Rep. Cory Gardner is planning to introduce legislation to set deadlines for federal review of water-storage projects, the Yuma Republican said in an interview Friday.

"The concept is to put some time parameters around project approvals or denials," he said. Gardner said his aim is "to make sure the agencies and the permitting processes are either approving or denying the permits in a timely manner."

Gardner has worked with water users to decide what those deadlines should look like as he drafts the legislation, for which he hopes to gain bipartisan support. He plans to introduce the measure during the next session.

Gardner and other Northern Colorado leaders have criticized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for delays in evaluating the Northern Integrated Supply Project. The Corps wrote Gov. John Hickenlooper earlier this year to say that studying the project has taken longer than expected "due to concerns regarding potential cumulative impacts to the Cache la Poudre River."

The Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District first submitted an application for the huge reservoir-building project to the Corps in 2004.

"It's unacceptable that we don't have answers, that we don't have a