Driven by drought, Gov. John Hickenlooper is urging President Obama and federal engineers to speed decisions on proposed water projects designed to sustain urban growth. A letter to Obama seeks help spurring decisions on Denver Water's diversion of 18,000 acre-feet of Colorado River Basin water from the west side of the Continental Divide to an expanded Gross Reservoir west of Boulder. A separate letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asks that the Northern Integrated Supply Project — which would siphon the Cache la Poudre River into new reservoirs storing 215,000 acre-feet of water — be given a high priority. Colorado faces "a significant gap in our supplies to provide water for future growth — a gap that cannot be met by conservation and efficiencies alone," Hickenlooper began in a June 5 letter sent to the White House and copied to cabinet secretaries and agency chiefs. "We urge you to exercise your authority to coordinate your agencies and bring an expeditious conclusion to the federal permitting processes for this essential project, in order that we can have certainty moving forward as a state," he wrote.