A national environmental group added northern Colorado's Cache la Poudre River to its list of the country's "most endangered" rivers — a move activists hope will add clout to their efforts to block a major river diversion. A $431 million proposal to divert much of the Poudre's downtown Fort Collins flow to a massive new reservoir would irreparably damage the river, according to Washington, D.C.-based American Rivers. Instead of building the reservoir and a twin project downstream, the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District should redouble its conservation efforts to "find" new water, the group said. Listing — for the first time — the Poudre on the group's annual most-endangered scorecard means there is a "critical threat, and something the public can still take action on," said American Rivers spokeswoman Amy Kober. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is finishing the required environmental-impact statement assessing the project's ecological damage and can deny a construction permit or require extensive mitigation.

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