As some readers might not have been aware of it, Karen Stockley’s (Democratic candidate for House District 49) recent column was a show of far-left environmentalism pretending to be someone credibly qualified to talk about financial feasibility. Restated, she should just be forthright in that she opposes the proposed Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP) purely on environmental grounds instead of using misleading costs and facts to make her point that the project is a fiscal nightmare to be borne by the taxpayer.
Under the column’s heading: Proposed reservoir would be too costly and damaging, she cites project costs as well as other associated costs and facts. However, as one Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District (NCWCD) official told me, he has no idea where she came up with these figures. Well, he couldn’t have any idea; she has evidently never been in contact with the water district regarding this project. Yet she claims to have studied this issue for many years and voiced her, as she puts it, primary opposition based on disastrous financial consequences. Furthermore, she states that our hometown Berthoud Trustees decided to end their participation in the project because they wisely looked at all the costs and could do better with other water resources for future needs. Poppycock, Berthoud can’t participate because they can barely stay afloat financially just providing essential town services.
When it becomes apparent, or should become apparent, where she’s really coming from, she states, “Are there solutions? Absolutely. We need to ask each NISP subscriber (the 15 Front Range water providers) to adopt water conservation programs”. Ask? What Karen really means is that she’d push for more regulations telling us how and when we can use our water. That’s her primary solution to meet future water needs. Despite all the right reasons for this project, Karen is incapable of seeing it this way because the environment always comes first.
Maybe Karen Stockley stands behind her column as being sincere. Personally, I think she could do a much better job explaining her true water agenda.
P. Mark Lehan
Berthoud