Click the link to read the article on the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel website (Dan West). Here’s an excerpt:
September 19, 2026
The proposed purchase of the Shoshone Power Plant’s water rights took center stage at the Colorado River District’s Annual Water Seminar held at Colorado Mesa University on Friday, Sept. 18. While much of the annual meeting covered the historic drought that threatened the Western Slope and the rest of the Colorado River Basin, the Shoshone effort was held up as an example of how to manage water rights. Colorado River District General Manager Andy Mueller devoted a section of his keynote speech to the effort to purchase the power plant and its senior water rights for $99 million.
“It’s been going on since this district was formed in the 1930s,” Mueller said. “We have been trying to gain control and ensure permanency of the water rights that command the river related to this little power plant in Glenwood Canyon.”
There has been positive progress on the purchase, Mueller said, including raising more than $97 million from local, state and federal partners. The district also got a positive decision from the Colorado Water Conservation Board [8-0 vote on instream flow application]. However, there is still more negotiations underway, he said…On the funding side, Mueller credited Sen. Michael Bennet and Rep. Jeff Hurd for helping to secure and get released $40 million in federal funding for the purchase. Bennet and Hurd sat down for an “armchair conversation” about Shoshone at the seminar Friday afternoon…After lunch, Hurd and Bennet sat down and gave each other credit for the bipartisan effort to get the $40 million in federal funding for the Shoshone purchase. Bennet insisted on its inclusion in the Inflation Reduction Act during the Biden administration…When the Trump administration came in, it funded tens of millions of dollars in funding approved through that legislation. Hurd said he worked behind the scenes to convince the administration to release the funding.
“Give Jeff full credit for that,” Bennet said. “He landed this plane because I wasn’t getting my calls returned from the Trump administration and he was. He told them it was his number one priority.”
