Dam plan ready to roll

After years of prep and a few rounds of delays, the US Army Corps of Engineers will be releasing its draft environmental impact statement for Glade Reservoir/NISP tomorrow, April 30. The Corps has also confirmed two public meetings that will take place during a 90-day comment period.

The meetings will be June 17 at the Fort Collins Senior Center, 1200 Raintree Drive at 6pm and June 19 at the UNC University Center in Greeley at 7pm. Both meetings will be preceded by open houses so people can come early and talk to officials about the $420 million project to store water for tens of thousands of anticipated new homes around the Front Range.

For background on the whole damn dam thing, check out "A Draining Process" from the April 17 edition and "Ship of Fools" from December 14, 2006. Otherwise, grab your ditch shovel or your kayak paddle and get ready to come out swinging (figuratively, of course).

ADDENDUM: If you want to read through the impact statement when it comes out, you will be able to do so online by going to the Army Corps' Denver office website and then scrolling down to the list of documents for NISP. Paper copies will be available for perusing at FC libraries, the CSU and UNC libraries, and a few other spots around the region, too.