Opponents of proposed dams and reservoirs on the Poudre River along Colorado’s northern Front Range on Monday celebrated more federal permitting delays for the Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP), Halligan and Seaman water projects. But U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, a Republican who represents the area in Congress, continues to rally business interests.

The U.S. Army Corps on Monday confirmed that a Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) for the NISP, originally slated for release last summer, has now been pushed back to next year.

U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner.

But Gardner, in his home district during a congressional recess last week, met with nearly 300 NISP supporters in Loveland Thursday – many of them local business owners — to continue to push for the controversial project that he says is in the “homestretch.”

“My number one goal is to get our economy moving again — to start creating jobs and build lasting economic growth that puts Americans back to work,” Gardner said in his weekly newsletter Sunday.

“To do that in Colorado we have to recognize that jobs and economic development across the state are tied to our ability to store and deliver clean, affordable water. If we are going to move toward a stronger economy, the only way to sustain it long term will be with enough water for our future.”

Draft Environmental Impact Statements (DEIS) for the Halligan (Fort Collins) and Seaman (Greeley) dams and reservoirs on the North Fork of the Poudre were supposed to be released this summer but now have been pushed to 2012 or 2013, according to the Army Corps.

Wockner says that the NISP is now more than six years late and at least $150 million over budget. Alternatives (pdf), he said, would be much cheaper at this point – and far less environmentally destructive.

“NISP would drain over half of the water out of the Poudre River through Fort Collins,” Wockner said. “And that is in addition to the 60 percent of water already drained by current diversions. If NISP is built, less than 25 percent of the native flow of the Poudre would still flow through town. NISP would turn the Poudre into a muddy, stinking, polluted ditch.”

Advocates from across the political spectrum officially launched a campaign this week to radically change how Fort Collins elects city officials.

Joined by multiple Colorado legislators and city council members, Fort Collins Ranked Voting hosted their campaign kickoff event at Avogado’s Number in Fort Collins after garnering enough signatures to put the alternative voting method on the city’s April ballot.

If approved, Fort Collins would replace the traditional plurality voting system with a method that ensures winners receive majority support. For the 2013 municipal elections the mayoral and city council races would use ranked choice voting, also called instant runoff voting, that allows voters to rank candidates on the ballot according to their personal preference.

Rep. John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins, an advisor to the group, said the system is simple. Kefalas explained that if any candidate receives the majority of first place votes, they win. If no candidate receives a majority, the votes for the last place candidate are redistributed among the remaining candidates according to each voter’s preference. The process repeats until one candidate holds a simple majority.

“It’s just like choosing your favorite ice cream,” Kefalas said.

During his speech Kefalas asked a four-year-old girl in the front row to name her first, second and third favorite ice cream flavor. The young girl quickly answered strawberry, blueberry and lemon.

“If a four-year-old can do it, than I don’t think it’s so complicated,” Kefalas pronounced over resounding applause.

Seth Anthony, a member of Fort Collins Ranked voting since 2008, said the toughest hurdle in passing the measure is for voters to understand the system’s simplicity. Anthony said while collecting petition signatures he turned many skeptics into supporters by merely explaining how ranked voting worked.

“Once people understand the process they are usually 100 percent on board,” Anthony said.

Rep. Randy Fischer, D-Fort Collins, said RCV is very logical. He said it would open up the whole political process to a much broader dialogue because voters could vote with their heart first and then for a more electable candidate second.

“I can foresee a time when we look back on today and say, ‘wow what was the big controversy all about?’” Fischer said. “It makes sense to ensure we have a majority rule in our elections. I can even foresee a time when we can do away with primaries. If we have ranked choice voting, why do we need a primary?”

Kefalas said RCV eliminates the “spoiler effect.” Currently third party candidates can spilt the vote and help elect the candidate ideologically opposite from himself or herself. Kefalas also said campaign dollars make less of an impact during RCV races because voters are more likely to take a chance on a candidate they believe is right for the job, rather than simply vote for the candidate with the most television spots.

It looks as if the controversy has only begun. Letters to the editor have appeared in The Coloradoan both for and against the measure.

Former Larimer County Commissioner and former Fort Collins City Council member John Clarke outlined his opposition to RCV in a Jan. 28 Coloradoan column. Clarke wrote that the process is too complicated and would discourage voter turnout. He is also concerned about relying on computers to tally voter preferences.

“I never liked the idea of trusting my vote to cyber software,” wrote Clarke.

Anthony said many companies are already offering machines that can tabulate RCV results. Fort Collins rents voting machines, so he said the city would only need to choose a different company capable of handling RCV elections. Anthony said the transition will run smoothly because Fort Collins uses an all mail-in ballot system where ballots are counted in a central location. The city would only have to change one counting machine as opposed to machines in numerous precincts.

Fort Collins City Clerk Wanda Krajicek said her office has not studied how RCV would affect the city and is awaiting the results before officially looking into how RCV would work.

“If the voters want it we will do everything in our power to make it happen,” Krajicek said.

Kefalas is a long time supporter of alternative voting methods. In 2007 he sponsored legislation that set up the voter choice task force to study various voting options. The following year he sponsored a bill that granted local jurisdictions greater flexibility in their election process, which allows municipalities like Fort Collins to make the switch to RCV.

The voter choice task force demonstrated that RCV could be instituted for many statewide races. According to Kefalas, Colorado’s constitution limits any change to some statewide elections like the governor’s race, but he said nothing stands in the way of state senatorial, state house or even congressional races from transitioning to RCV. Kefalas hopes Fort Collins will act as a proving ground for alternative methods.

“My goal is that if we can show success at the local level then maybe people would be willing to make the switch on other levels as well,” Kefalas said. “It’s getting crazy in Denver lately. Everyone is worried about who is on top and who is ahead. This system allows for a greater flow of ideas and forces the two major parties to concentrate on issues rather than partisan bickering.”

Colorado Democratic chair Pat Waak said changing any statewide race to an alternative method would be a very difficult proposition. The Democratic Party has not taken an official stance on the issue, but in general Waak said she has some problems with ranked choice elections.

If approved, Fort Collins would join Aspen, Basalt and Telluride in enacting RCV. Basalt adopted the alternative method in 2002 for mayoral races with at least three candidates, but such a situation has yet to arise. Telluride passed an ordinance in 2008 instituting RCV for the town’s next three mayoral races starting in 2011.

Aspen is the only Colorado municipality to have actually conducted an election using RCV. In September 2007, the Aspen City Council adopted an ordinance requiring instant runoff voting for Mayor and Council members as well as a requirement that council members be elected by majority vote. In November of that same year Aspen voters approved a charter amendment, which paved the way for the city’s May 5, 2009 regular municipal election conducted using IRV. In November 2010, Aspen voters subsequently repealed the amendment and returned to traditional methods after only using IRV one time.

This week, as a requirement of Kefalas’ bill granting local jurisdictions greater flexibility in their election process, the Secretary of State published a study addressing the many questions surrounding alternative voting methods. The report includes progress updates from counties and municipalities across Colorado who instituted RCV as well as feedback from stakeholders and details on how they transitioned to alternative methods. The report queried interested parties to gain insight into Aspen’s 2009 election and posted the comments on the SOS Web site. The report does not suggest employing RCV elections in Colorado.

“Considering the written comments received and the immediate repeal of instant runoff voting in Aspen, implementing ranked voting methods may not be a viable option for Colorado elections,” the report stated.

The report does state that the City of Aspen has verbally expressed that their 2009 election felt like a success. It states that conflicting viewpoints make assessing Aspen’s election difficult. It said the city employed a tabulation methodology that has never been used in the U.S. before. The city employed what was dubbed the True method, named after its creator Jim True of the Aspen City Attorney’s office.

The reports cites Rob Richie, Executive Director of FairVote, the leading non-profit and non partisan advocacy group for alternative voting methods, as saying True’s method is defensible, but that Richie would have suggested a different way of counting votes for multi-seat elections. The report also states that depending on selection of any specific tabulation algorithm, the same set of ballots could have resulted in multiple differing winners.

Co-Chair of Fort Collins Ranked Voting Eric Fried said he was disappointed but not surprised by the SOS report.

“It is indicative of an institutional bias against change,” Fried said. “They make passing reference to Rob Richie’s comments, but every other comment they reference is negative and gave no recognition to any problems with our current electoral system.”

In response to claims that different ways of counting votes leads to different results, Fried agreed. He said RCV is supposed to give a different result than traditional methods, but Fried said he believes that RCV produces the fairest result. Fried also said he understands why Aspen used its own tabulation method, but said their method may have been too complicated.

“Here in Fort Collins we do not plan on re-inventing the wheel,” Fried said. “We will use a much simpler RCV formula and will not implement a multi-seat election.”

A decade ago no city in the country used RCV, but 16 municipalities and counties have adopted the alternative method in California, North Carolina, Maryland, Minnesota, Vermont and Washington. Including Aspen, two cities and a county have since returned to traditional methods — Burlington, VT., and Pierce County, WA.

Also in attendance at Sunday’s event was Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins, and Fort Collins City Council member Ben Manvel, District 1.

When Markey and Gardner want to raise cash, though, its not their own district that brings in the bucks. Like pretty much every other politician in Colorado, the real dollars come from Denver.

Gardner has brought in $413,443 from Denver, according to OpenSecrets.org. From Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley combined, he has raised a little more than $90,000.

Markey has brought in $241,334 from Denver. She has raised $114,000 from Fort Collins – Loveland and $122,211 from Boulder-Longmont.

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Save the Poudre is joining with Coloradans Against Resource Destruction (CARD) to raise cash in Fort Collins Friday under the banner project called “Protect Our Water” or POW.

An open pit uranium mine.

“Fort Collins is in the crosshairs of potential environmental and economic destruction,” Save the Poudre’s Gary Wockner said in a release. “These two groups are uniting to raise money to protect northern Colorado’s quality of life.”

Wockner says one of the factors that brought the two groups together is the planned Cactus Hill Reservoir northeast of Fort Collins, which proposes to store drinking water next to in-situ leach and open-pit uranium mines.

Save the Poudre is battling the Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP) and the Million Pipeline in its efforts to preserve the Cache la Poudre River. Coloradans Against Resource Destruction is fighting a proposed uranium mine near Nunn.

The fundraiser runs from 6:30 to 11 p.m. Friday, April 30, at the Lincoln Center in Fort Collins. Tickets are $20 and include two bands: the Poudre River Irregulars and Futaba. For more information or to register, go to the Save the Poudre website.

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The paper reports the EPA and Powertech have been working on a permit for two years, and the company’s in situ mining process would contaminate part of the aquifer – something that’s allowable under certain types of EPA uranium mining permits. A number of local municipalities have officially voiced opposition to the proposed project.

In other uranium news , the Associated Press Friday was reporting a deal had been struck between the U.S. Department of Energy and the state of Utah that would forestall permanent storage of depleted uranium from weapons production in South Carolina until Utah officials can write new environmental rules addressing the impacts of such storage.

On Tuesday, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert wrote to Energy Secretary Steven Chu accusing the DOE of playing politics because of stimulus-funded jobs creation associated with the South Carolina cleanup.

The EPA is reportedly giving the public until Dec. 24 to comment on Powertech’s proposed Centennial Project, which has been formally opposed by the nearby cities and towns of Fort Collins, Greeley, Nunn, Wellington, Ault and Timnath.

U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey

“There is fear that this process can jeopardize water quality and may well be inappropriate for use in an area so close to a population center of 300,000,” Markey and Bennet wrote in their letter to a regional EPA administrator. Markey and Bennet would like to see the surrounding populace involved in a possible rule making by the EPA that would provide federal oversight under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

Notable in his silence on the project was Sen. Mark Udall, a Democrat like Markey and Bennet, but one who has raised eyebrows of late for his outspoken support for reviving the nation’s nuclear power industry as a nearly carbon-neutral source of electricity, albeit one that produces highly toxic waste and includes upfront mining with a very checkered environmental past in the state.

Udall in the past has told the Colorado Independent that nuclear power must be part of the nation’s energy mix, and that the uranium mining that comes with it – including a proposed mill in western Montrose County — must be done using best environmental practices to avoid the pollution problems of the past. Still, there are some serious skeptics out there warning against fully embracing one of the most expensive forms of electrical generation.

Denver-based Environment Colorado Monday issued a release claiming that the EPA “has failed to consult with the public and communities and to engage in a public rulemaking on its regulatory program.” The group praised the letter from Markey and Bennet.

“The risks of the Powertech uranium mine are too great to leave citizens, physicians, and public health experts out of the decision-making process,” Dr. Cory Carroll, a past president of the Larimer County Medical Society and a practicing family physician in Fort Collins, said in the release. “This is a complicated process that needs transparency and must be conducted openly with the community.”

An editorial in the Los Angeles Times over the weekend called nuclear too costly and too time-consuming to be a reasonable solution to global climate change:

“Nuclear energy is not a reasonable solution because plants take too long to build and cost far too much … The last time there was a wave of nuclear construction in the United States, it took an average of nine years to build a plant, meaning we wouldn’t see the first one until at least 2018 — too late to play any significant role in meeting the Senate climate bill’s goal of cutting emissions 20 percent by 2020.

“Renewable power sources such as solar, wind and geothermal are getting cheaper over time, even as nuclear gets more expensive. And renewable-power plants can be built almost immediately, without the long permitting delays faced by nuclear reactors.”

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An Associated Press story on the Denver Post site Tuesday, which also put the cost of high-speed rail between Pueblo and Fort Collins at $5 billion, was met with dozens of comments ranging from “build it, build it now” to “let the ski industry pay for mountain rail” and “don’t bring your big-city crime to Fort Collins.”

Fact is, the $20 billion combined cost estimate came out last week (AP finally noticed it in a Summit Daily News story Tuesday) when I-70 coalition chairman and Frisco town manager Michael Penny wrote a column basically saying any rail fix for congestion on I-70 is many years (and many billions of dollars) away from becoming a reality.

The Rocky Mountain Rail Authority, an intergovernmental advisory group much like the I-70 Coalition, has been conducting a $1.5 million Colorado Department of Transportation study on the feasibility of passenger rail along the I-70 and I-25 corridors.

Meanwhile, several states, including Colorado, have also applied to the Federal Railroad Administration to get funding for a passenger rail line between El Paso, Texas, and Denver. Funding for any of this, according to the latest round of stories, would mostly have to come from the feds.

But a slew of experts have said that’s unlikely given the relatively low priority of a Desert Southwest or Central Rockies rail corridor compared to the kind of highway congestion seen on both coasts or in the upper Midwest. And federal stimulus funds for transit projects mostly went to short-term jobs creation in the form of badly needed highway upgrades.

Still, the possibility of both I-70 and I-25 passenger-rail routes remains intriguing not only to rail enthusiasts but also Colorado’s business community, which in some cases sees a mountain rail system as a major competitive advantage in marketing the state’s $10 billion ski and outdoor recreation industries. Dreams of a European-style network of ski trains have been percolating for years.

Problem is, the only ski train in the state – the one between Denver and Winter Park owned by billionaire Phil Anschutz – is shutting down after 69 years this season (although there’s talk of a revival) and was too slow to really be much more than a novelty for people in a hurry to get to the slopes.

Don’t look for cash-strapped ski companies to get into the mass transit business anytime soon. In fact, Vail Resorts owns Colorado Mountain Express – a van service to Denver International Airport that would directly compete with mountain rail.

Realists in mountain communities say a much more likely scenario than Denver to the Eagle County Regional Airport (the actual line studied by the Fail Authority) is an Eagle to Leadville route along existing rails, with stops at the base of Beaver Creek and a spur to Vail.

While that wouldn’t do much for communities like Idaho Springs and Georgetown frustrated by brutal weekend traffic on I-70, it would be far cheaper and much closer to reality. The Eagle Airport, where millions have been spent on runway expansion and a new radar system in recent years, claims to be the second busiest airport after DIA during winter months, if you include private jet traffic.

Planes as large as Boeing 757s fly directly from cities like Los Angeles, Dallas and New York, and skiers then take vans to Vail and even Aspen. So weekend warriors from Denver would still be caught in god-awful ski traffic, but international and out-of-state tourists could bypass the whole mess.

The only problem with that scenario is that Union Pacific hasn’t abandoned its rail line through Eagle County, merely making it dormant for the past decade and reserving the right to start rolling coal trains through the area in the future. And passenger and freight trains don’t work all that well together on the same tracks.

Still, statewide passenger rail could get a boost from the creation by the State Legislature last session of the Colorado Department of Transportation’s new division of transit and rail. But where any new lines would go – or who will foot the bill – largely remains a guessing game.

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According to Fort Collins Coloradoan editor Bob Moore, Gardner, who faces a tough GOP primary just to take on Markey, awkwardly answered a series of questions from a Democrat at a health-care town hall in Fort Collins last week.

Gardner, according to Moore, declined to refute the notion Obama was born outside the United States, a popular conservative rallying cry these days akin to the “Obama’s a Muslim terrorist” tactic that worked so well during the 2008 election

Also according to Moore, Gardner on an earlier health-care teleconference, verged into such unrelated rants as cap and trade in the climate change bill and the possible reintroduction of the Fairness Doctrine.

Cap and trade strangely came up at a health-care town hall with 2nd Congressional District Rep. Jared Polis Wednesday in Edwards when a Boulder man attending his third such Polis meeting brought it up in the context of conservatives being disenfranchised in a liberal district.

Gardner is a big backer of oil and gas interests, last year helping to form a shadowy 501(c)4 called the Western Skies Coalition (along with GOP gubernatorial candidate Josh Penry) that sought to sway voters in key state senate races. It also called on politicians to sign an “Energy Action Plan” pledge.

Big on pledges, Gardner is now calling on visitors to his website to sign a petition giving Markey direction as she deliberates health-care reform. Perhaps Markey needs to post a pledge for Republican candidates compelling them to dispel the Obama citizenship smear.

In a column in the Summit Daily News, Frisco town manager Michael Penny predicts years and years of additional study but no real action on highway improvements for six more years and no high-speed rail solution until 2020 at the earliest.

Penny is chairman of the I-70 Coalition, a group of public and private-sector stakeholders along the I-70 corridor, which is the main east-west route connecting the state’s population centers on the Front Range with the outdoor recreation playgrounds on the Western Slope.

Penny says many of the I-70 Coalition members are also involved with the Rocky Mountain Rail Authority, which is close to finalizing a high-speed rail feasibility study for an east-west route between Denver International Airport and the Eagle County Airport (estimated $15 billion price tag) and a north-south route between Fort Collins and Pueblo (estimated $5 billion price tag).

But he adds that highway improvement are more likely to get funded first, although nothing is likely to happen in the State Legislature in 2010 because it’s an election year. A big part of the coalition’s focus so far in 2009 was getting the FASTER bill passed (increased vehicle registration fees) to create a permanent funding source for basic highway maintenance and critical bridge repairs.

All in all, though, it’s not a very encouraging report for frequent users of the state’s main mountain artery looking for more meaningful traffic solutions.

An environmental engineer and lecturer brought in by conservationists told an audience in Fort Collins Tuesday they should be concerned about the deterioration of their water quality if a proposed uranium mine near Nunn goes forward, according to the Greeley Tribune.

“If I was living in this area, I would certainly have concerns about groundwater,” said Dr. Gavin Mudd, an assistant lecturer at Monash University in Clayton, Australia. “Knowing the extent of problems they’ve had at mines in Wyoming and Texas, for example, I would certainly be concerned about protecting my groundwater quality.”

An executive for Denver-based Powertech Uranium Corp. said he wouldn’t have a problem living next the mine, which would use in-situ leach mining.

“I would be very happy to live next to one of those things,” Powertech President and CEO Richard Clement told the paper. “Believe me, if I could move the project next to my house in New Mexico I would be more than happy to live there. I’ve been around these projects 30 some-odd years. There are no concerns.”

Mountain communities in Southwest Colorado, meanwhile, are heatedly debating the benefits and risks of a mill that would process uranium in Montrose County.

Uranium mining claims are on the rise around the state and nation as nuclear power continues to be touted as a renewable energy source that can dramatically reduce carbon emissions and global warming. But stopping mining claims near national parks and proposed wilderness areas, including the Grand Canyon, where President Barack Obama’s family vacationed over the weekend, has become a rallying cry for environmentalists.

Still, numerous politicians, including some former and current Democratic lawmakers from Colorado, are calling for more recognition of nuclear power and traditional energy sources such as natural gas in pending climate change legislation.

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