The state and water users need to get the Environmental Protection Agency on board sooner in the planning process of providing water for future generations, a member of Gov. Bill Ritter's Cabinet said Wednesday. Jim Martin, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, was the luncheon speaker for the 2010 Spring Water Users meeting of the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. Martin said the EPA has a major role in determining the approval of any of the nation's proposed water projects, and that includes several in Colorado now in the planning and permitting process. Those include the Northern Integrated Supply Project, which would provide an additional 40,000 acre-feet of water per year for 15 entities in northern Colorado, and the Windy Gap Firming Project, which provides a storage facility in a new reservoir west of Loveland. Both those projects are in the process of undergoing Environmental Impact Studies and, if approved, will be built in the next five to 10 years.

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