The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) is preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to analyze the direct, indirect and cumulative effects of a water supply project (Moffat Collection System Project) by the City and County of Denver, acting by and through its Board of Water Commissioners (Denver Water). Denver Water is responsible for providing reliable, high quality drinking water to over 1.2 million customers. Through Denver Water’s Integrated Resources Plan (IRP), developed in 1997 and updated in 2002, and recent events, Denver Water identified four needs in the Moffat Collection System that have to be solved. The Moffat Collection System Project will provide a solution to the following needs:

The Reliability Need: Existing water demands served by Denver Water’s Moffat Collection System exceed available supplies from the Moffat Collection System during a drought, causing a water supply reliability problem. In a severe drought, even in a single severe dry year, the Moffat Treatment Plant—one of three treatment plants in Denver’s system—is at a significant level of risk of running out of water.

The Vulnerability Need: Denver Water’s collection system is vulnerable to manmade and natural disasters because 90 percent of available reservoir storage and 80 percent of available water supplies rely on the unimpeded operation of Strontia Springs Reservoir and other components of Denver’s Water’s South System. The South System is comprised of the Roberts Tunnel Collection System (including Dillon Reservoir) and the South Platte Collection System.

The Flexibility Need: Denver Water’s treated water transmission, distribution, and water collection systems are subject to failures and outages caused by routine maintenance, pipe failures, treatment plant problems, and a host of other unpredictable occurrences that are inherent in operating and maintaining a large municipal water supply system. These stresses to Denver Water’s ability to meet its customers’ water supply demands require a level of flexibility within system operations that is not presently available.

The Firm Yield Need: Denver Water’s near-term water resource strategy and water service obligations that have occurred since the IRP was developed, has resulted in a need for 18,000 acre-feet of new near-term water supplies. This need was identified after first assuming successful implementation of a conservation program, construction of a non-potable recycling project, and implementation of a system refinement program.

Denver Water has not selected a specific project but will be exploring alternatives through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process to result in a preferred alternative. Construction of the Moffat Collection System Project is expected to result in temporary and permanent impacts to jurisdictional waters of the United States, thereby requiring a Clean Water Act Section 404 permit. Denver Water has identified four preliminary alternatives that would address these needs:

• Enlarge Gross Reservoir in Boulder County;

• Build a new reservoir at Leyden Gulch in Jefferson County;

• Build a potable water recycling project; or

• A combination of these alternatives.

Additional alternatives will be considered during the NEPA process.

The COE is utilizing a 3^rd-party contractor, URS Corporation, to prepare the EIS. The EIS will be prepared according to the COE’s procedures for implementing NEPA and consistent with the COE’s policy to facilitate public understanding and review of agency proposals. A scoping document has been prepared, intended to familiarize other agencies, the public, and interested organizations, with the proposal through a description of the problems that the Moffat Collection System Project must address, a preliminary list of project alternatives, and various environmental/resource issues that will be addressed in the EIS. Denver Water has also a Moffat Collection System Project Information Document to further describe Denver Water’s System and the need for a project. Copies of the scoping document can be requested by mail. Scoping meetings were held at three locations on October 7, 8 & 9, 2003.

These scoping meetings were held to describe the information in the scoping document, the NEPA process, and to solicit input on the issues and alternatives to be evaluated and other related matters. Written comments were accepted at these meetings and until November 7, 2003. Questions regarding the proposed project, scoping meetings, and the EIS process, as well as submission of written comments, can be addressed to either:

Mr. Chandler Peter                                         Ms. Paula Daukas
Project Manager                                            Project Manager
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or                     URS Corporation
2232 Dell Range Blvd., Suite 210                     8181 East Tufts Ave.
Cheyenne, WY     82009                                 Denver, CO    80237

Fax (307) 772-2920                                         Fax (303) 694-3946

The COE has invited the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the U.S. Forest Service to be cooperating agencies in the formulation of the EIS.

Public Notices issued by the Omaha District for the state of Colorado can also be obtained by visiting the Colorado Regulatory Office web site at: www.nwo.usace.army.mil/html/od-tl/pn/tlpublicnotices.html