Eric Kuhn was in Rock Springs recently and spoke to opponents of the Million Resource Group’s proposed pipeline from the Green River basin to meet the unbridled growth along the Front Range in Colorado. Here’s an in-depth report from the Jeff Gearino writing for the Casper Star-Tribune via the Billings Gazette. From the article:
A veteran Colorado engineer said last week that his water conservation district worries there won’t be enough excess water left to be taken out of the Green River system. If the pipeline is approved, municipal and other entities in southwest Wyoming and western Colorado that rely on the Green River may not have enough water to meet their future recreation, tourism and industrial growth needs. “There’s just no water for Million for this project,” Colorado River Water Conservation District General Manager Eric Kuhn told members of a local group opposing the pipeline project…
He said the Colorado River District board shares the concerns of people in southwest Wyoming about moving water from the Green River, and the Flaming Gorge Reservoir it feeds, to Colorado’s bustling Front Range. “The (Million pipeline) question comes down to inflows into the Flaming Gorge … and all the science suggests a drier future,” Kuhn told members of the Communities Protecting the Green River Committee during an informational meeting Tuesday night…
“The bottom line is … our district is planning for the worst, and that’s why we think this is a bad project,” said Kuhn, who has worked for the district for more than 30 years. “The project threatens Colorado because it could overdevelop the Colorado River water supply,” he said. “Our concern is what happens if we overdevelop and then that water isn’t there.” The Colorado River Water Conservation District was created by the Colorado Legislature in 1937 to provide legal, technical and political protection for the Colorado River and its principal tributaries within Colorado. The district comprises 15 counties on Colorado’s West Slope. The district is a political subdivision of the state of Colorado, but not a state agency.
More coverage from Jeff Gearino writing for the Billings Gazette. From the article:
Wyoming uses about 525,000 acre feet from the Green River each year — about 73 percent of what has been the state’s typical annual Colorado River Compact allocation of 833,000 acre feet…
Million has applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a permit to build the private pipeline at an estimated cost of $3 billion. He has identified several Colorado agricultural interests and some municipal interest in southeastern Wyoming as potential customers for the water. The Corps of Engineers is preparing an environmental study of the proposal, which is expected to be completed in 2016. Million also has applications pending with the Wyoming State Engineer’s Office to pipe up to 250,000 acre feet of water per year from diversion points on the Green River and Flaming Gorge Reservoir. The Corps is sifting through more than 7,000 comments on the transbasin water pipeline project. Corps officials have said they are also considering more than 300 alternative ways of providing water to the Front Range besides Million’s proposal.