Click the link to read the article on The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel website (Sam Klomhaus). Here’s an excerpt:
April 5, 2024
“The idea that we would allow this archaic little water right to disappear and watch it get siphoned off to benefit someone else’s future is really hard to take if you live and thrive here in Western Colorado.” — Colorado River District General Manager Andy Mueller
The city of Grand Junction became the latest entity to contribute to an effort to preserve a senior water right on the Colorado River Wednesday after City Council voted unanimously to pledge $1 million to the cause. The water right is from the Shoshone power plant in Glenwood Canyon, and provides 1,250 cubic feet per second under the senior right, and 158 cubic feet per second under the junior water right.
“It’s one of the oldest, largest rights on the Colorado River within our state,” said Colorado River District General Manager Andy Mueller said at Wednesday’s meeting. “It’s very unique in that it’s a non-consumptive water right built and first decreed in 1902 to generate hydroelectic power.”
In December, Xcel Energy and the river district agreed on a sale of the water rights for $99 million…Mueller said communities have relied on this water right for recreation, agriculture and development.