Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021CV30425 - Save The Poudre And No Pipe Dream Coporation V. Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, Northern Integrated Supply Project Water Activity Enterprise, The City Of Fort Collins - 002A - Exhibit 1 Larimer County District Court 201 La Porte Ave, Suite 100 Fort Collins, CO 80521 SAVE THE POUDRE NO PIPE DREAM CORPORATION, Plaintiffs v. CITY OF FORT COLLINS, a Colorado home rule city and municipal corporation, PAUL SIZEMORE, in his official capacity as Interim Director, Community Development & Neighborhood Service Department, NORTHERN INTEGRATED SUPPLY PROJECT WATER ACTIVITY ENTERPRISE. Defendants. COURT USE ONLY John M. Barth, Attorney at Law P.O. Box 409 Hygiene, CO 80533 (303) 774-8868 (fax and phone) barthlawoffice@gmail.com Counsel for Save the Poudre and No Pipe Dream Corp. Case Number: Division DECLARATION OF GARY WOCKNER I, Gary Wockner, under penalty of perjury, declare as follows: 1. The facts set forth in this declaration are based on my personal knowledge and experience. If called as a witness, I could and would testify to these facts. 2. I co-founded Save Poudre in 2004. I currently work as the “Executive Director” of Save The Poudre. I am also an active dues-paying member of Save The Poudre and No Pipe Dream Corporation. 3. Save the Poudre is a non-profit organization organized under the laws of the State of Colorado and is a charitable corporation under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Save the Poudre maintains its headquarters in Fort Collins, CO, at the street address of 2820 Cherry Lane, 80521, and at PO Box 20, 80522. DATE FILED: June 9, 2021 4:02 PM FILING ID: AFF1937935C59 CASE NUMBER: 2021CV30425 2 4. The mission of Save The Poudre is to protect and restore the Cache la Poudre River of northern Colorado. 5. Save The Poudre focuses on opposing irresponsible water projects, supporting alternatives to dams and diversions, education, advocacy, litigation, and community outreach to achieve its mission. 6. Save The Poudre has approximately one thousand dues-paying members and about 5,000 followers and supporters, most of whom are in City of Fort Collins area. Our members live, work, and recreate on and around the Poudre River in Larimer County. Our members, including myself, own property and pay taxes and fees to the City of Fort Collins that are used to purchase and maintain the City’s Natural Areas. 7. I also personally recreate on the Poudre River. 8. Save The Poudre supports our members by advocating on their behalf. Save The Poudre members’ interests in clean water and maintaining flows for swimming, fishing, kayaking, and aesthetic enjoyment would be detrimentally impacted by the Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP) which would remove approximately 40,000 acre feet of what’s left of the peak flow of the Poudre River water through much of Fort Collins. 9. Keeping that water in the Poudre River is integral to the health of the river through Fort Collins, especially late spring and summer which is the prime recreational season for our members, including at the new “Poudre River Whitewater Park” in downtown Fort Collins. 10. Removing this peak flow would have severe negative impacts on the ecological health of the river, the cleanliness of the river, the riparian forest along the river, and the recreational opportunities offered by the river. Our members’ interests, including my own interests, in clean water and a healthy, flowing Poudre River for swimming, fishing, paddling, and aesthetic enjoyment would be detrimentally impacted by the Northern Integrated Supply Project. The interests that Save The Poudre seeks to advance in this case fall squarely within its missions and its respective individual contributing members. 11. The Northern Integrated Supply Project is poorly planned and would create harm to the Cache la Poudre River by diverting the river’s water at the mouth of Poudre Canyon and not letting that water flow down the river through Fort Collins. Save The Poudre is involved because its mission is to protect and restore the Poudre River, so we oppose the Northern Integrated Supply Project because of the project’s negative impacts. 12. The Northern Integrated Supply Projects’ impacts will include diminishing water quantity, and worsening water quality, in the Cache la Poudre River 3 through Fort Collins. In addition, technical analyses have clearly shown that NISP communities can achieve their goal of getting more water by focusing on better land-use planning and water conservation, and by working pro-actively with farmers to secure water. 13. Save The Poudre has been heavily involved with the history and permitting for the Northern Integrated Supply Project at the federal, state, and local level for the last 18 years. Save The Poudre was established in 2004 in response to the threat of NISP. As NISP permitting has moved forward, we have been deeply engaged at every level including: • Reached out to the media and our supporters over a hundred times and have generated hundreds of news articles in the local, state, and national press about the Poudre River and the threat of NISP, • Provided testimony and comments many times to federal, state, and local regulators, decision-makers, and legislative bodies including the Colorado State Legislature’s Water Committee and Agriculture/Natural Resource Committee, • Testified to the Fort Collins City Council numerous times over the last 18 years, including twice recently informing this and the previous Council that we opposed NISP, opposed SPAR, and would fight to stop both NISP and SPAR • Provided comments to the Colorado Water Quality Control Division during the comment period for NISP in 2019. • Submitted a NISP comment letter to the Larimer County Planning Commission on June 9, 2020. 14. I own a home in Fort Collins a few blocks from the Poudre River, and I recreate on the Poudre River through Fort Collins in the area that would be negatively impacted by the Northern Integrated Supply Project. I pay property taxes to the government agency which is the NISP applicant, the “Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District.” I also pay sales and property taxes to federal, state, and local agencies that have invested in preserving the Poudre River landscape corridor through Fort Collins including the City of Fort Collins, Larimer County, and Great Outdoors Colorado. I recreate on and near the Poudre River in Fort Collins several times per year including standup paddle- boarding, tubing, running, walking, biking, and nature watching. Construction and operation of the Poudre River Intake and pipeline would adversely interfere with my enjoyment of the Natural Areas by causing dust, air pollution, water pollution, noise, recreational closure, aesthetic injury, habitat destruction, and reduced flow of the river. The Poudre River corridor through Fort Collins is a natural gem with thousands of acres of protected natural areas and parks surrounding it. I greatly appreciate the Poudre River’s aesthetic value, enjoy the beauty and the way the river looks, and the natural wildlife areas around it. The more water the Poudre River has in it, the healthier it is and looks. 4 15. The Northern Integrated Supply Project would continue the long, sad history of draining the ecological health and beauty of the Poudre River through Fort Collins. The Northern Integrated Supply Project stands to negatively change the Poudre River and its natural areas that are deeply important to me. If the Northern Integrated Supply Project is built, my recreational and aesthetic enjoyment through all my uses of the Poudre River will be greatly diminished. 16. As a member of Save the Poudre and a recreator on Fort Collins Natural Areas, I am extremely concerned that the City’s Natural Areas are proposed to be degraded by NISP. Further, the SPAR proposal is illegally moving forward without NISP “owning or operating” the land upon which SPAR is proposed, in direct violation of the City’s land use code. If NISP wants to use SPAR, it must buy the City Natural Area, get a right-of-way, or condemn the land by eminent domain. These negotiations, or seizure of property, must involve the Fort Collins City Council, not the Planning and Zoning Board. Save the Poudre and its members (including myself) oppose the City’s use of an inapplicable land use process, and a process that could allow the Northern to override a denial of the SPAR application by the Planning & Zoning Commission. The people of Fort Collins love and support their Natural Areas, and I’m sure opposition to seizing Natural Areas would be dramatic. I and Save The Poudre are proud to stand up to protect Fort Collins Natural Areas on behalf of all of the citizen ratepayers and taxpayers who have bought and supported these landscapes for decades.. I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct and was executed this 9th day of June 2021. /s/ Gary Wockner