A $431 million dam and reservoir project would take 70 percent of what's left of the Poudre at peak flows. One of the biggest engineering proposals in the dry West and the largest on the Front Range since 1975, the project would fill a valley with a new pool bigger than popular Horsetooth Reservoir, move 7 miles of federal highway and add another major reservoir and pipeline system northeast of Greeley. Builders call it the best way to fill the taps of 40,000 new Front Range homeowners. "This project covers only half of the projected growth demand," said Carl Brouwer, project manager for the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, which delivers water to cities serving 770,000 people. "Highways get busy and people notice. Well, we have water traffic jams on the horizon." Opponents add in decades of interest payments and call it a "billion-dollar drain pipe" that would ruin the best feature of a perennial "livable city" pick. They've labeled it an environmental and financial disaster that would force cities to chase development to pay off bonds at a time when the mortgage crisis has frozen the economy.  

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