Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutResponse to Constituent Letter - Read Before Packet - 07/16/2024 - Letter from Mayor Arndt to Land Conservation and Stewardship Board (LCSB) re: Agenda Item 19 – Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP) and 1041 Regulations Mayor City Hall 300 LaPorte Ave. PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.416.2154 970.224.6107 - fax fcgov.com July 15, 2024 Land Conservation and Stewardship Board c/o Katie Donahue, Natural Areas Department Director and LCSB Liaison PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 Dear Chair Cunniff, Vice-Chair Mason, and Board Members: On behalf of City Council, thank you for providing us with the LCSB memo dated July 10, 2024 regarding the Board’s position of support for protection of the Poudre River and the Natural Areas along and impacted by the River, and for the prior information the Board sent regarding NISP and 1041. As you know, Council will be considering these matters under Agenda Item 19 during the July 16, 2024 regular Council meeting. We invite you to view the meeting either in person at City Hall or online at fcgov.com/fctv. Thank you for the expertise and perspectives that you bring to the Board and share with City Council. Best Regards, Jeni Arndt Mayor /sek cc: City Council Members Kelly DiMartino, City Manager MEMORANDUM Land Conservation & Stewardship Board To: Fort Collins City Council From: Land Conservation and Stewardship Board (LCSB) Date: July 10, 2024 Subject: Northern Integrated Supply Project and 1041 Regulations This memo is to provide City Council with a recommendation following a discussion regarding the City’s statement on the Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP). Chair Cunniff made a motion that the LCSB forward the previous memos on 1041 and NISP to Council along with a statement that the LCSB board recommend that Council will do everything in its power to protect the Poudre River and the Natural Areas along and impacted by the Poudre River. Member Gooden seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved 6-0. Natural Areas Department 1745 Hoffman Mill Road PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.416-2815 970.416-2211 - fax fcgov.com/naturalareas naturalareas@fcgov.com Memorandum 10 June 2020 To - City Council From - Land Conservation and Stewardship Board (LCSB) Subject - Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP) v Fort Collins Natural Areas he people of Fort Collins and Larimer County highly value their natural areas and open lands. So much so that in 2014 the citizens taxed themselves in support of continued land conservation, by a margin of 82% to 18%. This is an overwhelming mandate for conserving nature in Fort Collins and Larimer County. Fort Collins taxpayers have invested tens of millions of dollars to conserve unmatched ecological resources running through the heart of the City. There are 18 Natural Areas that either border on the Poudre River or are connected to it by riverside forests and wetlands; they encompass 1800 acres, nearly three square miles. Riverside forests and wetlands do not drink primarily from rainfall; they drink from the river. NISP’s removal of water from the river will, quite simply, dehydrate our Natural Areas’ ecological resources and degrade them; hundred-year-old trees will die, understory plants will shift to more drought tolerant species, biodiversity will decrease, and forest- and wetland-dependent animals will disappear. The citizens of Fort Collins, as they have invested in Natural Areas, have believed that those areas and their ecological resources and recreational opportunities would be protected in perpetuity. In the opinion of this Board, perpetuity ends on the day that NISP bulldozers arrive to divert water from the Poudre River. NISP brings no benefits to the City of Fort Collins, and City Staff previously identified dozens of risks to the physical river, its biota, and its surrounding ecosystems. We have watched, over many years, as Northern Water has proposed mitigations and how these mitigations have then required further mitigations. Continuing this pattern, the recent 1041 application to Larimer County proposes heretofore unseen details for which Staff and this Board have identified numerous unaddressed mitigation requirements (see attached analysis). By now it is clear that the cascade of mitigations is unending. The impacts of NISP on the river and adjacent Natural Areas cannot be mitigated. Our Natural Area assets, assembled with decades of effort and tens of millions of dollars investment, will, under NISP, suffer devastating permanent harm. Thus far, City leaders have opted to provide Staff’s technical comments to regulatory authorities at Federal, State, and County levels in lieu of comprehensively defending our Natural Areas or expressing unequivocal opposition to NISP. If these regulatory authorities issue NISP the required permits, then the only defenses that we have left are derived from City land use code, which does not in any way address the elephant in the room: the damage to Natural areas caused by the loss of water from the Poudre River. atural Area conservation and stewardship are duties of City Council and the City Manager, and these duties call for a change of position on NISP. Active opposition , led by City Council, is urgently needed. If there is no change in position, and if NISP is implemented, then ecological and recreational treasures will be injured beyond repair. Fort Collins can join other entities in opposing NISP under Federal and State permitting processes, and this Board urges Council to do so without delay. T N 1 Analysis by the Land Conservation and Stewardship Board City of Fort Collins Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP): Proposed Infrastructure in the City and Deficiencies in Environmental Analysis Executive Summary he Fort Collins Land Conservation and Stewardship Board (LCSB) continues to have deep concerns about the proposed NISP project and its effects on the Poudre River and on our City’s Natural Areas. In particular: • The 1041 Permit Application proposes construction of multiple industrial water transmission facilities within Fort Collins Natural Areas (a new concern) • There has been no resolution of dozens of unacceptable insufficiencies in the Final Environmental Impact Statement, as documented in the City’s earlier response to the FEIS. NISP planners continue to demonstrate insensitivity to environmental values of the City of Fort Collins. NISP’s selection of a preferred pipeline route running through Natural Areas is cogent demonstration of this tone deafness (particulars are shown on pages 2 and 3). There are alternative pipeline routes that would have little adverse impact on Natural Areas, yet NISP prefers the route that maximizes environmental and aesthetic injury. The LCSB anticipates continued identification of certain or potential NISP-induced injuries to the Poudre and to our Natural Areas, and a continued pattern of insufficient plans for NISP’s monitoring , mitigating, and compensating for those injuries. herefore, the LCSB recommends to City Council that City policy be changed from “no opposition” to active opposition to NISP. The 1041 permit review by Larimer County is a current opportunity to exercise opposition. More effective, though, would be to exercise rights under Federal and State permitting processes, by joining other groups in their opposition to NISP. T T 2 Specific new concerns about NISP water conveyance infrastructure NISP’s preferred route in the 1041 Permit Application uses Natural Areas to accommodate the infrastructure that supports NISP’s augmentation of river flows through most of Fort Collins. This infrastructure is comprised of: • A new diversion structure within Homestead Natural Area (this is necessary to recapture flow augmentations) • 100-foot-wide easements for 1.1 miles of underground pipeline through Homestead, Williams, Kingfisher, and River Bend Ponds Natural Areas, as shown in Figure 1. • 77,000 square feet of land at Kingfisher Natural Area for a pump station, sedimentation basin, and associated above-ground infrastructure, shown in Figure 2. The LCSB supports the proposed flow augmentation, but only under the dire assumption that earlier proposals for NISP infrastructure and operation come to pass. We do not accept any siting of NISP infrastructure in Natural Areas, with the possible exception of the diversion structure just upstream of the Mulberry Water Reclamation Facility —and for that, we have seen no designs that would indicate acceptable ecological or aesthetic design. Figure 1. Cross-section of pipeline rights-of-way for construction (100’) and permanent (60’) Figure 2. Site plan for sedimentation basin, pumping station, and pipelines in Kingfisher Point Natural Area 3 We also observe that the proposed diversion structure will cause upstream sediment accumulation (this happens above ALL dams). That will decrease river gradient and widen the river channel, which will have further impacts on the Homestead Natural Area. There are absolutely no evaluations of these physical effects, or their consequent ecological or recreational impacts. These concerns were identified by the Land Conservation and Stewardship Board and were not addressed previously in City Staff’s memorandum to Larimer County under its 1041 permitting review for NISP. hese observations are indicative of a never-ending series of (1) NISP-introduced damages, (2) proposed mitigations of those damages, (3) recognition of new damages caused by the mitigations, (4) proposed mitigations of these new damages, (5) recognition of new problems…ad infinitum. This has been going on for far more than a decade. NISP cannot b e mitigated because its effects are too serious and too far reaching. T To - Fort Collins City Council From - Land Conservation and Stewardship Board (LCSB) Date - April 12 2023 Subject - 1041 Regulations Recommendations While the Board appreciates that Natural Areas is of one of the three geographic areas to which the draft 1041 regulations apply, we recommend utilizing the broader range of 1041 regulatory measures available to local governments under C.R.C. § 24 -65.1-101 et seq. and the City’s Home Rule status to strengthen the regulatory authority and commitment of the City of Fort Collins to protect public health, safety, and welfare, the environment and wildlife resources within our city boundaries. Please note that this memo was written in January 2023 prior to receiving the third major iteration of the 1041 draft regulations. Therefore, this memo is based on presentations and briefings from City Staff. As indicated by staff, the draft regulations wi ll not be published for public review until just prior to the January 25, 2023, Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. The LCSB members intend to review any updates from staff, including the next major update of the draft regulations, and comment further as needed. Concerns and Recommendations: ● Geographic Thresholds: The reduction in geographic scope from a city -wide application, inclusive of both city-owned property and property owned by private residents, to a substantially reduced scope is disappointing and fails to comply with original Ordinance, No. 122, 2021. While we appreciate that Natural Areas is of one of the three geographic areas that are protected by 1041 Powers, we also acknowledge that impacts to our Natural Areas can arise from projects occurring offsite of Na tural Areas, for instance, with hazardous materials leaks from construction and maintenance operations, or upstream water diversions that affect historic downstream hydrological flows. Natural areas are inextricably interconnected with adjacent areas. LCSB therefore recommends that Council continue to develop and strengthen its 1041 regulations to the maximum extent permissible under State law. ● FONSI vs FONAI: The well-established “Finding of No Significant Impacts” (FONSI) process is well-understood in environmental law and practice. It has been used over many decades and has case law and regulatory interpretation supporting it. In contrast, the “Finding of Negligible Adverse Impacts” (FONAI) process is subjective and not widely used. LCSB recommends that Council retain the FONSI evaluation standard. 1/11/2023 Page 2 ● Activities and Areas of State Interest: The LCSB recommends that Council expand the covered 1041 Activities to include Mineral Resource Areas to strengthen the City’s regulatory authority over any proposed mineral extraction development and operations related to siting of surface or subsurface oil and natural gas wells or conveyance pipelines, sand and gravel extraction, or other extractive Activities as allowed by State statute. ● Buffer Zones: The Buffer Zones that exist in the City Code today are too small with respect to adverse impacts and are frequently compromised by existing development. The existence of the built environment does not mitigate potential impacts of the cover ed 1041 Activities. LCSB recommends that an ecologically-sound Natural Resources Buffer Standard be developed that would protect Natural Areas from on - and off-site impacts and require complete remediation should such impacts occur despite the existence of these regulations. ● Outreach and Neighborhood Meeting: For each application, LCSB recommends that the City should conduct a robust outreach process and include responses to any concerns collected in the Neighborhood Meeting and public comment process as a distinct criterion for the initial FONSI or FONAI determination. ● Financial Security Requirements: An ad -hoc process is not predictable for applicants or residents. LCSB recommends that guidelines and expectations regarding Financial Security be codified in policy. ● LCSB recommends that all projects that impact Natural Areas require full review regardless of project thresholds, including modifications and enlargements. Finally, although LCSB recognizes that Staff was constrained in which potential 1041 Activities and Areas of Interest it was allowed to explore, we recommend that Council continue to further develop 1041 regulations which cover all possible city -wide Activities and Areas of Interest as allowed by State statute. To - Fort Collins City Council From - Land Conservation and Stewardship Board (LCSB) Date - April 12, 2023 Subject - Land Conservation and Stewardship Board input on Draft 1041 Regulations This memo is to provide City Council with an update on the discussion of the 1041 regulations and the federally designated Cache la Poudre River National Heritage Area during the Land Conservation and Stewardship Board (LCSB) meeting on March 8, 2023. 1041 Draft Regulations are scheduled to be discussed at the May 2, 2023, City Council meeting. Chair Cunniff made a motion that the Land Conservation and Stewardship Board recommend that City Council designate the Cache la Poudre River National Heritage Area as an area of statewide interest, with respect to 1041 regulations consistent with Colorado Revised Statutes 24-65.1. Member Elson seconded the motion. The motion was approved unanimously 7 -0.