Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders Mobilization Project

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Findings and Recommendations
• By
• George Weber
• 303/494-8572 gw_at_gwenvironmental.com
  www.gwenvironmental.com

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Meeting agenda
• Presentation of findings and recommendations
• Questions, answers, and discussion
• Decisions about next steps if any and, if so
• Action Plan, and next meeting.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Study purpose
• Identify stakeholders indispensable to action to
  protect CLP water quality
• Assess stakeholders potential to mobilize to
  protect CLP water quality and
• Develop and recommend a strategic plan for
  mobilizing the stakeholders to protect CLP water
  quality.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Project purpose is advocacy to protect CLP water
  quality
• Project sponsors hope study will provide basis
  for mobilizing stakeholders to protect CLP water
  quality.
• Assess if conditions in setting and among
  stakeholders are such that they could mobilize to
  protect CLP water quality.
• Recommend strategies to mobilize stakeholder to
  act collaboratively to protect water quality,
  given conditions now.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Definitions
• Stakeholder is any organization, organizational
  unit, program, or individual concerned with,
  affected by, or involved in CLP water quality.
• An indispensable stakeholder is one whose
  participation, cooperation, and commitment other
  stakeholders perceive as critical in order to act
  to address CLP water quality issues successfully.
  
• Mobilization refers to the process of
  stakeholders coming together to discuss their
  concerns and perspectives, develop a shared
  vision for action and the necessary collaborative
  relationships and resources for achieving it.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Scope of work
• Water quality comprehensively and
• Entire CLP watershed and areas contributing water
  to it located outside the natural watershed
  boundaries (i.e., transbasin diversions).

City of Fort Collins CLP Source Water Intake
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Cache la Poudre Watershed
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Cameron Pass
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Poudre Lake CLP Mainstem Headwaters
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Northern-most Boundary of CLP Watershed -
Interstate 80 On the Dale Creek Divide Near
Laramie, Wyoming
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
South Platte River About One Mile Below the
Confluence With the CLP
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Fort Collins Greeley CLP Source Water Area
Including Transbasin Diversions (See National
Pilot Source Water Assessment of Fort Collins CLP
Source Water Area http//web.uccs.edu/ccdd/EPAM/So
urceWater/Cachelapoudre/)
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Laramie River Transbasin Diversion Source Water
Area - Looking Upstream From Laramie-Poudre
Tunnel (At left, not seen)
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Michigan River Transbasin Diversion Source Water
Area Looking Toward Lake Agnes From Highway 14
West of Cameron Pass
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Methods
• A qualitative case study research design
• Conceptual framework
• Sample -- 75 representative stakeholders as
  knowledgeable informants
• Questionnaire survey
• Follow-up in-depth interviews
• Follow-up contacts
• Review of documents
• Qualitative analysis and
• Write-up of results recommendations based on
  the conceptual framework.

Graphical Representation of Conceptual Model Why
How Stakeholders Mobilize
to Address A Problem Collaboratively
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Input Sought From 75 Knowledgeable Informants
• Existing and/or potential impact on CLP water
  quality.
• Significant water user.
• Indispensable to potential future action to
  protect CLP water quality.
• Capable of representing concerns perspectives
  of one or more interests.

Weber Discussing Source Water Quality Stakeholder
Study With CLP Stakeholders During 6/8/99 Field
Trip
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Of 75 Knowledgeable Informants
• Participating
• 40 participated fully.
• 1 participated fully, except for not providing
  additional information on 1 question.
• 8 of these did not perceive any CLP water quality
  issues.
• Findings based on response of 33 who perceived
  issues.
• Not Participating
• 34 did not respond or participate fully.
• Of these, 26 did not acknowledge contacts.
• 5 declined to participate, 3 did not participate
  fully.

CLP Source Water Quality Stakeholders Discussing
Issues on 6/8/99 Field Trip
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Issues Actions Identified
Development In the Watershed - ISDS Residence
Being Constructed on Banks of CLP Mainstem

• 40 problem areas
• Natural human causes
• Impacts on water quality associated habitat
  species and
• How humans are responding or not
• 10 opportunity areas
• 140 actions proposed!

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Drought
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Fire Wild Prescribed (View from Highway 287
looking southwest into CLP watershed at
prescribed burn.)
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Development ISDS in the North Fork Mainstem
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Dairy Feedlot Adjacent Uphill of Hansen Canal
As It Flows To Bellvue Water Treatment Plant
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Gravel Mining, Sediment, then Development In the
Lower CLP Bottomlands East of Fort Collins
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Massive Rapid Growth In the Lower Watershed
Increased Demand for Drinking Water Wastewater
Infrastructure, Increased Contamination from
Stormwater Sedimentation
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Massive Rapid Growth In Lower Watershed
Bottomlands East of Fort Collins
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Increasing Demand for Wastewater Treatment
Achieving Requirements of Clean Water Act
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Trash Floating in Lower CLP
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Sedimentation Sandbar Development In the Lower
CLP Downstream of US Highway 85
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Junk Yard Cattle Truck Washout Waste Lagoon On
Banks of Lower CLP Downstream from US Highway 85
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Cattle Truck Washout Facility Waste Lagoon On
the Banks of the Lower CLP Downstream of US
Highway 85
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• 319 Indispensable Stakeholders Identified!
• Interests
• Organizations
• Programs and
• Individuals.
• See Appendices D E.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• 319 indispensable stakeholders identified!
• Some observations analysis
• Study participants did NOT identify any
  stakeholders from the CLP watershed in Wyoming or
  transbasin diversions.
• Some are uncertain about which stakeholders are
  indispensable to future action.
• Organizational individual representatives were
  not identified for some interests or stakeholder
  types.
• Large complex organizations encompass multiple
  interests stakeholder types.
• Positive negative perceptions of some
  indispensable stakeholders are held.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Overall analysis
• Potential for comprehensive group of stakeholders
  to mobilize and act collaboratively to protect
  CLP water quality NOW is uncertain.
• Factors constraining potential mobilization
  predominate.
• Stakeholder mobilization seems possible however
  -- if advocates act to initiate, support, and
  facilitate the process.
• Advocates need to view negative factors as
  barriers to overcome, and build on significant
  positive factors.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Significant barriers to mobilization include
• Different world views values about water
  resources.
• Fragmented political legal systems (e.g., Q v.
  Ql fed, state, local multi-jurisdictional
  public v. private).
• Competition potential conflict among political
  jurisdictions (e.g., FC-Timnath-Windsor growth
  triangle).
• Adversarial institutional processes (e.g.,
  Triennial Review).
• Conflict historic, current, potential (e.g.,
  water storage, ARNF Forest Management Plan,
  Thortons water).

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Significant barriers to mobilization include
  (Cont.)
• Power of single stakeholder to block or stymie
  consensus based action (e.g., TU v. JOA
  partners).
• Finite resources (i.e., current fiscal crisis).
• Constraints on involvement of key individual
  advocates for mobilization, e.g., drought, fires,
  West Nile, fluoride, intra-organizational issues
  (e.g., job reclassifications, multiple jobs).
• Consensus on issues actions is not apparent
  (i.e., number identifying an issue 1-13, an
  action 1-17 of 33 knowledgeable informants).

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Historic view values about water CLP
• CLP is not a real river, but drainage for
  snowmelt.
• Below cities, CLP is drainage way, not river.
• Without reservoirs, the river would dry up.
• If we dont use the water, it runs to the ocean
  and becomes unusable.
• Analogy if wheat were wild and people hungry,
  and we didnt harvest.
• CLP water quality is what it is, we dont want to
  make it worse, but we dont want to make it
  better.
• We dont want the city residents to say that
  water below should be as pure as the water above.
  This would kill agriculture.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Historic view values about water CLP (Cont.)
• The quality of water below the municipal
  diversion will be acceptable to members of this
  organization if it is acceptable for agricultural
  uses.
• The CLP Water Users Association sees no need to
  seek to obtain higher water quality in the lower
  reaches of the river to sustain species such as
  trout, since water temperatures are too high to
  be conducive to their growth and reproduction.
• Nor is the river a satisfactory locale for body
  contact recreation.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Historic view values about water CLP (Cont.)
• The costs of achieving the quality of water
  necessary for such purposes would just not be
  worth the benefits.
• Entities in this area could participate in the
  Triennial Review of water quality standards
  conducted by the Colorado Water Quality Control
  Commission to urge that such unavailing water
  quality efforts on the lower end of the river not
  be required.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Deep Ecology View Values About Water CLP
• There are too many of us.
• Intensity of human use is much greater than it
  should be from the standpoint of the health of
  ecosystems and other species.
• Leave more water in the river for other species
  and establish more natural flow patterns.
• We should let more water go to the terns in
  Nebraska and help mitigate the dead zone in the
  Gulf of Mexico.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Deep ecology view values about water CLP
  (cont.)
• Modify human settlement and development patterns,
  and water discharge and land-use practices, to
  minimize anthropogenic alterations of water
  chemistry, turbidity, etc.
• Conserve water.
• Consider if we should be growing excess/surplus
  crops using irrigation water.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Workable? View values about water CLP
• Work to keep river as healthy as possible for its
  human users and native occupants.
• Have CLP serve full range of uses of people in
  basin NOT just established economic uses.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Workable? View values about water CLP
• All users need to live within the resource
  traditional users always trying to augment, while
  new people have unrealistic view of what CLP is.
• Traditional folks ARE going to get squeezed not
  necessarily good.
• Increased flows, whether historical or not, might
  help if applied wisely.
• Water will be used more efficiently, and quality
  will be addressed best by a basin-wide effort.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Significant factors positive to mobilization
  include
• External contextual factors (e.g., Growth,
  increasing demands on resources, drought,
  potential water export from basin, intervention
  by U.S. And state governments).
• Thortons water - potential threat, but does
  water in basin in historic uses NOW motivate
  positive mobilization?
• Clean Water Act implementation - NPDES
  dischargers face challenges (e.g., Achieving
  current anticipated NPDES standards), seem
  motivated to collaborate.
• Consensus regarding upper CLP stakeholders
  agree on need to act to protect upper CLP.  

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Significant factors positive to mobilization
  (cont.)
• Government fiscal crisis - is collaboration
  more efficient, e.g., for water quality
  monitoring data?  
• More effective efficient municipal utility
  programs source, waste, storm water program
  authorities are limited. Effective efficient
  implementation REQUIRES cooperation of
  stakeholders outside municipal boundaries.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Significant factors positive to mobilization
  (cont.)
• Leadership - key individuals are perceived as
  leaders NOW. Some stakeholders look to Fort
  Collins Greeley to lead they say they will
  participate support.  
• Collaboration has been/is occurring among key CLP
  stakeholders.
• Nearly all study participants perceive they are
  interdependent expressed willingness to work
  with others.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project
Graphical Representation of Conceptual Model Why
How Stakeholders Mobilize to Address A Problem
Collaboratively

• Strategic Action Alternatives
• No Action
• 2 Critical Action Alternatives and
• 4 Subsequent Action Alternatives.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Strategic action alternatives
• Two (2) Critical action alternatives
• Take the lead.
• Determine if stakeholders have consensus on
  specific issues actions.
• Four (4) subsequent action alternatives
• Just do it!
• Form association for CLP water quality outreach,
  education, and information relationship
  development.
• Implement CLP source water quality study
  recommendations.
• Plant project specific seeds potentially
  developing into mobilization more comprehensive
  in scope later.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Critical Strategic Alternative 1 Take the Lead
• Champions Need to Advocate for Mobilization
  Within Their Own Organizations.
• Fort Collins Greeley Utility Departments Are
  Critical.
• Probability for Success Higher If Other
  Organizations Join In Advocacy and Action.

Rail Line Crossing North Fork CLP Watershed
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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• View Strategic Action Alternatives 2 6 As
  Modules
• Each alternative differs in scope and intensity
  of involvement and/or resources required to
  support it.
• Think of these as a menu of modules that can be
  combined and/or sequenced in different ways.
• Within each strategic module, mobilization
  advocates can select specific actions, and
  substantive meeting and/or project topics to
  address.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Recommended Character of CLP Stakeholder
  Organization Process
• Assume comprehensive holistic view of
  watershed.
• Strive to obtain broadest possible representation
  involvement of CLP water quality stakeholders.
• Act to address CLP water quality issues.
• Establish ground rules.
• Consider taking a modified common ground
  approach.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Critical strategic alternative 2 determine if
  stakeholders generally have consensus on specific
  issues actions
• Mobilization requires some consensus on some
  issues actions.
• Recommendation responds to lack of finding
  suggesting stakeholders generally DO or DO NOT
  have consensus on some issues actions.
• Just completed study is like Delphi process a
  group needs to consider the findings which are a
  collation of individual efforts.
• Conduct a structured questionnaire survey
• and/or
• Meet to determine if stakeholders have consensus
  on specific issues actions knowledgeable
  informants identified.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Preferred subsequent strategic action alternative
  - 5 form CLP association for outreach,
  education, developing information
  relationships.
• Promote and conduct outreach, education, and
  research on high priority topics.
• Mission NOT to intervene directly and actively in
  watershed initially but mission could be
  expanded later.
• Active speakers and research programs.
• Neutral forum explore and resolve conflict
  among stakeholders.
• Implement recommendation of CLP source water
  quality stakeholder study.
• Determine if stakeholders share consensus
  regarding basin-wide issues actions.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Subsequent strategic action alternative 5 form
  CLP association for outreach, education,
  developing information relationships.
• Advantages
• Leadership could initiate alternative NOW
• Leadership acts, and initiates the stakeholder
  mobilization process
• Stakeholders may be facilitated to develop
  consensus on issues actions over time
• Current and potential sources of conflict may be
  mitigated or resolved through information and
  education and
• Potential for conflict among stakeholders under
  this scenario seems low.

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Subsequent strategic action alternative 5 form
  CLP association for outreach, education,
  developing information relationships.
• Disadvantage
• Would this type forum attract widespread
  representation, participation, and commitment if
  it lacks contention?

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project

• Suggested questions for discussion
• Questions from Project Sponsors?
• Do Project Sponsors want to continue taking
  action to mobilize CLP water quality
  stakeholders?
• If so, do you want to implement one of the
  strategic action recommendations, or some
  combination of these? If so, what?
• What needs to be done next? By whom? By when?
• Will this group meet again? When? Where? What
  is the agenda?

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Cache La Poudre Water Quality Stakeholders
Mobilization Project