sediments and organic materials, and may someday overwhelm municipal water supplies. It also comes as dry weather and high temperatures have sparked a spate of wildfires in the mountains, and as authorities brace for fires sparked by July 4 celebrations.

“A great number of drinking water utilities draw water from forested watersheds,” said Fernando Rosario-Ortiz, an associate professor at CU’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering. He is also the study’s lead author.

The study, funded by The Water Research Foundation��and presented at CU last month, lists challenges posed by wildfires, including short- and long-term effects of the availability and quality of drinking-water sources used by major metropolitan areas such as Denver.

The report also points to possible solutions for utilities serving fire-prone regions and planning for worst-case scenarios. They include expanding water-shortage capacity, using pre-sedimentation basins and diversifying water sources.

“When these watersheds are impacted by wildfire, the impacts on source water quality can be severe, forcing utilities to respond in order to continue to provide safe drinking water to their customers,” Rosario-Ortiz said.

Colorado’s two largest cities say they are aware of the dangers and are pooling dollars and resources to ensure much of the Front Range’s drinking water is protected from the contamination spread by wildfires.

“Denver Water has seen not only a commitment financially but also a commitment in time and energy by us and our partners to keep our water safe,” said Christina Burri, Denver Water’s watershed scientist.

A��2010 agreement��— among Denver Water, the U.S. Forest Service and the Colorado State Forest Service and aimed at reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfires — will continue at least through 2021 at a cost of $66 million. The work includes thinning trees and restoring forest on more than 40,000 acres of watershed deemed critical to downstream water supplies, Burri said.

Those areas provide clean drinking water to more than 1.4 million residents in the Denver area, Burri said.

Protecting watersheds has become a top priority on the Front Range,��according to Mike Myers, chief of the Colorado Springs Wildland Fire Team, as major wildfires have become almost year-round events.

“We’re doing a better job at mitigating these fires than before, but we’ve had to,” Myers said. “The fires now are just so much bigger and stronger than before.”

The CU researchers said recent wildfires have increased in size and duration, which creates concerns that existing treatment resources could eventually be crippled.

The 2012 High Park fire burned sections of the Cache la Poudre watershed, which serves northern Colorado communities, including Fort Collins.

That same year, the Waldo Canyon fire��burned through Pike National Forest, temporarily jeopardizing water supplies for Colorado Springs. The blaze contaminated reservoirs and caused about $10 million in damage to a pipeline in the Northfield reservoir system.

Colorado Springs, however, was able to draw on two smaller reservoirs to provide safe drinking water for residents, Myers said. “We’ve worked hard to have a diverse group of reservoirs we can call on in emergencies, and in this case, it worked well,” he said.

While ecologists and land managers have studied wildfires extensively, the scope of post-wildfire effects on drinking water remains uncertain, researchers said. Data show that fires degrade surface water quality through erosion, ash deposits and increased sediment loads. Nutrient runoff — including nitrogen and phosphorus — can spur algal blooms, which can lead��to environmental and health problems and force cities to cut water to residents.

The CU researchers simulated the effects of a medium-temperature wildfire, and the resulting materials were leached into tap water and treated using conventional processes.

The results showed the heated materials increased the turbidity of the water, a key measure of water quality, and responded poorly to chemical coagulants, leading to downstream filtration problems, the CU researchers said.

“Our work has shown that source waters impacted by wildfires can be difficult to treat, resulting in additional costs in the form of more chemical coagulants and the potential need for capital improvements,” Rosario-Ortiz said.

Forest management work helps to prevent soil from eroding and releasing sediment into streams, reservoirs and rivers, Denver Water’s Burri said.

Tree-thinning and other mitigation work around Denver Water’s Cheesman Reservoir paid off in 2002 during the��Hayman fire, which scorched 138,114 acres. A key water source for the Denver area, Burri said, Cheesman’s water stayed relatively untainted by the fire.

“It shows that the work we do now,” she said, “can help much later.”

“We’ll have some fires and periods of fire activity, but it’s not looking like one of our busy years,” said Russ Mann, a meteorologist for the National Park Service.

Over the next 120 days, forecasters expect about 135,000 acres of grass and forest land to be burned by large wildfires in Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota, Mann said.

By comparison, 947,000 acres of forest and grasslands were destroyed in 2012, he said. Colorado had numerous highly destructive wildfires that year, including the Waldo Canyon fire near Colorado Springs and the High Park fire that destroyed more than 87,000 acres in Larimer County.

On average over the past 16 years, about 220,000 acres of wild lands are destroyed each year in the��region encompassing Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota, he said.

The 2017 fire-danger projection is based on weather patterns including temperature anomalies, precipitation and drought comparisons, and the moisture content in fire fuels including grass, brush and trees.

Snowpack levels in the mountains also indicate a lower-than-normal fire danger, Mann said.

Risk of wildfires will be lower than average in June and July in Colorado and Wyoming, but return to normal in August and September.

Colorado’s Western Slope is experiencing drier��conditions than��the eastern half of the state and so fire forecasters are projecting a more typical year, he said.

A frost on the Western slope killed large areas of brush and other plants, contributing to the wildfire fuel load, Mann said.

Nobody expected the erosion controls to stay in place as a foot of rain fell in two days. But an aerial inspection Wednesday showed the wood mulch and timbers withstood the deluge and likely kept soot and sediment from flowing into the Cache la Poudre River.

A two-year effort to treat 5,600 acres of critical watershed continues this month, with helicopters dropping 1 ton heaps of mulch across steep slopes.

“I wouldn’t say mulch is a silver bullet, but to reduce sedimentation and erosion on burned slopes, it works really well,” said Todd Boldt, district conservationist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service said.

The early evidence here is sought around the Western states as wildfires increase in frequency and severity. The initial huge costs of fire suppression to protect homes lead to even bigger long-term costs of dealing with damage to water supplies.

Last year, as the High Park and Hewlett Gulch wildfires scorched 136-square miles along the river and near Milton Seaman Reservoir, officials immediately began consulting with Denver Water about how the 2002 Hayman Fire hurt Denver’s watershed.

Denver Water still is struggling, spending more than $10 million for the still-incomplete dredging of Strontia Reservoir.

The advice was adamant: “Stabilize the burned slopes as quickly as you can,” said Eric Reckentine, Greeley’s deputy director of water resources.

So leaders of both cities and Larimer County resolved to launch watershed protection work, even if federal funding wasn’t available. Some taxpayers at public forums questioned the wisdom. Aerial mulch drops cost around $2,000 an acre.

“This is our watershed, and we really didn’t want Strontia Springs to happen to our Milton Seaman Reservoir, so we started immediately,” Greeley water director Jon Monson said.

Eventually, federal agencies engaged — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has prioritized forest health and watershed protection — and Congress approved funding to reimburse 75 percent of overall costs, Reckentine said.

Wood mulch is an alternative to straw, which can spread cheat grass and other invaders into forests. The idea is to mimic dropped pine needles in healthy forests that help retain water and encourage new growth.

Trucks carry mulch from a mill in Wyoming. Ground crews cut burned trees and lay them across drainages.

“We worried rain would wash everything down the slopes,” said Colby Reid of Western States Reclamation, the contractor coordinating current air drops. The mulching “was not designed to withstand a 500-year or 1,000-year flood.”

When skies cleared, he, Boldt and others dropped into high terrain and found 98 percent of the mulch still in place.

While floods turned waterways temporarily black, chopper pilot Jim Hennessy said in his cockpit, water soon cleared enough that, on Wednesday, stones were visible in creek beds carrying water toward cities.

“We’re very pleased,” Fort Collins water manager Kevin Gertig said. “What we learned from the flood is that the timber-felling and mulch has been very successful.”

Bruce Finley: 303.954.1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com

Editor’s note: This story has been edited to correct the title of Eric Reckentine, who is Greeley’s deputy director of water resources.

The Colorado Department of Transportation will replace or expand six culverts throughout Poudre Canyon and will remove fallen trees and debris before it has a chance to slide down onto the roadway.

“These efforts will reduce road closures and maintenance emergencies regularly occurring along the corridor during inclement weather,” project manager Justin Pipe said, “and it will improve the safety of the highway.”

The , which killed one person and destroyed 259 homes in 2012, is the second-largest in state history, charring 87,284 acres northwest of Fort Collins.

It also changed the landscape along Colorado 14 from Ted’s Place north of Fort Collins through the Poudre Canyon. The lack of vegetation made the hillsides unstable during heavy rains, which has produced dozens of and washouts that threaten public safety, and effect traffic flow and highway conditions, CDOT officials said.

Mudslides and washouts are projected to hinder the High Park fire areas for another five years until vegetation grows back.

CDOT has installed several signs in Poudre Canyon warning motorists of the burn area that will remain up until the burn area is healed, officials said.

CDOT will hold a public open house at 6 p.m. Tuesday to review culvert project goals, outline the construction schedule and discuss the traffic impacts of the project.

The meeting will be held at the Poudre Park Community Center at 10000 W. Colorado 14.

Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907, mwhaley@denverpost.com or twitter.com/montewhaley