Colorado Springs Utilities’ Steve Berry: ‘In looking at the numbers in this executive summary, it does not appear that many of our comments were considered’

Last week, the day before the Statewide Roundtable Summit, Western Resource Advocates, et. al., released a report titled, “Meeting Future Water Needs in the Arkansas Basin.” Colorado Springs and Pueblo are taking a hard look at the report, according to this article from Chris Woodka writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. Here’s an excerpt:

There may be a question whether water providers accept the figures used in the reports. “Colorado Springs Utilities was asked to peer review the draft version, and made extensive and substantial comments on it. In looking at the numbers in this executive summary, it does not appear that many of our comments were considered, and many of our suggested changes or corrections were not made,” said Steve Berry, spokesman for Utilities. The largest amounts of water, and presumably the largest conservation and reuse savings, come from Colorado Springs.

The Pueblo Board of Water Works is also reviewing the final report for accuracy, said Alan Ward, water resources manager…

The environmental groups say a combination of projects already on the books — conservation, reuse and temporary ag-urban transfers — could provide as much as 140,000 acre-feet, more than enough to meet the needs. Those numbers are being examined by urban water planners, who say the savings might not be attainable. “In general, we were unable to verify or recreate most of the numbers cited in their report, and their estimates for conservation and reuse are significantly greater than what our water conservation experts have calculated as realistic,” Berry said…

When asked how conservation savings would be applied to new supplies, a practice cities find risky, Jorge Figueroa, water policy analyst for Western Resource Advocates, said they could be put into “savings accounts” for future use. When asked where the water would be stored, he cited the T-Cross reservoir site on Williams Creek in El Paso County that is part of the Southern Delivery System plan…

Drew Peternell, director of Trout Unlimited’s Colorado Water Project, said the group supports [the Southern Delivery System]. Because the project already is under way, the groups look at SDS as a key way to fill the gap. The report also supports programs like Super Ditch as ways to temporarily transfer agricultural water to cities without permanently drying up farmland.

Meanwhile, here’s a look at a report from the Northwest Council of Governments, “Water and Its Relationship to the Economies of the Headwaters Counties,” from Bob Berwyn writing for the Summit County Citizens Voice. From the article:

The report, released in January at a Denver water conference, takes a fresh look at the critical importance to the economy of water in West Slope rivers, and why Colorado leaders may want to take careful thought before making future transmountain diversion policy decisions. Visit the NWCCOG website for the full 95-page report.

“This report makes an important contribution to the on-going dialogue about adverse economic impacts associated with losing water by focusing attention on Eagle, Grand, Gunnison, Pitkin, Routt and Summit counties,” said Jean Coley Townsend, the author of the report. “This has never been done before. The report provides an important counterbalance to earlier studies that show economic impacts of losing water from the Eastern Plains.”

Balancing the supply and demand of water could be the State’s most pressing issue. The report does not take issue with Front Range municipal or Eastern Plains agricultural water users — all parties have important and worthy concerns and points of view — but is meant as a thorough review of water as an economic driver of headwaters economic development.

The report provides a balance to the existing solid body of work that measures the potential economic effects of less water on the Front Range and the Eastern Plains and the loss of agriculture in those parts of the state.

“If we … are going to solve our Statewide water supply shortage challenges there must first be statewide mutual respect and true understanding of each other’s water supply challenges,” said Zach Margolis, Town of Silverthorne Utility Manager. “The report is a remarkable compilation of the West Slope’s water obligations and limitations as well as the statewide economic value of water in the headwater counties of Colorado.”

More transmountain/transbasin diversions coverage here.

Flaming Gorge pipeline: Should Front Range businesses more supportive of the project?

Bart Taylor (ColoradoBiz) is wondering why Front Range businesses are not clearly on board with Aaron Million’s plans for the Flaming Gorge pipeline. Here’s an excerpt:

There’s been little or no reaction from Front-Range business, the main beneficiary of the pipeline, though more than a dozen communities have committed to buy water if the pipeline is built. Jaeger’s group supports the Colorado Water Authority’s proposal, unaffiliated with Million’s and not affected by the FERC ruling. In a statement, South Metro remained committed to Flaming Gorge as one option to develop new supplies of “renewable surface water” for the region.

Million and Jaeger, famously at odds, are seemingly left to defend Flaming Gorge on their own. Jaeger, in the Post, doubted that the tool-kit proposed by opponents, including conservation, would be sufficient to address the state’s substantial long-term water needs. He’s consistently asserted that Colorado must think big to tackle the issue. So far, businesses here seem unconvinced…

Data may be tilting in favor of Million and Jaeger. One prominent study has show Colorado may be using less water than interstate agreements allow. More research is on the way. The Bureau of Reclamation will release a Basin-wide supply and demand study this summer. If it’s shown Colorado is entitled to more and is able to maneuver to use or store more water, Flaming Gorge will remain very much in play.

It might serve Colorado’s Front-Range business community to determine if its proponents are right.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Shell is turning dirt on an experimental oil shale lease in western Colorado

From the Associated Press via The Washington Post:

Carolyn Tucker of Shell said Thursday that the company continues to make “significant progress” on its oil shale project, which until now has occurred only on Shell land. The Daily Sentinel reports (http://bit.ly/xFbleJ ) Shell is preparing to do a test to address the federal government’s goal of developing oil shale while also extracting, or at least protecting, commercially valuable deposits of nahcolite in the same formations. Shell has three federal leases in Colorado’s Rio Blanco County for research on turning oil shale into oil.

More oil shale coverage here.

Chevron gives up their experimental lease on the ‘Next Big Thing’ in energy — oil shale

Oil shale has been the “Next Big Thing” in energy in Colorado for over a hundred years now. Chevron is the latest victim of the non-economic energy source. Here’s a report from the Associated Press via The Denver Post. From the article:

Chevron Corp. is giving up its experimental oil shale lease in northwest Colorado, saying it wants to free up its resources for other priorities. The company is working with the Bureau of Land Management to figure out what to do with the lease, including possibly transferring it to another company, The Grand Junction Sentinel reported Tuesday…

Chevron had been studying using carbon dioxide to draw out kerogen, a petroleum-like substance, from rock. The company said in a statement that the research was “productive.”

More oil shale coverage here.

BLM Announces Public Meetings on Potential Environmental Impacts of Oil Shale and Tar Sands Development

Here’s the release from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (Megan Crandall):

The Bureau of Land Management announced today that it is hosting public meetings in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming to answer questions about and solicit comments on its oil shale and tar sands Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (Draft PEIS). The meetings will be held at 7 p.m. at the locations and dates listed below:

Monday, March 12, 2012
BLM Colorado River Valley Office
2300 River Frontage Road, Silt, Colorado
7:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Westin Plaza Hotel
1684 West Highway 40, Vernal, Utah
7:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Grand America Hotel
555 South Main Street, Salt Lake City, Utah
7:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m.

Thursday, March 15, 2012
BLM Rock Springs Field Office
280 Highway 191 North, Rock Springs, Wyoming
7:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m.

BLM officials will be on hand to take written comments and assist with the commenting process. The Draft PEIS is being prepared by the BLM to assess a range of management alternatives for future oil-shale and tar-sands activities on public lands. The Notice of Availability of the Draft PEIS was issued in the Federal Register on February 3, 2012. A 90-day public comment period began that day and will close on May 4, 2012.

Written comments on the Draft PEIS should be submitted by May 4 using an online comment form on the Draft PEIS Website at http://ostseis.anl.gov. This is the preferred method for commenting. Comments may also be submitted by regular mail to: Oil Shale and Tar Sands Draft Programmatic EIS, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, EVS 240, Argonne, IL 60439.

From The Rifle Citizen Telegram:

The Bureau of Land Management will host meetings in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming to answer questions about and solicit comments on its oil shale and tar sands Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (Draft PEIS). The Colorado meeting will be held from 7-9:30 p.m. on Monday, March 12, at the BLM Colorado River Valley Office, 2300 River Frontage Road, in Silt.

More oil shale coverage here and here.

Flaming Gorge pipeline: Was last week’s FERC application dismissal a fatal blow to Aaron Million’s plans?

From The Salt Lake Tribune (Brandon Loomis):

Wyco Power and Water Inc. downplayed the denial as a glitch that it can address by submitting a better application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), but opponents say it effectively kills the pipeline until the company gets environmental permits and secures the water — approvals they doubt are coming. “We think that’s going to be impossible,” said McCrystie Adams, an Earthjustice attorney who represented the Sierra Club, Utah Rivers Council and other groups that intervened to oppose the federal permit…

A FERC official ruled Thursday that the route was too uncertain and the application premature. Although Wyco’s application maps show only federal rights of way, FERC Office of Energy Projects Director Jeff Wright wrote in his decision, the pipeline would also have to cross state, county and private lands. “Until some certainty regarding the authorization of the pipeline is presented,” Wright wrote, “Wyco will not be able to gather and obtain the information required to prepare a license application for a proposed hydropower project.” He also noted that the hydropower stations on which the application is based require water from a pipeline that doesn’t exist, and the application provides no timeline for seeking other agencies’ authorizations to build it…

The proposal has drawn criticism from a number of sectors, including Wyoming’s governor, environmentalists opposing trans-basin diversions, Utahns fearing effects on their state’s water supply, advocates for the Green River’s endangered and sport fish, and those who question private control of 200,000 acre-feet of scarce Colorado River Basin water…

Million insisted Thursday’s decision just means he needs to fill in more details before resubmitting a FERC application. Gaining permission to cross lands on the map isn’t an issue, he said, given that water projects are entitled to condemnation rights…

Identifying an exact route means getting permission from other federal agencies more suited to studying water projects, said Adams, the Earthjustice attorney. The Bureau of Reclamation likely would not consent, she said, because there’s insufficient water at its Flaming Gorge Reservoir, and endangered fish would suffer downstream.

More coverage from The Salt Lake Tribune via Power Engineering. From the article:

Million has said the water is there and, if not, Utah’s plans for a Lake Powell pipeline likely are doomed. In fact, he said he modeled his proposal after Utah’s project, which also is before FERC because it includes hydropower production. FERC’s decision on the Flaming Gorge pipeline may indicate the agency learned a lesson after approving an initial permit for study of the Lake Powell pipeline, Harris said. Maybe the energy regulators will no longer take the lead on projects that are primarily about supply. A FERC spokeswoman did not respond to a question about whether the Powell project was more complete.

Zach Frankel, executive director of the Utah Rivers Council, said Utah’s proposal to supply water to St. George likely carries more weight with federal regulators than does Million’s “speculative” concept. Still, he was surprised FERC shot down the Flaming Gorge proposal before even granting a permit for further study. “They give those out like candy,” he said.

Gov. Gary Herbert has said he would not stand for the Green River project if it threatens Utah’s supply, but he did not intervene in the FERC application as Wyoming’s governor did.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Outfitter Reed Dils: A voice for recreation and the environment on the committee evaluating the Flaming Gorge pipeline

From The Mountain Mail (Cailey McDermott):

Reed Dils of Salida is serving on the 20-member committee studying issues related to the proposed 578-mile pipeline to move water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Wyoming to the Colorado Front Range…

Dils said he has served on the Arkansas Basin Round Table as a recreational-environmental representative since its inception…

Dils said the committee’s task is to study all related issues, but “it’s not a process of determining whether the project is good or bad.” Effects to Western Slope water providers, environmental impacts to endangered fish in the Green River and the effects of water leaving the gorge are a few issues, he said.

So far, Dils has attended one meeting and said about four more are planned. He said anticipation is for study completion in the fall.

More Flaming Gorge Pipeline coverage here and here.

Moffat County: The COGCC is requiring baseline testing of groundwater as a condition for most permits in the Niobrara shale play

From the Craig Daily Press (Joe Moylan):

Although groundwater testing is currently done on a voluntary basis by the energy industry, Kerr said the COGCC will mandate baseline testing of water wells, groundwater aquifers and springs as a condition of drilling permit approval.

The circumstances under which baseline testing must occur varies, Kerr said. Sometimes the COGCC requires groundwater testing based on the recommendations of local government officials, as was the case in the Raton Field of southeastern Colorado, the Piceance Basin near Rifle and the San Juan Basin outside of Durango. “In the San Juan Basin we wanted to do testing because they are working shallow coal seams, which are very close to the ground water aquifers,” Kerr said…

“We like to have baseline testing done in areas that are new to exploration and development,” Kerr said. “That part of the Niobrara is right in the midst of the exploration play, and we have made (baseline) testing a requirement for most of the companies working there.”

So far, the big players in Moffat County are Shell Oil Company, Quicksilver Resources and Gulfport Energy…

Baseline testing is simply choosing water wells near a proposed drill site and checking for the presence of certain chemicals and natural gas. Chemical presence may occur naturally along with natural gas, but companies are required to return to water well test sites a year after drilling is complete to see if chemical or natural gas levels have changed. In some instances, companies may be required to return to test water wells again three and six years after drilling is complete.

More oil and gas coverage here and here.

Stacy Tellinghuisen (Western Resource Advocates): ‘The Flaming Gorge Pipeline is a zombie’

Western Resource Advocates (Jason Bane) sent this release via email:

In an unusual denial report, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) officially dismissed a preliminary permit application for the Flaming Gorge Pipeline this morning. This marks the second federal agency to dismiss an application from Aaron Million (in July 2011, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers terminated its review of the pipeline proposal) and casts new doubts on whether the State of Colorado should continue to spend taxpayer money studying the flawed plan.

“The Flaming Gorge Pipeline is a zombie,” said Stacy Tellinghuisen, Water & Energy Policy Analyst at Western Resource Advocates. “It’s just staggering around looking for anything to latch onto to keep it alive, while everyone else is running away screaming.”

In its order dismissing a preliminary permit application from Aaron Million and Wyco Power and Water, Inc., FERC was clear that the project is nowhere near being ready for even an introductory review:

“Until some certainty regarding the authorization of the pipeline is presented, Wyco will not be able to gather and obtain the information required to prepare a license application for a proposed hydropower project. Therefore, there is no purpose under the FPA for issuing a permit to Wyco for its proposed hydropower project at this time. For this reason, Wyco’s preliminary permit application is dismissed as premature.”

Said Robert Harris, Staff Attorney with Western Resource Advocates: “I can’t recall ever seeing a similar decision. The rejection here isn’t being made on minor technical deficiencies, which is what happens most commonly. We’re pleased with this ruling because it essentially acknowledges that there are significant, fundamental holes in the basic premise of the pipeline proposal.”

The decision from FERC that the pipeline is not ready for additional review should inform other studies on this project, including discussion via an “exploratory committee” funded by the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB ) last fall. Governor John Hickenlooper should take a new look at the necessity of continuing to use taxpayer-funded resources to explore the Flaming Gorge Pipeline.

“There are a lot of local governments, nonprofit organizations and individual stakeholders who came to this same conclusion a long time ago,” said Becky Long with Colorado Environmental Coalition. “The Flaming Gorge Pipeline idea just doesn’t make sense no matter how many different times you look at it, and that’s not going to change.”

Million had been seeking a federal permit from FERC to review his ‘Flaming Gorge Pipeline’ (FGP) proposal to pump 81 billion gallons of water a year for more than five hundred (500) miles from the Green River in Wyoming to the Front Range of Colorado—all at a projected cost of $9 billion dollars (according to CWCB calculations). Western Resource Advocates (WRA) filed objections to the application in representing itself, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) and the Colorado Environmental Coalition (CEC); in total, more than 5,000 objections were filed in December 2011 to Wyco’s proposal.

Opposition to the Flaming Gorge Pipeline has continued to grow since December. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead has formally objected to the proposal, as have numerous local governments in both Colorado and Wyoming (such as Grand Junction, CO and Laramie, WY).

For More Information on the Flaming Gorge Pipeline, go to: http://www.westernresourceadvocates.org/water/pipeline/million.php

To read the FERC denial in full, go to: http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/common/OpenNat.asp?fileID=12900017.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Flaming Gorge pipeline: Aaron Million plans to try again for a FERC permit for the project

From the Associated Press via The Pueblo Chieftain:

…Million says he’ll resubmit the application in a couple of weeks. The commission said Million’s application was premature because there is no pipeline and no specifics about the proposed pipeline. Million says he sees FERC’s objections as relatively minor…

The idea has drawn strong opposition from the state of Wyoming, local governments and various conservation groups…

Million this week issued a request for proposals to permit and build the project. He said he plans to continue working to develop the project and resubmit the application with updated information.

More coverage from the Associated Press via The Columbus Republic:

Opponents of the proposal, which include the state of Wyoming, hope any subsequent applications meet the same demise. “FERC is still going to have to consider public comment, and I think maybe this guy’s not listening to what people are trying to tell him,” Green River Mayor Hank Castillon said.

The commission on Thursday issued an order through Jeff Wright, director of FERC’s office of energy projects, saying Million’s application was premature and lacked specifics about the proposed pipeline.

Opponents hailed the decision while Million downplayed its significance…

The state of Wyoming, local governments and various groups have opposed the plan, worrying it would draw down Flaming Gorge Reservoir, which is fed mainly by the Green River. They maintain recreation, the local economy and the environment would all be hurt. “This is a pipeline that’s going to devastate the Green River,” said McCrystie Adams, staff attorney for Earthjustice…

Steve Jones, watershed protection program attorney with the Wyoming Outdoor Council in Lander, said the “hydropower part of this project was more sort of a subterfuge than anything else” in order for Million to avoid going through the Army Corps of Engineers. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead also questioned whether FERC was the proper agency to handle the permitting.

Thursday’s FERC order did not specifically say it was not the proper agency to review the project, but it noted that it could not properly consider Million’s application because no pipeline exists and there was no information from Million about seeking authorization for a pipeline.

More coverage from Bruce Finley writing for The Denver Post. From the article:

“The Flaming Gorge Pipeline is a zombie. It’s just staggering around looking for anything to latch onto to keep it alive,” said Stacy Tellinghuisen, a Western Resources Advocates energy policy analyst. But Aaron Million says he’s undaunted and soliciting bids after investing millions in planning the pipeline. He’ll submit new engineering and pipeline details within two weeks.

And Parker water manager Frank Jaeger is moving ahead with a rival project to divert water from Wyoming. Jaeger says he has 19 water utilities committed — mostly in southern suburbs dependent on depleted underground aquifers. State natural resources planners also are exploring possibilities for diverting unallocated water from Wyoming and have planned a forum featuring both Million and Jaeger…

[Population growth] control is one possibility, said Zeke Hersh, owner of Blue River Anglers in Frisco, part of a recreation-oriented business coalition opposed to a permit for Million’s project. “Growth’s great, but we need jobs. People come here for a reason and, if there’s no water in rivers, people aren’t going to be coming here.”[…]

Meanwhile Jaeger, manager of the Parker Water and Sanitation District, has enlisted 19 public water providers in Cheyenne, Castle Rock, Parker and elsewhere around south metro Denver who have committed to buy 105,000 acre-feet of diverted water. Jaeger said he’ll complete a full investigation before applying for permits. “Conservation is not the solution. Conservation is a management tool.”

A state task force, launched last year using funding from the Colorado Water Conservation Board, is exploring water diversions from Wyoming despite opposition from Wyoming’s governor. Task force leaders invited Million and Jaeger to discuss their ideas on March 27. “FERC’s action does not affect Colorado’s plans, which at this stage are simply to learn more about the project proposal as part of our ongoing conversation about addressing the challenge of meeting the state’s long-term water needs,” state natural resources spokesman Todd Hartman said.

More coverage from Troy Hooper writing for the Colorado Independent. From the article:

“Our region’s economy depends upon river flows that can support recreation and tourism,” said Arvin Ramgoolam, owner of Rumors Coffee and Townie Books in Crested Butte. “The state should be working to protect and promote jobs out here rather than pursuing dead end projects that will rob the resources on which our jobs depend,” Ramgoolam said.

The Colorado Water Conservation Board recently funded a “project exploration committee” that is considering the Flaming Gorge pipeline. The task force held its first meeting Jan. 12 in Silverthorne, and is scheduled to continue meeting to discuss the pipeline through the end of the year…

A Western Resource Advocates study said the pipeline would deprive the Green River of almost a quarter of its flow, and result in a $58.5 million annual loss to the region’s recreation economy. The same study said it would produce the most expensive water ever seen in Colorado.

Protect the Flows, a coalition of over 370 businesses who depend upon the Colorado River system, says it is rounding up resolutions opposing the pipeline from local governments. “This is a victory for Colorado’s economy, the West Slope’s Economy, water users and our communities. It’s time to get past this proposal once and for all,” Mesa County Commissioner Steve Acquafresca said.

More coverage from Bob Berwyn writing for the Summit County Citizens Voice. From the article:

After the proposal faltered and languished in the early review stages by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Million suddenly tried to reinvent the pipeline as an energy project, switching the review process to the FERC.

The pipeline was controversial from day one, drawing opposition from the environmental community as well as from the Colorado River Water Conservation District, representing the Colorado Western Slope. The River District characterized the project as speculative and said there was no evidence that any of the projected users could pay for the pipeline. Environmental groups tabbed it as a boondoggle that would result in the most expensive water developement project ever in Colorado. The agency said it received more than 200 comments.

Proponent Aaron Million said his understanding is that FERC wanted more details on the exact route. He plans to resubmit his plans well within the 60-[day] rehearing period. “We’ll have something in within a couple of weeks. We’ve cowboyed through worse,” he said, describing the rejection as just another step in the permitting process.

More coverage from Bobby Magill writing for the Fort Collins Coloradoan. From the article:

Since Million’s company, Wyco Power and Water, submitted its application to FERC in September, the federal government’s chief hydropower regulator received hundreds of public comments from residents, city governments and a host of environmental groups in Wyoming and Colorado objecting to the pipeline partly because of the volume of water it would remove from the Green River and its possible impact on Fort Collins’ Soapstone Prairie Natural Area…

“These hydropower projects are exclusively dependent on water from the proposed water supply pipeline,” FERC Energy Projects Office Director Jeff Wright said in the agency’s dismissal letter Thursday. “However, this pipeline does not currently exist, and Wyco’s application does not provide any information about the timeline for seeking and obtaining the necessary authorizations for the construction and operation of such a pipeline.” Until the pipeline is built, permissions for its route obtained or the process to establish the pipeline’s route nearly completed, Million has no ability to provide the information necessary for FERC to issue him a permit, Wright said…

He said he’s so confident the project will move ahead that Wyco issued a request for proposals this week, “a $3 billion RFP for design-build-finance-operate.” “Our first call was out of Australia,” he said. “The big national and international engineering and construction firms have shown tremendous interest in this project. We’re getting calls from all over the world.”[…]

McCrystie Adams, an attorney for Earthjustice in Denver, called the pipeline a “water grab.” “This pipeline would have devastated the Green River – one of the West’s last great rivers – to enable unfettered development and sprawl. FERC made the right decision,” Adams said.

More coverage from Cathy Proctor writing for the Denver Business Journal. From the article:

FERC’s permission was needed for the pipeline’s water to be used to generate electricity. FERC isn’t the only federal agency to review the project. In May 2011, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers halted its review of the pipeline proposal. At the time, Million told the Corps that he was shifting the pipeline’s focus from moving water to generating electricity and was shifting his focus from the Corps’ permitting process to FERC.

More coverage from MJ Clark writing for the Wyoming Business Report. From the article:

The $7 billion, 501-mile long pipeline, the brainchild of Fort Collins businessman Aaron Million, had initially applied for a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. After working on the application for two years, the Corps cancelled his application on July 14, 2011. A number of claims about this pipeline proposal, such as the amount of power it could potentially generate and the water demand in Colorado necessitating such a project, are not backed by the facts on the ground and deserve further investigation, the corps said.

Million called reporters on July 15, 2011, announcing he would apply instead to the FERC, because of the potential hydro-power component of the project. At the time, he said the FERC application would shorten the time line “dramatically.”[…]

On Oct. 18, 2011 the FERC issued public notice of Wyco’s proposal. Motions to intervene were filed by conservationists, utility companies, outfitting associations, conservation districts and by Sweetwater County in Wyoming (home to both the Green River and most of Flaming Gorge). The pipeline was also opposed by the state of Wyoming. By January, more than 250 businesses from seven states had announced their opposition to the pipeline.

More coverage from Amy Joi O’Donoghue writing for the Deseret News. From the article:

[Aaron Million] added the agency seemed most uncertain over the location of the seven hydropower components in his proposal. “We thought we had addressed them, but obviously not well enough,” he said. “They left open the window to get the documentation that is needed.”

More coverage from Gary Harmon writing for The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. From the article:

“This is kind of a non-issue,” Million said, saying he expected the rejection. It won’t be difficult to provide “finality” about the pipeline routing or to complete an environmental report over the next 18 months, he said.

Hailing the decision as “a victory for West Slope communities and water users,” [Mesa County Commissioner Steve Acquafresca] said the pipeline poses a threat to Colorado’s water future and wellbeing.

The rejection “amounted to a pretty dramatic statement for a federal agency,” said Chris Treese, spokesman for the Colorado River Water Conservation District. It was as if the agency looked at the project and decided: “How many resources should we be spending on this?” Treese said.[…]

Grand Junction, Fruita, the [Colorado] River District and several other agencies in western Colorado all opposed the project…

“It’s a natural evolution of the development of water in the western U.S.,” Million said. To make it work, “You need to be as tough as they are on the Utah desert.”

Here’s a release from Earth Justice (McCrystie/Taylor McKinnon)

Today, a scheme to build the proposed Flaming Gorge Pipeline—one of the biggest, most environmentally damaging water projects in the history of the western United States—was dismissed by a federal agency. The pipeline would have devastated the Green River, one of the West’s last great rivers and a sanctuary for native fish and wildlife, and severely harmed the Colorado River downstream. The dismissal of the preliminary permit application by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is a significant setback for the plans of a private developer to turn water into profits.

“FERC made the right call,” said McCrystie Adams, Earthjustice staff attorney in Denver. “This proposal would have drained the Green River, placing local economies, recreation, fish and wildlife in jeopardy. We are confident that this project will never be approved. We will continue to oppose any project that threatens the West’s rivers and way of life like the Flaming Gorge proposal did.”

The applicant, Aaron Million, previously sought a permit for the pipeline from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps). In July of 2011, the Corps terminated its review of the project because the applicant missed multiple deadlines and did not provide information requested by the Corps. A few months later, the applicant redesigned the project to include some incidental hydropower components and requested review through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Despite the modifications, the project remained a huge energy hog—the proposal included at least nine air-polluting natural gas-fired pumping stations that would be required to pump the water uphill across Wyoming and over the Continental Divide. Million has acknowledged that pumping the water uphill would have used more energy than the project would have created through hydropower.

“It’s hard to imagine a worse idea, in this era of global warming, than burning fossil fuels to pump already-imperiled rivers hundreds of miles across mountains to fuel sprawl,” said Taylor McKinnon with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Today’s decision is a victory for rivers, endangered fish and people—a victory we hope proves fatal for the pipeline proposal.”

A coalition of 10 conservation groups from Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Arizona, the Colorado River Protection Coalition, intervened in the FERC review of the pipeline project. The coalition, represented by Earthjustice, called upon FERC to deny the permit on numerous grounds.

The coalition’s lead argument—and the one that FERC adopted in its decision—was that the pipeline was a water supply project requiring environmental review and approval of a massive pipeline and diversion, not merely a “hydropower project,” and thus FERC’s involvement in the process was premature. The Colorado River Protection Coalition argued that the pipeline was unlikely to gain necessary approvals due to the irrevocable harm to the Green and Colorado Rivers and other extreme environmental damage that would be associated with the pipeline’s construction and operation. Specifically, the proposed Flaming Gorge Pipeline would likely violate the Endangered Species Act, would adversely affect four national wildlife refuges, and would be located in a U.S. Forest Service roadless area, in addition to a number of other impacts.

Earthjustice is representing Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Wyoming Outdoor Council, Save the Poudre: Poudre Waterkeeper, Living Rivers: Colorado Riverkeeper, Utah Rivers Council, Rocky Mountain Wild, Citizens for Dixie’s Future, and Glen Canyon Institute.

Here’s a short audio clip from Wyoming Governor Matt Mead commenting on the FERC action.

More Flaming Gorge Pipeline coverage here and here.

Flaming Gorge pipeline: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission dismisses preliminary permit application in surprising announcement

Download the FERC order here http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/common/OpenNat.asp?fileID=12900017.

Here’s the release from Western Resource Advocates (Jason Bane):

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has officially dismissed a preliminary permit application for the Flaming Gorge Pipeline in an order released this morning. This marks the second federal agency to dismiss an application from Aaron Million; in July 2011, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers terminated its review of the pipeline proposal.

“The Flaming Gorge Pipeline is no closer to reality today than it was 10 years ago,” said Stacy Tellinghuisen, Water & Energy Policy Analyst at Western Resource Advocates. “This denial essentially says that the pipeline proposal is nowhere near being ready for even a preliminary permit. We have always argued that there is no reason to spend taxpayer resources studying such a flawed idea, and we are pleased to see today’s ruling.”

Aaron Million, President of Wyco Power and Water, Inc., was seeking a federal permit from FERC to review his ‘Flaming Gorge Pipeline’ (FGP) proposal to pump water more than five hundred (500) miles from the Green River in Wyoming to the Front Range of Colorado—at a projected cost of $7-9 billion dollars. Western Resource Advocates (WRA) filed objections representing itself, the National Parks Conservation Association and the Colorado Environmental Coalition.

For More Information on the Flaming Gorge Pipeline, go to:
http://www.westernresourceadvocates.org/water/pipeline/million.php.

To read the FERC denial in full, go to: http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/common/OpenNat.asp?fileID=12900017

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Piceance Basin: Bopco LP hopes to build a water treatment plant for produced water

From the Oil and Gas Journal:

The US Bureau of Land Management is seeking public comments on a proposed water treatment plant west of Meeker, Colo., to treat produced water from oil and gas activity in the Piceance Basin and discharge it into Yellow Creek. BLM will accept comments through Mar. 6 for an environmental assessment it is preparing for Bopco LP’s proposed project, the agency’s Meeker field office said on Feb. 6. It said that the proposed facility would treat up to 24,000 b/d of produced water from the Fort Worth, Tex., independent producer’s Yellow Creek natural gas field and discharge up to 18,000 b/d into Yellow Creek.

Bopco already has acquired a discharge permit from the state government but will need to reach a separate agreement with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Service to construct power lines across state land before the project is approved, BLM said.

More oil and gas coverage here and here.

Flaming Gorge pipeline opposition talking point: Outdoor recreation supports 52,000 jobs in Wyoming

From the Wyoming Business Report (Wyoma Groenenberg):

The group said it has gathered resolutions from West Slope governments opposing the pipeline, which is proposed to transport 80 billion gallons of water annually, which could negatively impact the region’s recreation industry. The coalition plans to lobby Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper to drop the project…

Protect the Flows plans to spend the year reminding Hickenlooper and state officials that public resources would be better spent on more affordable solutions that support recreation industry jobs, such as improving water conservation efforts, water reuse and recycling, and better land-use planning and growth management.

Outdoor recreation supports 52,000 jobs in Wyoming, according to the January edition of the Wyoming Business Report. That means that about 1 in 11 Wyoming residents works in that industry. In Colorado, about 107,000 jobs are in outdoor recreation, according to a 2006 economic impact report from the Outdoor Industry Association.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Basin Roundtable Project Exploration Committee: Flaming Gorge — summary of January 12 meeting

Here’s the link to the summary document from the meeting. My thanks to facilitator Heather Bergman for forwarding it in email. Here’s a tidbit:

During the December Committee meeting, the Committee agreed to reach out to various stakeholder organizations in an effort to fill the open seats for agriculture, environmental, and recreational representatives. As directed by the Committee, Heather contacted the Colorado Agricultural Water Alliance (CAWA) and invited them a) to determine if there is a need for additional agricultural representation on the Committee and, if so, b) to nominate individuals to fill up to two allotted seats. In response, CAWA identified Gene Manuello to fill one seat and is working to find another available representative to fill the second.

On behalf of the Committee, Heather sent out letters to the environmental and recreational groups identified in the December meeting inviting each group to nominate up to two representatives to serve on the Committee. A conference call was held on January 6th for each stakeholder group to discuss and develop their representative nominations. The environmental conference call was attended by seven people. Several environmental stakeholder groups invited to participate in the nomination conversation declined for various reasons. The recreation conversation also had limited participation. However, from these conversations, it was determined that Chuck Wanner will fill the West Slope environmental seats with the hope that (if still willing and available) Bob Streeter will fill the Front Range environmental seat. Reed Dils and Ken Neubecker will fill the Front Range and West Slope recreational seats respectively. These representatives (as well as others engaged in the nomination conversations) wanted to stress that while they are filling specifically identified seats as Committee members, they do not represent the views of the environmental or recreational “communities” at large; they are serving as individuals on the Committee in order to represent overarching environmental and recreational interests.

More Flaming Gorge Task Force coverage here.

The Northwest Colorado Council of Governments has released a report about the importance of water to Colorado’s headwaters counties

From the Sky-Hi Daily News (Tonya Bina):

The Front Range benefits from spending associated with the fishing industry, for example, by as much as 57 percent, even though fishing takes place largely in the streams, rivers, lakes and reservoirs of the headwater counties.

The economic impact of fishing in the Colorado River Drainage headwaters counties — Routt, Grand, Eagle, Pitkin and Gunnison counties — equates to about 14 percent of the overall fishing expenditures. The remainder is attributed to other parts of Colorado.

And it’s important to note, the sport of fishing like other river recreation that attracts tourism to the state has minimal consumptive water use (water taken from rivers and never returned), the study emphasizes.

Snow-making for skiing, for example, has about 20 percent consumptive water use; transmountain water diversions are 100 percent consumptive.

“Colorado is continuing to look to the headwaters for growth; our message is you cannot dry up your headwater counties,” said Grand County Commissioner James Newberry, who is the chair of the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments Water Quality and Quantity Committee and the vice chair of the Colorado River Water Conservation District.

More transmountain/transbasin diversions coverage here.

Brian Werner: ‘Tell me when the next big drought comes, and you’re going to see people screaming about storage’

From the Fort Collins Coloradoan (Bobby Magill):

“Tell me when the next big drought comes, and you’re going to see people screaming about storage,” said Brian Werner, spokesman for the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District in Berthoud. “Their willingness (to consider building new reservoirs) ebbs and flows based on when your last drought was.”

The uncertainty about the mountain snowpack, which fluctuates every year, is the primary argument for building new reservoirs in the West, said Reagan Waskom, director of the Colorado Water Institute at Colorado State University. “The amazing thing is, it comes down to three or four big storms every year, whether they get them, or they bypass us,” he said…

One of five major proposed water storage projects in Larimer County that are in various stages of planning, [Northern Integrated Supply Project] calls for storing about 170,000 acre-feet of Poudre River water in the proposed Glade Reservoir north of Ted’s Place. A final decision could come sometime in 2013 or 2014…

The other four proposed projects include expansions to Fort Collins’ Halligan Reservoir and Greeley’s Seaman Reservoir, the Chimney Hollow Reservoir west of Carter Lake and the more uncertain Cactus Hill Reservoir proposed for a site on the Weld County line between Wellington and Nunn. If those projects are built, Waskom said, it’s hard to conceive of other such large projects being built in Northern Colorado regardless of the need because there are few other places to build them, at least in Larimer County. “Unless we can get Aaron Million’s project or a West Slope diversion built, we don’t have any more water left,” he said…

“All the easy projects have been built,” [Waskom] said. “Now we’re dealing with the hard projects. What comes after the projects, that’s the question, right? Where’s the water and reservoir sites, and where’s the political will to build projects?”

More infrastructure coverage here.

Frank Jaeger: ‘The CWCB, in the face of a high-profile, professionally orchestrated lobbying campaign, kept its promise to consider all options,’ with the Flaming Gorge pipeline

I caught up with Mr. Jaeger at this week’s Colorado Water Congress 2012 Annual Convention on Thursday. He told me that the Colorado-Wyoming Coalition has the customers signed up for the water so that there is little question that the group will meet the “can and will” provisions in the permitting process. He also says that the coalition’s estimates of costs for building the project are between two and three billion dollars. In addition they plan to use existing storage in southeastern Wyoming with their partners there.

I got to chat briefly with Aaron Million as well. He is positive that the project, now modeled after the Lake Powell Pipeline to the St. George, Utah area, is on track and will pass environmental muster.

Here’s a report Chris Woodka writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. Here’s an excerpt:

The Colorado- Wyoming Coalition this week wrote to state water officials confirming its interest in a Flaming Gorge pipeline. The group represents 550,000 people in five Colorado and three Wyoming cities or water districts…

“The CWCB, in the face of a high-profile, professionally orchestrated lobbying campaign, kept its promise to consider all options, including new projects that have some level of support and appear worth examining,” Frank Jaeger, manager of Parker Water and Sanitation District, wrote…

Jaeger said a pipeline project could help both Wyoming and Colorado develop what is left of each state’s allocation under the compact. “This project is a bi-state effort that provides an approach for two upper basin states to develop a portion of our compact entitlement in a collaborative manner,” Jaeger said.

More Colorado-Wyoming Coalition coverage here.

Flaming Gorge task force meeting recap

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

The task force met Thursday at Silverthorne to organize its work over the next six months. Members from the Arkansas River basin include Gary Barber, chairman of the roundtable; Betty Konarski, former mayor of Monument; and Reed Dils, who is representing environmental and recreation interests. Other members represent roundtables from throughout the state, as well as various water interests. “Today, we went through a lengthy discussion of protocols and got to know each other,” Barber said. “We decided which documents, reports and studies we need to look at.”

The group agreed to review preliminary findings with the roundtables before hosting larger public meetings, and to invite the project’s proponents and Wyoming water interests to address the task force.

More Flaming Gorge task force coverage here.

Flaming Gorge pipeline: Conservations groups urge the IBCC to suspend their evaluation effort

Here’s the release from Western Resource Advocates (Jason Bane):

Conservation leaders from across the West today encouraged the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) to suspend examination of the so-called ‘Flaming Gorge Pipeline’ and focus its efforts on water supply and conservation efforts that are both more realistic and cost-effective.

“The Flaming Gorge Pipeline is a bad idea that is never going to make sense for Colorado, and no amount of debate is going to change this very basic fact,” said Bart Miller, Water Program Director at Western Resource Advocates. “There isn’t enough lipstick in the world to make this pig more presentable.”

Today [Thursday, January 12] is the first meeting of ‘The Flaming Gorge Pipeline Task Force,” which was convened by the CWCB to further discuss a proposal to pump water more than five hundred (500) miles from the Green River in Wyoming to the Front Range of Colorado. Western Resource Advocates (WRA) is just one of numerous conservation groups that declined invitations to take part in the ‘task force’ to study a project that CWCB estimates would cost some $9 billion to complete.

“We declined invitations to participate in further discussions about the pipeline project because it distracts from realistic proposals that Colorado can undertake now,” said Miller. “The public doesn’t want the pipeline, elected officials don’t like it, and we can’t afford it. We need to move on to other ideas.”

The pipeline proposal has already encountered widespread opposition. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead has formally objected to the proposal, as have cities and counties across Colorado and Wyoming (from Rock Springs, Green River and Sweetwater County in Wyoming, to Mesa County and the City of Grand Junction in Colorado). A survey conducted by the sportsmen’s group Trout Unlimited in Fall 2011 showed that nearly 80% of Wyoming residents opposed the pipeline.

“Like most conservation groups, we encourage cooperative decision making for Colorado’s water needs,” said Becky Long of the Colorado Environmental Coalition, which also declined to participate in the ‘task force’. “At the same time, it is incumbent of any responsible organization to recognize when an idea has run its course. Nobody should spend any more time or money beating their heads against this particular wall.”

Many regional conservation groups are already supporting existing proposals for water availability, such as ‘Prairie Waters’ in Aurora; Chatfield Reservoir re-allocation; the WISE water project; and the ‘Super Ditch’ in Southern Colorado. These projects represent just a partial list of water plans that can be pursued now and in the near future – projects that should be prioritized over pipe(line) dreams.

Aaron Million, President of Wyco Power and Water, Inc., is seeking a federal permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to review his proposal for a pipeline project, which has become something of a test case for any similar proposals in the future. More than 5,000 comments from citizens, governments and non-profit organizations were formally submitted to FERC in December 2011; out of more than 5,000 submissions1, only 1 (one) was supportive of the idea.

For More Information on the Flaming Gorge Pipeline, go to:
http://www.westernresourceadvocates.org/water/pipeline/million.php

More Basin Roundtable Project Exploration Committee: Flaming Gorge process coverage here. More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Basin Roundtable Project Exploration Committee: Flaming Gorge process meeting Thursday in Silverthorne

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

The task force is scheduled to meet from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday at the Silverthorne Town Pavilion to identify interests, existing studies and priorities as it works to complete a report to the state by June. The task force was formed last year at the request of the Arkansas Basin and Metro roundtables to evaluate proposals to build the 500-mile pipeline. First proposed by Fort Collins entrepreneur Aaron Million, the idea is also being studied by the Colorado-Wyoming Coalition…

[John Stulp, Gov. John Hickenlooper’s water policy adviser] explained that the task force will not endorse a Flaming Gorge project, but will identify the issues that are associated with any large-scale diversion from the Colorado River to the Front Range…

“It is important that the idea for the task force came from two roundtables that thought they needed more information,” Stulp said. “While this task force is looking specifically at Flaming Gorge, the information gathered will be applicable to other transfers out of the Colorado River, and will work toward answering the question of how much is left for Colorado to develop.”

Here’s the draft agenda for the meeting. Here’s the December 13 meeting summary.

More Basin Roundtable Project Exploration Committee: Flaming Gorge process coverage here. More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Colorado River Basin: What are the reasonable water management options and strategies that will provide water for people, but also maintain a healthy river system?

Here’s a guest commentary written by Eric Kuhn, David Modeer and Fred Krupp running in The Denver Post. The trio are issuing a call to arms of sort, asking for input for the Colorado River Basin Study. Here’s an excerpt:

Management of the Colorado River is a complex balancing act between the diverse interests of United States and Mexico, tribes, the seven basin states, individual water users, stakeholders, and communities. The challenges posed by new growth and climate change may dwarf anything we faced in the past. Instead of staring into the abyss, the water users, agencies, and stakeholder groups that make managing the Colorado River responsibly their business are working together, using the best science available to define the problem, and looking for solutions.

We’re calling our inquiry the Colorado River Basin Study, and we want your help. As Colorado River management professionals, we have a lot of knowledge and ideas, but we know that we don’t have them all. We want ideas from the public, from you, but we need your input by February 1. You can submit your suggestions by completing the online form at: http://on.doi.gov/uvhkUi.

The big question we need to answer is: What are the reasonable water management options and strategies that will provide water for people, but also maintain a healthy river system? We don’t believe there’s a single silver bullet that will resolve all of our challenges. We want to continue to explore the benefits and costs of every possibility, from conservation to desalination to importing water from other regions.

The West was built on innovation and hard work, and that spirit is still strong. Our landscapes and communities are unparalleled in their beauty, resilience, and character. The economic well-being of our rural and urban communities in the Colorado River basin is inextricably linked to Colorado River and its environmental health.

That’s why we are asking for the public’s input to help us craft a study showing a path forward that supplies our communities with the water they need to thrive and protects the health of the Colorado River-and the ecosystems and economies it supports.

More Colorado River basin coverage here.

Jim Pokrandt: ‘The River District’s [motion to intervene] also cites the [Flaming Gorge pipeline] as speculative with relatively small demands’

From email from the Colorado River District (Jim Pokrandt):

Update: Here’s the release from the Colorado River District website.

The Colorado River District is opposing a proposed Flaming Gorge Reservoir pipeline project through a motion to intervene with a federal regulatory agency that is reviewing the plan to pump water from the Wyoming reservoir to the Front Range of Colorado.

Fort Collins, Colo., businessman Aaron Million is proposing a 560-mile pipeline, the Regional Water Supply Project (RWSP), which would carry up to 250,000 acre feet of water. It is under review by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for its power-generating aspects. The River District’s motion to intervene says, “The volume of water at issue would adversely impact existing users of Colorado’s entitlement to the waters of the Colorado River, and could usurp the remainder of the state’s compact allocation.”

Although the water would be taken out of the Colorado River system from the Green River, a tributary with Wyoming headwaters, under the Colorado River Compact of 1922, the amount still counts against Colorado’s limited ability to use the river.

The River District’s motion also cites the RWSP as “speculative” with “relatively small demands – nowhere near the volume claimed by the RWSP. Moreover, none of the projected water users have demonstrated the ability to pay for the enormous cost of the project.” The RWSP also threatens the ability of the Colorado River District, the state of Colorado and other public entities to plan for the development of the state’s remaining entitlement to the Colorado River in a “responsibly conservative matter,” the motion states.

Other objections include:

– The need first for the Colorado Water Conservation Board to complete its Colorado River Water Availability Study;
– The need for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to complete is Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study;
– The need for Colorado’s West Slope to finalize its own consumptive and nonconsumptive studies; and
– The need for there to be interstate and intrastate agreements on how the water would be managed under the Prior Appropriation System.

More coverage from the Associated Press via The Billings Gazette. From the article:

Colorado River District officials are telling regulators the cost for the pipeline, which would stretch more than 500 miles, will be “enormous.” They also say the proposal could cause Colorado to use up its allocation of Colorado River system water under a multistate compact and hurt existing users of that water. Million contends there’s enough water available for his proposal. Federal and state studies on Colorado River water availability aren’t complete yet.

More coverage from Ken Green writing for the Denver Examiner. From the article:

The Center for Biological Diversity said that “online action alerts” issued by it and another environment advocacy group, Earthjustice, prompted the flood of public comments to the Regulatory Commission from members of the public who oppose construction of the 500-mile pipeline they claim would be “disastrous” to the ecosystem of the Green River, including the Colorado pikeminnow, the humpback chub and razorback sucker, as well as damage the communities whose economy is based on the river…

The current proposed project would require Wyco to construct natural-gas fired pumping stations (“at least nine”, said the Center) to pump the water over the Continental Divide. The Center claims that even Wyco officials acknowledge that the energy needed to pump the water over the divide would be greater than the project might create through hydropower

From the Summit County Citizens Voice (Bob Berwyn):

According to the River District’s motion, the project is speculative and, thus far, none of the projected users have shown an ability to pay for the expensive project…

“The volume of water at issue would adversely impact existing users of Colorado’s entitlement to the waters of the Colorado River, and could usurp the remainder of the state’s compact allocation,” the River District wrote in its motion to intervene. Although the water would be taken out of the Colorado River system from the Green River, a tributary with Wyoming headwaters, under the Colorado River Compact of 1922, the amount still counts against Colorado’s limited ability to use the river.

The River District also said the pipeline threatens the ability of the Colorado River District, the state of Colorado and other public entities to plan for the development of the state’s remaining entitlement to the Colorado River in a “responsibly conservative matter.”

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Taylor McKinnon: ‘Burning fossil fuels to pump river water across 500 miles to feed urban sprawl is a ludicrous idea — and that’s what the public told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this week’

Here’s a release from the Center for Biological Diversity (Taylor McKinnon/McCrystie Adams):

More than 5,000 public comments were sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this week opposing the proposed Flaming Gorge Pipeline, which would pump more than 250,000 acre-feet of water annually over 500 miles from Flaming Gorge Reservoir to Colorado’s Front Range. The project would suck massive amounts of water out of the Green and Colorado rivers in Utah, unleashing disastrous impacts on those river ecosystems, four species of endangered fish — the Colorado pikeminnow, humpback chub, razorback sucker and bonytail chub — and human communities dependent on those rivers. The commission is currently evaluating whether to grant a preliminary permit for the project.

“Burning fossil fuels to pump river water across 500 miles to feed urban sprawl is a ludicrous idea — and that’s what the public told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this week,” said Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s hard to imagine a worse proposal for the already over-allocated Colorado River system that’s beset by a warming climate, declining flows and disappearing native fish populations.”

This week’s public comments come on the heels of formal intervention in the commission’s process filed last week by the Colorado River Protection Coalition — a coalition of 10 conservation groups, including the Center. The coalition asserts that the Flaming Gorge Pipeline is unlikely to be permitted because it would likely violate the Endangered Species Act and adversely affect four national wildlife refuges; part of the project would be located in a U.S. Forest Service roadless area. The coalition also argued that the permit should be denied because the applicant, Wyco, failed to meet several requirements during a previous attempt at permitting a nearly identical project with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The new batch of comments this week came from online action alerts created by the Center for Biological Diversity and Earthjustice.

“The opposition to this project is amazing,” said McCrystie Adams of Earthjustice. “The pipeline would devastate the Green River and severely harm the Colorado River downstream — the public is strongly speaking out against this pipeline scheme.”

Wyco previously sought a permit for the pipeline from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In July 2011 the Corps terminated its review of the project because Wyco missed multiple deadlines and did not provide information requested by the Corps. A few months later, Wyco redesigned the project to include some incidental hydropower components and requested review through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Despite the modifications, the project remains an energy hog — at least nine air-polluting, natural gas-fired pumping stations would be required to pump the water uphill across Wyoming and over the Continental Divide. Wyco’s president has acknowledged that pumping the water uphill would use more energy than the project would create through hydropower.

Since its inception, the Flaming Gorge Pipeline has met with opposition in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. The water would go to the Front Range of Colorado, which is projected to double in population in the next 50 years. Colorado is already a parched state with severely depleted rivers, while the majority of the water in Colorado’s cities is used to keep lawns green for three months in the hot, dry summer across sprawling suburban landscapes.

The coalition’s intervention comments can be downloaded here.

More coverage from Kathy Gilbert writing for the Green River Start. From the article:

The coalition contends that the project cost could reach as much as $9 billion and that Million has failed to demonstrate a need for the water with customers committed to paying for it if it could be delivered.

They also say preventing that much water from flowing into the Green River would hurt wetlands, birds, fish and the recreation economies of surrounding communities.

The coalition believes the pipeline is extremely unlikely to be permitted because it would likely violate the Endangered Species Act, would adversely affect four national wildlife refuges and part of the project would be located in a U.S. Forest Service roadless area…

“The water in the Green River is essential for the operation of many of Sweetwater County’s major industries including four trona mines and the Jim Bridger Power Plant,” the county’s letter states. The power plant relies on a constant stream of water piped from the Green River for use in its four cooling towers.

The county asserts that the Regional Watershed Supply Project and the effects it would have on the water supply in the Green River, would “dramatically impact Sweetwater County’s industrial base.”

The county also states 38,769 or the county’s 43,806 population rely on the river to provide potable water and fire suppression supplies.

Finally, the county suggests its tourism industry would be impacted because the Flaming Gorge Reservoir is the basis of a multi-million dollar tourism industry…

In the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s filing, they’re intervening with the purpose of ensuring its interests, including the protection of all Wyoming wildlife, is considered during the FERC process.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Deadline for Comments on Flaming Gorge Pipeline Closes with One Positive Note out of More Than 5,000 Objections

Here’s the release from Western Resource Advocates (Jason Bane):

If official public support for the ‘Flaming Gorge Pipeline’ (FGP) is any indication of its future potential, the project to pump water from Wyoming to Colorado won’t become a reality any time soon. Public comments and objections regarding the FGP were due to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) by Monday, Dec. 19, and out of more than 5,000 submissions, only 1 (one) was supportive of the idea.

“The question here is obvious: If virtually nobody took the time to argue here that the pipeline is a good idea, why is any federal agency even considering a permit for this proposal?” said Western Resource Advocates Water Attorney Robert Harris. “Finding a supporter in the FERC filings is about as difficult as getting a perfect score on your SATs.”

Aaron Million, President of Wyco Power and Water, Inc., is seeking a federal permit from FERC to review his FGP proposal to pump water more than five hundred (500) miles from the Green River in Wyoming to the Front Range of Colorado. More than 5,000 comments from citizens, governments and non-profit organizations were formally submitted to FERC by Dec. 19, and only 1 comment – from a private citizen in Casper, WY – was supportive of the proposal. That comment represents roughly the same odds (.0002%) as an American high school student getting a perfect score on the SAT test.

Western Resource Advocates (WRA) submitted formal objections last week along with the Colorado Environmental Coalition and the National Parks Conservation Association. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead formally objected to the proposal, saying: “This project would cut a vast swath across southern Wyoming, with the potential for huge impacts in many significant sectors of our economy and aspects of critical resources to Wyoming and Colorado.”

Additional objections included those from:

– City of Rock Springs, WY
– City of Green River, WY
– Sweetwater County, WY
– Wyoming Game and Fish Department
– Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District, CO
– City of Colorado Springs, CO
– City of Ft. Collins, CO
– Daggett County, UT
– Utah Rivers Council
– Colorado River District
– Colorado River Outfitters Association

Public comments and ‘Motions to Intervene’ can be found at: http://elibrary.ferc.gov (docket # P-14263).

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
On September 1, 2011, Mr. Aaron Million of Wyco Power and Water, Inc. applied to FERC for a permit application for the Regional Watershed Supply Project proposal (generally referred to as the Flaming Gorge Pipeline, or FGP). Two months earlier, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers terminated its review of the project, citing Million’s failure to meet required deadlines to provide information. Wyco applied to FERC under the premise of reclassifying the FGP as a hydropower project, but because it is primarily a water-delivery system, FERC only has limited jurisdiction and cannot approve the entire project.

The FERC deadline for public comments and ‘Motions to Intervene’ is December 19, 2011. If FERC eventually decides to consider permitting for the FGP, it would begin a 3-year study period of the project. Before the FGP could begin to be constructed, Wyco would almost certainly need a permit from multiple additional federal agencies, such as the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. At some point, Wyco would also likely need to resubmit an application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

For More Information on the Flaming Gorge Pipeline, go to:
http://www.westernresourceadvocates.org/water/pipeline/million.php

To access FERC Submissions/Filings directly, go to:
http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20111013-5035

A footnote from the release reads: “The Center for Biological Diversity submitted 3,388 individual public comments, and Earthjustice submitted 1,706 public comments”

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Flaming Gorge pipeline: Mesa County Commissioners vote to oppose the project, Wyoming Game and Fish files motion to intervene with FERC

From the Associated Press via The Columbus Republic:

Mesa County commissioners in Colorado have joined those opposing a proposal to build a pipeline to carry water from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Wyoming to Colorado…

Mesa County commissioners voted 2-0 Monday, with a third commissioner out sick, to oppose the idea. The Daily Sentinel reports commissioners said the idea is ill-conceived, expensive, and could cause Colorado to use more water than it has been allocated under a multistate compact divvying up water in the Colorado River system.

Meanwhile, here’s a release Wyoming Governor Matt Mead outlining his opposition to the pipeline. Thanks to Sagebrush Sam’s (@SagebrushSam) Twitter feed for the link:

Governor Matt Mead sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) today. That letter expresses the Governor’s deep concern about the proposed water pipeline from the Green River in Wyoming to Colorado’s Front Range. Governor Mead’s comments are meant to protect Wyoming’s economy and resources and show the project is not feasible.

“This project would cut a vast swath across southern Wyoming, with the potential for huge impacts in many significant sectors of our economy and aspects of critical resources to Wyoming and Colorado,” Governor Mead wrote. He added, “The proponent has stated this project will cost $3 billion to construct but little is known about the future cost to consumers or others from such a massive project.”

FERC is considering a preliminary permit for this project, which is now billed as a hydroelectric endeavor. It had been before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers until the Corps withdrew the application earlier this year. The project applicant then took it to FERC. Governor Mead expressed concern that FERC is not the correct entity to review this proposal, “The proponent has, by all appearances, shifted federal permitting venues to short-circuit the regulatory process and/or sidestep fundamental issues. I do not believe FERC should be the lead or initial permitting agency for this project.”

In terms of Wyoming’s water rights, Governor Mead wrote that the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact must be given full consideration because no project can disrupt Wyoming’s potential to develop its remaining appropriation under that Compact. While most of the water for this project would supposedly come from whatever Colorado’s unused portion of the compact is Governor Mead noted, “The applicant is proposing use of 25,000 acre feet of water per year from Wyoming’s undeveloped allocation under the Compact, and Wyoming has not agreed to this allocation.”

Governor Mead also raised concerns about the impact on recreation opportunities in the Flaming Gorge and the Green River as well as impacts on endangered species recovery programs in the Green and Colorado Rivers.

Wyoming Game and Fish Department has also filed a notice of intervention with FERC.

More coverage from Jake Nichols writing for the JH Weekly. From the article:

“Although in its proposal a hydroelectricity angle has been attempted, it is important to note that hydroelectric production is a minor purpose of the project,” Mead wrote. “The project first, foremost and always is a water supply project.”

Wyoming Game and Fish Department, along with a host of environmental groups including the Sierra Club, Earthjustice and Utah Rivers Council have joined Mead in urging that FERC deny Million’s application.

More coverage from Bobby Magill writing for the Fort Collins Coloradoan. From the article:

[John] Stokes, director of the Fort Collins Department of Natural Resources, said entrepreneur Aaron Million’s Regional Watershed Supply Project, also known as the Flaming Gorge Pipeline, would be “highly detrimental” to the 22,000-acre Soapstone Prairie and nearby 26,500-acre Meadow Spring Ranch. Both are located near the Wyoming border.

Million, however, believes his own proposal showing the pipeline threading through those lands is a mistake which will be corrected.

In a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, which is permitting the pipeline, Stokes wrote last week that Million’s company, Wyco Power and Water, plans to construct the pipeline, hydroelectric power facilities and major electric transmission lines across Soapstone Prairie and Meadow Spring Ranch…

…FERC received about 200 comments or motions to intervene in the pipeline permitting process.

Of those, few supported the project, and the most vehement objections came from cities along the pipeline corridor, environmentalists and federal and local government agencies warning that the pipeline would have a tremendous impact on the Colorado and Green rivers, endangered species, national forests and natural areas such as Soapstone Prairie.

“The magnitude of disturbance from installing an underground pipeline and transmission lines across several miles of SPNA and MSR would be great, both in the short term and longer term,” Stokes said…

On Monday, Million said the map in the proposal submitted to FERC showing the pipeline routed through Soapstone Prairie and Meadow Springs Ranch was an error. “That’s an artifact of GIS,” he said. “We have no intention of going through the natural area. John (Stokes) asked it to be moved, and I said I would.”[…]

Robert Stewart, an environmental officer for the U.S. Department of Interior, urged officials to determine if climate change will reduce the water flow in the Green River before the pipeline is built. He added that water diversions out of the Colorado River Basin, of which the Green River is a part, have altered the flow downstream, and water diversions for the Flaming Gorge Pipeline could further harm four endangered fish species in the Colorado River…

In his letter of opposition, Green River, Wyo., Mayor Hank Castillon joined a chorus of Wyoming counties and towns objecting to the project, because, he said, “the Regional Watershed Supply Project will profoundly and negatively affect every citizen and business in this community.”

Other major organizations objecting to the pipeline include the Glenwood Springs-based Colorado River Water Conservation District, the Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District of Steamboat Springs, the Colorado River Outfitters Association, the Wyoming-based Coalition of Local Governments, several counties in Utah and Wyoming and a host of environmental groups, including Trout Unlimited, Save the Poudre, the Sierra Club and others.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Wyco Water and Power’s proposal to supply water for hydraulic fracturing is an insult to injury proposal for conservationists

Aaron Million has a history of trying to be all things to all people. At various times he’s said the Flaming Gorge pipeline will save agriculture in northeast Colorado, be environmentally friendly by using existing utility corridors, use natural gas for pumping instead of coal-generated power, etc. Last week he suggested that the project could supply the needed water for hydraulic fracturing. At least the oil companies could afford to pay the water haulers just about any price that he needs to charge to make a profit on his speculative venture. However, water providers in Weld County might object. The City of Greeley will sell about $1.4 million worth of water to oil companies this year, helping to keep rates down, according to their water manager, Jon Monson.

Last week ten conservation organizations filed the paperwork to intervene in the permit process now that the project has morphed into a hydroelectric generation project. Here’s a report from Deb Courson Smith writing for the Public News Service – Wyoming. From the article:

Duane Short, wild species program director with the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Laramie, is a spokesman for the coalition that has filed to intervene. “Probably the most local concern is the impact that this pipeline, which would consume some 81-billion gallons of water a year, would have on the Green River area water-sport and recreation industries.”

The list of objections is long, Short says. It includes violations of the Endangered Species Act, landscape destruction to build the pipeline, and downstream effects of removing so much water from the Green River, which connects to the Colorado River in Utah.

The company proposing the pipeline, Wyco Power and Water Inc., has touted its job-creation benefits and the fact that it includes hydropower construction plans. Short claims the hydropower was only added so FERC would look at the permit. He says the project will use much more power than it generates, because the water has to be pumped uphill across Wyoming and over the Continental Divide. The developer also recently announced that some of the water would be used for hydraulic fracturing (fracking). “With that type of history, and with all these other concerns that have been expressed in Wyoming, Colorado and even in Utah, to make this water available for fracking is sort of an ‘insult to injury’ type of proposal.”

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

McCrystie Adams, ‘The Flaming Gorge Pipeline would be one of the biggest, most environmentally damaging water projects in the history of the western United States’

As the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Monday deadline for comments on the proposed project approaches conservationists have galvanized their opposition to Aaron Million and Wyco Power and Water and the 500 mile pipeline. Western Resource Advocates, on Thursday, labeled it a boondoggle. Here’s a report from Chris Woodka writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

The Colorado River Protection Coalition, representing 10 environmental groups, also filed to intervene in the case.

“The Flaming Gorge Pipeline would be one of the biggest, most environmentally damaging water projects in the history of the western United States,” said McCrystie Adams of Earthjustice, the coalition’s lead attorney. “The pipeline would devastate the Green River, one of the West’s last great rivers and a sanctuary for native fish and wildlife, and severely harm the Colorado River downstream.”

Communities Protecting the Green River, which includes the cities of Green River and Rock Springs, Wyo. and Sweetwater County, Wyo., filed in opposition to the project earlier this week…

Million has said the pipeline is cost-competitive with other plans to import water and environmentally friendly because it would prevent worse impacts from occurring within Colorado.
The project also has attracted interest from Colorado and Wyoming municipalities, which have launched their own study of the project’s viability. They are awaiting revised water availability studies by the Bureau of Reclamation.

The Interbasin Compact Committee, formed by the Colorado Legislature in 2005 to sort out state water issues, at the request of member roundtables, has formed a task force to identify impacts of Flaming Gorge. The task force is being funded by the Colorado Water Conservation Board, over the objections of the environmental groups, as a model to develop a way to talk about statewide water projects.

Here’s the release from Earthjustice (McCrystie Adams/Gary Wockner/Steve Jones/Taylor McKinnon):

Today a coalition of 10 conservation groups from Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Arizona—the Colorado River Protection Coalition—moved to intervene in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) review of the Regional Watershed Supply Project, more commonly known as the Flaming Gorge Pipeline. FERC is currently evaluating a preliminary permit application for the Flaming Gorge Pipeline from Wyco Power and Water Inc. FERC allows members of the public with a stake in projects to intervene in preliminary permit proceedings, and the Colorado River Protection Coalition, represented by Earthjustice, has called upon FERC to deny the permit on numerous grounds.

“The Flaming Gorge Pipeline would be one of the biggest, most environmentally damaging water projects in the history of the western United States,” said McCrystie Adams of Earthjustice, the Coalition’s lead attorney. “The Pipeline would devastate the Green River, one of the West’s last great rivers and a sanctuary for native fish and wildlife, and severely harm the Colorado River downstream.”

In its intervention comments, the Colorado River Protection Coalition asserted that the Flaming Gorge Pipeline is extremely unlikely to be permitted because it would likely violate the Endangered Species Act, would adversely affect four national wildlife refuges, and part of the project would be located in a U.S. Forest Service roadless area. The Coalition also argued that the permit should be denied because the applicant failed to meet various requirements during a previous attempt at permitting a nearly identical project with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Further, the Coalition asserted that the Pipeline is an extremely environmentally damaging water supply project that would irrevocably harm the Green and Colorado Rivers, not a “hydropower project,” and thus FERC is not the appropriate agency to lead federal review of the proposal.

“The Flaming Gorge Pipeline would severely harm the Wyoming landscape it crosses,” said Steve Jones of the Wyoming Outdoor Council. “Our state’s heritage, wildlife, and economy are dependent on protecting roadless and wilderness areas.”

“Four endangered fish—the Colorado pikeminnow, humpback chub, razorback sucker, and bonytail chub—are dependent on the water this pipeline proposes to drain out of the Green and Colorado Rivers,” said Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity in Flagstaff, Arizona. “The pipeline would spell disaster for those fish and the river ecosystems we and they depend on. It’s a foolish proposal in the face of global warming and projected declines in river flows.”

“The Green River flows through Utah’s largest roadless area, provides 40 percent of the water entering the Colorado River at Lake Powell each year, and supports a world-famous trout fishery averaging 6,000–8,000 fish per mile” said Zach Frankel, executive director of the Utah Rivers Council. “This catastrophic proposal would not only mar these treasures, it would forever alter life in Utah.”

The applicant previously sought a permit for the Pipeline from a different federal agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps). In July of 2011, the Corps terminated its review of the project because the applicant missed multiple deadlines and did not provide information requested by the Corps. A few months later, the applicant redesigned the project to include some incidental hydropower components and requested review through FERC. Despite the modifications, the project remains a huge energy hog—at least nine air-polluting natural gas-fired pumping stations would be required to pump the water uphill across Wyoming and over the Continental Divide. Wyco’s president has acknowledged that pumping the water uphill would use more energy than the project would create through hydropower.

“We know this project would burn more energy than it produces,” said John Spahr of the Sierra Club. “Claiming it is a hydropower project is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to make an end-run around federal law.”

Since its inception, the extremely controversial Flaming Gorge Pipeline has met with great opposition in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. The water would go to the Front Range of Colorado which is projected to double in population in the next 50 years. Colorado is already a parched state with severely depleted rivers while the majority of the water in Colorado’s cities is used to keep lawns green for three months in the hot, dry summer across sprawling suburban landscapes.

Duane Short of Biodiversity Conservation Alliance noted, “The Coalition believes that Colorado and other western citizens are beginning to realize that unbridled consumption of water from our rivers and aquifers will leave our precious water resources depleted leading to even more severe water shortages for our children and grandchildren. We hope the public will work with us to prevent this shortsighted and irresponsible water grab.”

“The Flaming Gorge Pipeline would be a flaming disaster for Colorado,” said Gary Wockner of Save the Poudre: Poudre Waterkeeper. “The Pipeline would be a devastating step backwards for water supply policy and river protection in Colorado and the Southwest U.S.—our coalition will work as long and hard as it takes to stop this project.”

This Coalition’s intervention is one of several being filed by public interest groups and local communities. Over a hundred public comments urging FERC to deny the preliminary permit have already been filed before the deadline on Dec. 19th. Comments are posted on FERC’s website. (Search for Docket Number: P-14263.)

View a map of the pipeline’s proposed 550 mile route across Wyoming and down through Colorado.

Read the motion to intervene.

Meanwhile, Governor Matt Mead of Wyoming has submitted his comments on the pipeline. Here’s a report from Ben Neary writing for Associated Press via The Columbus Republic. From the article:

“This project would cut a vast swath across southern Wyoming, with the potential for huge impacts in many significant sectors of our economy and aspects of critical resources to Wyoming and Colorado,” Mead wrote…

“Although in its proposal a hydroelectricity angle has been attempted, it is important to note that hydroelectric production is a minor purpose of the project,” Mead wrote. “The project first, foremost and always is a water supply project.” Mead stated that it appears Million shifted federal agencies “to short-circuit the regulatory process and/or sidestep fundamental issues.”[…]

Mead stated that Million has not shown how much water Colorado is still entitled to under the Colorado River Compact. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates Flaming Gorge Reservoir, is working on a study of how much water, if any, it believes could be available for withdrawal there…

Mead wrote that Wyoming has been involved in efforts to recover endangered fish species on the Upper Colorado River for decades. He said the agency’s review must consider the likely effect on the fish both of the pipeline project as well as Wyoming’s possible future use of its share of water from the Green River. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department filed a separate request with FERC to intervene in the permit application to track the issue…

[Aaron Million] said he agrees federal regulators need to consider water supply issues as well as his project’s likely effect on wildlife and recreation.

More coverage from Amy Joi O’Donoghue writing for the Deseret News. From the article:

Since its inception, the controversial Flaming Gorge Pipeline has met with opposition in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. The water would go to the Front Range of Colorado which is projected to double in population in the next 50 years. Although the project would be privately financed, critics say the end water would be so publicly expensive it wouldn’t be viable. It also smacks at tapping water that river watchers say is already over allocated.

Million has said that the water his project proposes to take from the Green River in Wyoming is sustainable, according to a review of water resources by federal water managers with oversight of Flaming Gorge.

According to a Tweet from Jennifer Petersen (@BCAWY): “Last night [December 14], Laramie Council voted unanimously to oppose the Million pipeline & send in a letter intervening in the FERC permitting process.”

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Opposition to Wyco Water and Power’s Flaming Gorge Pipeline straddles the Colorado-Wyoming-Utah borders and includes the National Park Service

First up is a release from Western Resource Advocates calling the project a boondoggle:

Western Resource Advocates (WRA) announced that it is filing formal objections today with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regarding the proposed ‘Flaming Gorge Pipeline.’ The objections are being filed by WRA along with the Colorado Environmental Coalition and the National Parks Conservation Association.

“The Flaming Gorge Pipeline has more unanswered questions than a Presidential debate,” said WRA Water Attorney Robert Harris. “The bottom line is that there is no good reason for FERC to contemplate the proposal. The pipeline idea is getting messier by the day, and it’s not going to get cheaper or more realistic in the future.”

Aaron Million, President of Wyco Power and Water, Inc., is seeking a federal permit from FERC to review his ‘Flaming Gorge Pipeline’ (FGP) proposal to pump water more than five hundred (500) miles from the Green River in Wyoming to the Front Range of Colorado.

The objections to a potential FERC permit as filed by WRA focus on four points:

1. Ridiculously Expensive: The Colorado Water Conservation Board estimates that the project would cost $9 billion, which would easily qualify the FGP as the most expensive water project in Colorado history. The 2011 General Fund for the entire state of Colorado is about $7.4 billion.

2. Unnecessary and Illegal Water Hoarding: There is simply no need for the FGP. If it proceeded, the project would be open to charges of water hoarding [ed. speculation], which is against state law.

3. Against the Public Interest: There is no scenario in which the FGP could be completed in an
environmentally-safe manner, and there is widespread opposition to the proposal in both Wyoming
and Colorado. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, among others, has publicly condemned the project.

4. Wyco and Million are Unsuitable Applicants: Mr. Million and Wyco Power and Water have a history of missing deadlines and failing to provide complete information; in July 2011, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers terminated Million’s application for these reasons.

“The real shame of this entire process is that it is a distraction from discussions of much more reasonable and cost-effective water supply projects that Wyoming and Colorado can implement already,” said Stacy Tellinghuisen, Energy & Water Policy Analyst at WRA. “If Wyco or any other company wants to go off chasing unicorns, they should do it on their own time and their own dime.”

Becky Long, organizer for the Colorado Environmental Coalition, said: “Citizens across Colorado and Wyoming think this project is a bad idea. Multiple cities and counties in both states have publicly condemned the plan, and a recent survey by the sportsmen’s group Trout Unlimited showed that almost 80% of Wyoming residents opposed the proposal.”

The complete filing from WRA will be available this afternoon on the FERC website and at www.WesternResources.org.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
On September 1, 2011, Mr. Aaron Million of Wyco Power and Water, Inc. applied to FERC for a permit application for the Regional Watershed Supply Project proposal (generally referred to as the Flaming Gorge Pipeline, or FGP). Two months earlier, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers terminated its review of the project, citing Million’s failure to meet required deadlines to provide information. Wyco applied to FERC under the premise of reclassifying the FGP as a hydropower project, but because it is primarily a water-delivery system, FERC only has limited jurisdiction and cannot approve the entire project.

The FERC deadline for public comments and ‘Motions to Intervene’ is December 19, 2011. If FERC eventually decides to consider permitting for the FGP, it would begin a 3-year study period of the project. Before the FGP could begin to be constructed, Wyco would almost certainly need a permit from multiple additional federal agencies, such as the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. At some point, Wyco would also likely need to resubmit an application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

For More Information on the Flaming Gorge Pipeline, go to:
http://www.westernresourceadvocates.org/water/pipeline/million.php

To access FERC Submissions/Filings directly, go to:
http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20111013-5035

More coverage from Bruce Finley writing for The Denver Post. From the article:

Federal authorities deciding whether to grant a preliminary permit for the project proposed by Fort Collins entrepreneur Aaron Million have received more than 170 mostly negative comments on the proposal.

But Million said he’s undaunted. He said he’s talking with energy-industry representatives about using the water for oil and gas production. The pipeline to move up to 200,000 acre-feet of water a year could sustain water-intensive hydraulic-fracturing operations in Wyoming and Colorado, Million said. “We’ve heard rough figures of 15,000 to 20,000 acre-feet annually for fracking needs,” Million said. “If this new water supply helps with the fracking issues, then, without question, we would consider delivering water for the industry.”[…]

“A preliminary permit does not authorize construction or operation of a project,” federal regulatory commission spokeswoman Celeste Miller said. “All it does is give you priority over a site for three years to study feasibility.”[…]

The Colorado Environmental Coalition, National Parks Conservation Association and Western Resource Advocates on Thursday were filing formal objections to the project. Another coalition of 11 environmental groups, including Sierra Club, Wyoming Outdoor Council and Save the Poudre, also objected…

“If (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) takes on this application, they will be using taxpayer dollars and resources to look into the project,” [Stacy Tellinghuisen, an energy and water policy analyst for Western Resource Advocates] said. “This is a totally unrealistic project.”

Writer Bobby Magill posted a link to the City of Fort Collins letter to FERC on his website. Also, according the Magill’s Twitter feed (@bobbymagill), “DOI Comments on #FlamingGorgePipeline: NPS worries lower flows in Green River could hurt Dinosaur National Monument”

More coverage from Brandon Loomis writing for The Salt Lake Tribune. Here’s an excerpt:

A coalition of 10 conservation groups is seeking to intervene in a federal permitting process for a proposed pipeline that would take water from the Green River to Colorado’s Front Range…

Groups, including the Utah Rivers Council and the Wyoming Outdoor Council, formed the Colorado River Protection Coalition to advocate against the project, which they argue would imperil endangered fish and water rights in Utah. “This catastrophic proposal would not only mar these treasures, it would forever alter life in Utah,” said Zach Frankel, executive director of the Utah Rivers Council.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

‘Communities Protecting the Green River’ file objections to Wyco Water and Power’s proposed Flaming Gorge pipeline

From the Fort Collins Coloradoan (Bobby Magill):

Rock Springs, Wyo.-based Communities Protecting the Green River was the first to lodge objections to Fort Collins entrepreneur Aaron Million’s Regional Watershed Supply Project.

The group includes the cities of Green River and Rock Springs, Wyo. and Sweetwater County, Wyo.

“In reality, it is an investment scheme masquerading as a water supply project, which is masquerading as a pump-back hydropower project,” Don Hartley, the group’s vice-chairman, wrote in a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Dec. 9…

“This project is portrayed as a hydropower project, but pumping water over the Continental Divide will require more energy than can be generated from the fall of the water on the east side (of the divide),” Hartley wrote.

He added that consideration of such a massive water pipeline is premature because a federal study of the amount of water available to be consumed by growing communities in the Green River-Colorado River watershed is ongoing.

More coverage from the Associated Press via the Billings Gazette. Here’s an excerpt:

Many in western Wyoming say they’re concerned the project would draw down Flaming Gorge Reservoir. The city of Green River has joined the city of Rock Springs and Sweetwater County to fight Million’s proposal.

Green River Mayor Hank Castillon said Monday that residents are unified in opposition to the project. “They just don’t want to see Wyoming water going to Colorado,” Castillon said. “The main issues are recreational, and they feel that it’s going to affect their lifestyle as far as sporting events and water because we have the Flaming Gorge here also the fishing up and down the Green River, fish habitat.”[…]

Million filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this summer spelling out plans to construct a system of turbines and reservoirs along the pipeline to generate electricity. While he has said the project wouldn’t generate more electricity than pumping the water would consume, he said generation would help cover its pumping costs. He wants to construct a reservoir on the slopes of Sheep Mountain, west of Laramie, and generate electricity by pumping water into the reservoir and having it flow through turbines on its way downstream to another lake nearby, Lake Hattie…

Steve Jones, watershed protection program attorney with the Wyoming Outdoor Council in Lander, said his group is concerned with the prospect of such large-scale pumping out of the Green River. “It’s obvious to me that some years, there is not going to be any water available, and other years there might,” Jones said. “But to me, the idea that, that reservoir could supply that year in and year out, is just wrong, according to the statistics that I’ve looked at.”[…]

Duane Short, wild species program director with the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance in Laramie, said federal roadless policies would prohibit construction on Sheep Mountain…

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead has expressed opposition to Million’s project. His office said this week that the state plans to file comments with FERC.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Green River: The Sweetwater County Board of Commissioners unanimously adopt a resolution opposing the Flaming Gorge pipeline proposed by Wyco Power and Water

From the Green River Star (David Martin):

Wyco Power and Water Inc. filed a application for preliminary permit to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and FERC is seeking public comment about the proposal. The proposal would include hydroelectric power generating developments north of Green River, however it would also pump approximately 250,000 acre feet of water per year from the Green River basin, through eastern Wyoming and into Colorado’s Front Range.

According to the document, an imbalance greater than 3.5 million acre feet of water could exist over the next 50 years due to potential changes in climate. The commission argues that if such imbalances are possible, the water demands of local and regional entities should be placed above transbasin needs.

The commissioners also said the population of the Colorado River basin is rapidly growing, creating an increasing demand for water. However because of the population increases, they claim water needs for the Colorado Basin are not fully understood and allowing the project to move forward could compromise the potential for growth through the basin.

The commission’s resolution claims the water added to the Colorado River Basin could impact programs aimed to mitigate endangered species by altering the temperature and water quality of the river.

Finally, the resolution claims a proposed pump reservoir on White Mountain could compromise at least four high-pressure gas lines, fiber optics cables and the water line to the Jim Bridger Power Plant.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

The strategy of switching federal agencies for the permitting of the Flaming Gorge pipeline project may not lead to a faster approval

From WyoFile (Allen Best):

“(Million) has been suggesting that he could get this project done in a significantly shorter amount of time (through FERC). My [Matt Rice, director of Colorado conservation for American Rivers] first reaction is this: He’s totally forgetting about the federal hydropower licensing requirements under the Federal Power Act. The process can be incredibly complex, especially for a project of this size, geographic scope and complexity.”

Based on his experience working on hydropower projects seeking permits in South Carolina and Alabama, Rice expects a process that lasts at least a decade. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this project took at least 10 years…and more like 12 to 15 years,” he says. “Augusta, Ga., just got a license for a small project, and that process took more than 30 years.”

And before a permit is awarded by FERC, it must also get review under the applicable environmental laws – possibly including the Clean Water Act, which is what had triggered the original review by the Army Corps.

Million needed a section 404 dredge-and-fill permit under the provisions of that law because of proposed use of fill at Flaming Gorge Reservoir for his proposed take-out structure and possibly at other wetlands locations along the pipeline route.

A spokeswoman for the Army Corps describes a process that was delayed because of Million’s foot-dragging. “It had to do with the many delays and the applicant continuing to ask for more extensions and more time,” says regulatory specialist Rena Brand. “Toward the end of July, his group explained that they were thinking about moving to energy production.” And that, she said, meant a new purpose and need.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

There are differing opinions to be found in eastern and western Wyoming counties with respect to the Flaming Gorge Pipeline

From WyoFile (Allen Best):

Yet the idea of a pipeline has a certain allure in Torrington, Cheyenne, and in Laramie County, each of which has chipped in $25,000 as members of the Colorado/Wyoming Coalition, a rival to Million’s plan.

“If someone is going to provide water through a pipeline near our water system, we are going to be interested,” says Tim Wilson, director of the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities.

The Cheyenne urban area, with 70,000 people, has sufficient water to meet growth during the next 15 to 25 years, Wilson says. Most of the city’s water comes from snowmelt in streams west of the city, including some water from the Colorado River headwaters near the Colorado-Wyoming border, with water brought through a tunnel and then an exchange of rights.

Cheyenne’s Wilson says many unanswered questions remain about a possible new supply piped in from Flaming Gorge, including the costs and the water rights.

Laramie County has a similar position. “If, in fact, there is additional (Colorado River) Compact water, and it can be brought into Laramie County, we want to tap into that,” says Gary Kranse, planning director. Almost exclusively dependent on groundwater, the county wants more diversity of supplies as population growth continues.

Torrington, population 6,000, is also at the prospective pipeline table. City engineer Bob Juve says conservation and efficiency measures have dampened demand in Torrington 30 percent, with more savings possible. But with the city growing 1 percent annually, those savings will have been exhausted in a few decades. And the North Platte River, which flows through the town, is already spoken for. Nebraska and Wyoming in 2001 signed a legal settlement that reaffirmed the longstanding arrangement that majority of the water in the river goes to Nebraska. A current expansion of the Pathfinder reservoir west of Casper, however, will allow some future new water supplies from the river for Wyoming communities along the Platte, along with some water to sustain whooping cranes, least terns and other endangered species downstream in Nebraska.

Supporting a Flaming Gorge pipeline has not, Juve acknowledges, made him popular in Southwestern Wyoming. He’s OK with that. “I don’t mind fighting with anybody, but I first want to know what we’re fighting about,” he says. “We are not trying to be adversarial with people in Sweetwater County. Obviously, they have interests that they have not fully defined yet.”

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Opposition to the Flaming Gorge pipeline project grows in Utah, Wyoming and Northwestern Colorado

From the Vernal Express (Mary Bernard):

…widespread resistance to the project continues from the tri-state area. That resistance prompted Uintah County officials to formalize their opposition in a resolution last year. Elsewhere, Daggett County, the Wyoming communities of Green River and Rock Springs, Sweetwater County, Wyo. and Moffatt County, Colo. joined Utah in formal opposition…

Wyoming’s Gov. Matt Mead opposes the project. “I generally oppose trans-basin diversion projects and in particular I believe Aaron Million’s project is not well thought out,” Mead wrote.

Criticism spans concern over the reduction in scant water resources as well as impact to existing habitats. The proposed project has little popularity west of the Rockies where variable snowfall and runoff make assured flows into the Flaming Gorge Reservoir somewhat unpredictable.

Stacy Tellinghuisen, Western Resource Advocates, energy and water analyst, calls Million’s latest effort blatantly misleading. “He’s now trying to re-classify his project as a power supply project,” Tellinghuisen said. “It’s a water supply project — not a power supply project because it’s going to consume more energy than it will produce.”[…]

Million proposes to pump water from western Wyoming’s natural gas region through a system of turbines and reservoirs along to generate electricity along the pipeline. “We’re planning on using natural gas turbines to maximize the hydro-power and minimize energy use, perhaps tying some wind,” Million said…

Colorado estimated the price of water under a voluntary agreement between cities and farmers for the temporary leasing of ag-water ranged from $300 to $500 per acre-foot per year. Tellinghuisen said a private consultant to the Western Resource Advocates gauged Million’s water as costing as much as $4,000 and acre-foot per year. “Realistically, I just don’t see this project relieving pressure on any of the basins in Colorado,” she said.

More Flaming Gorge Pipeline coverage here and here.

Colorado River basin: More storage, more growth or a commitment to conservation and preservation?

The Pueblo Chieftain ran three columns in yesterday’s edition. First up is Chris Woodka’s musings about the river, preservation and growth in the West. Here’s an excerpt:

Back in 1974 [ed. during a rim to rim hike of the Grand Canyon], my young mind didn’t quite grasp that the pristine river I enjoyed so much was a product of timed releases between Lake Powell and Lake Mead. I did understand enough to know the beautiful canyon walls and mesas were the product of millions of years of relentless, unchecked erosion. Those kind of thoughts were running through my head the other evening as I sat in the Cornerstone Arts Center Celeste Theater in Colorado Springs listening to two legal experts tangle over the worthiness of the Colorado River Compact in a changing world…

The irony of talking about Colorado River issues in a city 80 percent dependent on Colorado River water brought over the Continental Divide did not escape me — you learn to think like this as a water reporter…

One of the speakers, Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hobbs, took the point of view that more storage is essential to continued enjoyment of the benefits of the Colorado River. Hobbs argued that building more projects along the Colorado River is not only probably, but necessary and desirable. “It’s high-risk water, but it’s going to be there in some years,” Hobbs said. “We can’t just pretend we don’t need more storage and risk drying up all the agricultural land.”

The other speaker, University of Wyoming legal professor Larry MacDonnell, argued that it’s time to start folding up the tents because the Colorado River basin is running out of water. Climate change is going to increase the pressure on the river’s resources. It’s foolish to try to develop any more, he argued. “Is this a sensible use of water?” MacDonnell asked, after listing several projects he considered folly. “In compromise, projects have been built that waste water.”[…]

The states along the Colorado River need to weigh how much more the river can deliver to avoid gobbling up more farm land in the support of growth. The preservation of its awesome beauty should be a major focal point. A frank discussion could lead to surprising conclusions about conservation, growth, land use and, ultimately, the storage of water that makes all that possible.

Meanwhile, Aaron Million’s column talks about developing the water left under the Colorado River Compact and Upper Colorado River Compact for the benefit of Colorado. Here’s his guest column from The Pueblo Chieftain. Here’s an excerpt:

The Upper Basin has over-delivered this region’s water supplies to the Lower Basin in every 10-year running average. Those waters are allocated to the Upper Basin. Why does it matter?

The Upper Basin has major natural resource concerns directly related to diminished water supplies and future increasing demands. Why not consider the Flaming Gorge Project? As a proponent of the project and the principal architect, I’m not afraid of an in-depth, critical environmental review…

…half the Upper Basin has moved forward to develop the supplies that the historic agreements gave to them. Both New Mexico, arguably up against that state’s compact allocation, and Utah, via the Lake Powell Project, have moved toward developing their respective water resources. Colorado and Wyoming need to do likewise. A new water supply would alleviate a myriad of environmental and socio-economic pressures throughout the region, allow aquifers to replenish, protect and enhance flows for use in agriculture, provide for the huge shortfall projected in municipal supplies and add huge new storage capacity with the addition of Flaming Gorge and other new reservoirs along the route. Preliminary scientific data indicates major water surpluses and supplies are available in the Green River-Flaming Gorge system to help alleviate pressures in water-short areas elsewhere, from Cheyenne to Pueblo. And the project, projected to move about 200,000 acre-feet, would take pressure off of western Colorado watersheds…

The build-out cost for this project is about $3 billion — one third of Western Resource Advocates’ estimate. How do we know its $3 billion and not $9 billion? Because we asked several nationally recognized pipeline and construction firms to give us estimates…

This state needs and deserves a straight-up evaluation of the Flaming Gorge project. The scare tactics of the environmental community are sophomoric, unnecessary and will not serve the interests of this region. Why not allow the project to be fully vetted? It’s currently in the federal environmental review process.

Finally, here’s Western Resource Advocates’ Karn Sheldon weighing in on the project from The Pueblo Chieftain. She writes:

Western Resource Advocates wants to see a water supply that sustains urban, agricultural and environmental needs. We want water that is affordable and reliable for all Coloradans. While The Pueblo Chieftain may disagree with our assessment that the Flaming Gorge Pipeline proposal is an implausible illusion (“Strange priorities,” 10/14/11), there are several important facts that should not be confused with opinion:

– The pipeline proposal would annually move 80 billion gallons of water 500 miles up and over the Continental Divide, from the Green River in southwestern Wyoming to Colorado’s Front Range. State agencies estimate the cost of the plan at $7 to $9 billion, which would make this the most expensive water in Colorado history. To put that into perspective, the most costly recent water project completed in Colorado is Aurora’s “Prairie Waters,” with a price tag of about $700 million.

– According to The Chieftain, “there is growing support for the pipeline in both Wyoming and Colorado.” But all available evidence indicates exactly the opposite. A statewide poll released in September by Trout Unlimited showed that 79 percent of Wyoming residents oppose the pipeline. “It makes perfect sense to me that so many people in Wyoming oppose this project,” said Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, who has also said that the plan is “not well thought-out.” Sweetwater County Commission member John Kolb called it “a sham.”

– Million has tried to reclassify his pipeline plan as an energy project in order to find a federal agency that will agree to give him a permit. Million claims that the pipeline would generate 550 to 1,000 megawatts of hydroelectric power, but by first moving water over the Continental Divide, the pumping stations would consume more energy than they could generate.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Flaming Gorge pipeline: FERC accepts the Million Resource Group’s application which opens a sixty day comment period

From the Associated Press (Ben Neary) via The Columbus Republic:

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Tuesday notified Fort Collins businessman Aaron Million that it had accepted his preliminary permit application — a decision that opens a 60-day public comment period…

If FERC issues Million a preliminary permit, it would allow him to apply to build the hydroelectric facilities for his project. FERC specified in its notice to Million that it only has jurisdiction over the proposed hydroelectric development elements of the pipeline project. It said construction of other substantial portions of the pipeline would require permits from other federal agencies…

One proposed “pump storage” project associated with the pipeline calls for building a new reservoir on the side of Sheep Mountain, west of Laramie. Million said Thursday that water could drain from the proposed reservoir on Sheep Mountain down to nearby Lake Hattie to generate power while possibly using wind power to pump the water back uphill.

The pipeline would have to move water over the Continental Divide on its way to Colorado. Although Million said the project couldn’t produce more energy than it uses, he said the hydropower could provide a valuable offset to its operating costs. “The hydropower has the potential to be a net benefit of the project. Not zeroing out the energy, that’s not realistic in any scenario,” Million said. But he said the hydropower would be consistent, and could provide a valuable addition to wind energy that’s increasingly under development in southeastern Wyoming…

Several environmental groups have come out against Million’s project. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead also recently said he opposes it. “It makes perfect sense to me that so many people in Wyoming oppose this project,” Mead said in a written statement released by his office. “Water is the state’s most valuable natural resource and everyone wants to ensure it is used wisely. I generally oppose trans-basin diversion projects and in particular I believe Aaron Million’s project is not well thought out.”

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Flaming Gorge pipeline: FERC asks the Million Resources Group for more information, warns that there may be a need to involve other federal agencies

From the Summit County Citizens Voice (Bob Berwyn):

The Regional Watershed Supply Project, first propossed in 2008 by a private water development entity known as Million Conservation Resource Group, would divert water from the Green River via Flaming Gorge Reservoir to the greater Denver area.

Proponent Aaron Million had at first submitted the project for review and approval to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but earlier this year resubmitted it to FERC as a project that would generate hydropower.

The Corps terminated its review in late July. And last week, the FERC said Million must provide more specific information on proposed pump stations for the pipelines, as well as new reservoirs that would also be part of the diversion project. The federal agency also seeks more information on other permits that might be needed as part of the project.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Cool photo of the week: Big trout, big smile

Update (October 10, 5:20 a.m.): The Salt Lake Tribune deep link doesn’t work any longer. You can click here for my screen shot of the photo.

Click on the thumbnail graphic to the right to go to this column by Tom Wharton running in The Salt Lake Tribune. The photo is of a proud fisherman and his recent catch. Mr. Wharton also jabs the Flaming Gorge Pipeline:

…there was the news that the Colorado Water Conservation Board will spend $72,000 to fund an exploratory study to look at the feasibility of taking 81 billion gallons of water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir 560 miles in a pipeline to Colorado’s Front Range. The cost of such a project, opposed by 87 percent of Wyoming voters according to a recent Trout Unlimited poll, would be $7 to $9 billion.

If you fish on the Green River, boat and fish on Flaming Gorge or, for that matter, want to use water from Lake Powell for southwestern Utah via another pipeline, this pipeline should be frightening.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Flaming Gorge pipeline: FERC asks the Million Resources Group for more information, warns that there may be a need to involve other federal agencies

Bump and update:

More coverage from Chris Woodka writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued the notice this week on Aaron Million’s preliminary permit application for hydroelectric power along a proposed 500-mile pipeline from the Green River and Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Wyoming to Colorado’s Front Range.

Western Resource Advocates seized upon the notice as an indication of reluctancy of federal agencies to take on a “hot potato” of a water project, saying the Bureau of Land Management or Bureau of Reclamation should be the lead agency in evaluating the proposal.

“This is yet another indication that the Flaming Gorge Pipeline is nothing more than an empty promise,” said Stacy Tellinghuisen, senior policy analyst for Western Resource Advocates. “We are over two years into the process of evaluating the project, yet fundamental questions are still unanswered.”[…]

“The notice has no impact, actually,” Million said. He characterized the notice as a standard request for more information about the project, a standard procedure in any federal process.

The notice cites two deficiencies in Million’s application:

Identifying owners of the reservoirs to be used in the project, which are the Bureau of Reclamation for Flaming Gorge and Lake Hattie in Wyoming.

Identifying the location of certain features of the project, including the Wild Horse Canyon pumped storage project, nine natural-gas powered pump stations, and four reservoirs that would be built as part of the project.

The notice also states Million would need additional permits from other federal agencies since FERC has jurisdiction over hydroelectric power generation only. FERC also asked for mapping details of elevation changes.

FERC also pointed out it could take up to five years to complete the process. Million was not fazed by any of the requests in the FERC notice, and said he thinks the Flaming Gorge pipeline will progress more quickly as an energy project. “FERC is the only federal agency with a maximum timeline,” Million said. “They get the information and then you move on.”

From the Associated Press (Catharine Tsai) via Forbes:

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requested more details Wednesday from a Colorado businessman on his permit application to build a 501-mile pipeline to divert water from Wyoming’s Flaming Gorge Reservoir to southeast Wyoming and Colorado.

The commission also told Aaron Million he may need permits from other agencies for his proposal, which involves hydropower and new reservoirs, because FERC has jurisdiction over only the hydroelectric component.

More coverage from the Colorado Independent (David O. Williams):

The Federal Regulatory Energy Commission (FERC) sent a letter to Fort Collins businessman Aaron Million requesting more information within a month, but FERC officials also appeared to have serious jurisdictional questions.

“Because the Commission would only have jurisdiction with regard to the proposed hydroelectric development, which is only one component of the proposed 501-mile-long water supply pipeline project, construction of substantial parts of the overall project may require permits from other federal agencies,” FERC officials wrote.

Million is on his second federal agency after having pulled his initial application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and resubmitted to FERC after adding the hydroelectric component.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Flaming Gorge pipeline: Wyoming residents and water wonks may have the final say

From the North Forty News (Jeff Thomas):

State compacts dating from 1922 and 1948 entitle Colorado to water in the Flaming Gorge Reservoir, but “I don’t have the legal ability to go up there and administer those rights,” said Dick Wolfe, Colorado’s state engineer and director of the Colorado Division of Water.

While that ability may seem like just one of the many intricacies involved in a proposed 500-mile pipeline to bring water from southwestern Wyoming to a thirsty Colorado Front Range, it’s a key point that could be decided by Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, who has already expressed opposition to the project. “He is opposed to the pipeline,” confirmed Renny MacKay, communication director for the governor’s office. MacKay said in a recent interview the governor said he opposes trans-basin diversions in general, and in particular, “I don’t think that Aaron Million’s project is well thought out.”[…]

For Wolfe, being able to administer such water rights is not a trivial matter. The whole project hinges upon Colorado’s ability to take more water out of the Colorado River, which it is entitled to do under an interstate compact with fellow headwater states, Wyoming and New Mexico, and downstream states, such as California and Nevada. As much as 250,000 acre feet of water could be brought to the Front Range by the project, about enough for 1 million new residents with current usage. However, the state engineer’s office also has to protect the rights of other users that draw water from the Colorado, such as the senior rights for the Colorado-Big Thompson project, which already supplies water to much of northeastern Colorado. “The point of diversion doesn’t have to be in the state of use,” Wolfe noted. “But then we have to deal with how to administer that right, and how that diversion gets counted under the compact.”[…]

At a minimum, Wolfe said, the state engineers from both Wyoming and Colorado need to put new rules in place that would allow him to shut down the headgate for the pipeline when it is not in priority — when there’s not enough water in the Colorado to comply with the compact. While both offices noted there is a high degree of cooperation between the headwater states regarding the compact, this is fairly new ground and legislative action may be required.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Meeker Wenschhof hydroelectric project is ‘among the first’ to receive a permit under FERC’s new streamlined process

Here’s the release from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission:

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) today approved the construction of a hydroelectric project in Colorado, the first issued since FERC and the state of Colorado signed an agreement last year to simplify procedures for the development of small-scale hydropower projects. As a result of the streamlined procedures, the approval of today’s project was completed in two months.

The Meeker Wenschhof hydroelectric project, to be located on an existing irrigation pipeline near the town of Meeker in Rio Blanco County, would consist of a powerhouse containing one generating unit with an installed capacity of 23 kilowatts and an average annual generation of 100,000 kilowatt hours. FERC approved the project in a two-month time span.

In signing the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Colorado in August 2010, FERC said it had seen rising interest among entities seeking to develop small, low-impact hydropower projects. Federal surveys have identified several hundred potential small hydropower projects of smaller than 5 megawatts (MW) in Colorado with a combined capacity of more than 1,400 MW. These projects have the potential to make a significant contribution to meeting Colorado’s energy needs while helping to satisfy Colorado’s new Renewable Energy Standard and create related business opportunities.

“Small hydro is a renewable resource that has tremendous potential,” FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff said. “FERC and Colorado have shown their commitment to moving these projects forward knowing that, ultimately, it will benefit consumers and help create jobs. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

The MOU signed by FERC and Colorado agreed to the following:

– Colorado will develop a pilot program to test options for simplifying and streamlining procedures for authorizing conduit exemptions and small 5MW or less exemption projects while ensuring environmental safeguards;
– Colorado and FERC will identify a single point of contact for implementation of the pilot program;
-Both parties will hold quarterly teleconferences to discuss the development and implementation of the pilot program;
-Both parties will share and make publicly available all relevant economic, environmental, and technical data.
– FERC will waive certain consultation requirements when all relevant resources agencies agree to do so.

More hydroelectric coverage here and here.

Flaming Gorge Pipeline: Some in Routt and Moffat counties are keeping a close eye on the project

From the Craig Daily Press (Tom Ross):

So, if the Green River only flows through Moffat County for about 35 miles or so, why should people in Routt County concern themselves with the pipeline proposal? The decision to fund the first part of the study of the plan comes at a time when energy development is making more demands on Western Slope water. We’re seeing the beginnings of what could be a boom-let of oil wells here. And if those wells use fracturing techniques to pry the hydrocarbons out of the Niobrara shale, they’ll require large amount of precious water…

Heather Hansen, of Red Lodge Clearing House Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, zoomed in on the essential point in a recent essay published in High Country News.

Hansen pointed out that the Green River plays a major role in the obligation Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico have to deliver 7.5 million acre feet of water annually to the lower basin states of California, Nevada and Arizona under the 1922 Colorado River Compact.

The 250,000 acre-feet the Million proposal would subtract from the Green only puts more pressure on the Yampa, White, Eagle, Roaring Fork and Gunnison rivers to meet those obligations in a future that includes a growing Front Range of Colorado.

More Flaming Gorge Pipeline coverage here and here.

Rio Blanco County micro-hydroelectric project is ‘among the first’ to receive a permit under FERC’s new streamlined process

From the Associated Press via The Aurora Sentinel:

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission signed a memorandum of understanding with Colorado last year that allows multiple agencies to review requests for hydropower projects at the same time. The Governor’s Energy Office says that can cut wait times on permits from three years down to less than two months.

The Governor’s Energy Office said Wednesday that the 23-kilowatt Meeker Wenschhof project in northwest Colorado went through the process to get a license allowing for construction and operation. The hydropower project will use water historically used for irrigation to offset the electricity used to power an irrigation sprinkler.

More hydroelectric coverage here and here.

Flaming Gorge pipeline: Environmentalists are concerned that taxpayer dough is being spent frivolously on study

From the Grand Junction Free Press (Sharon Sullivan):

A coalition of environmental groups that include Western Resource Advocates, the Colorado Environmental Coalition and Save the Colorado, object to spending taxpayer money to study the feasibility of the trans-mountain diversion of water.

“Our concern is that it adds credibility to the project,” CEC water coordinator Becky Long said.

Ken Neubecker is director of Western Rivers Institute, past president of Trout Unlimited, and a member of the task force. The state legislature set aside money for projects like the task force study to look at what needs to be done regarding water supply and Colorado’s future, Neubecker said.

“Any significant reduction from the Green River could potentially affect all users in the basin,” said Hannah Holm, coordinator of the Water Center at Colorado Mesa University. The Water Center’s purpose is to “help communities in the upper Colorado River Basin understand how to be smart about water, do more with less to meet the needs going forward due to scarcity and tightened competition,” Holm said.

Additional water for projected shortages could come from purchase of agricultural rights, increased conservation, and alternative agricultural rights purchases — temporary arrangements with farmers so water could be obtained “without drying up the land forever,” Holm said.

The environmental coalition released a statement Wednesday protesting the vote: “While smaller, the proposal would still spend thousands of dollars in state funds to investigate a controversial and environmentally damaging project which thousands of Colorado citizens believe should not be funded at all.”

More coverage from Chris Woodka writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

Board Chairman Eric Wilkinson castigated the environmental groups for trying to “sabotage” the study, and asked them to work with the state toward finding solutions. “The CWCB has the dirty, ugly discussions. That’s its responsibility. . . . I’m tired of all the disinformation about what the CWCB does,” Wilkinson said. “This board is trying to move the state forward, and, by golly, we’re going to turn this state around.”[…]

The CWCB approved a $72,000 grant — cut from the original $250,000 proposal — to identify statewide issues or interests from the proposed project. It would establish a task force of roundtable members from throughout the state as well as environmental representatives. The grant primarily covers the cost of 12 facilitated meetings during the process. Wilkinson asked the board to consider keeping the remainder of the money available if more discussion is warranted, but the board for now approved only the initial study. Part of the purpose of the task force would be to create a framework for studying future large projects.

The proposal was reworked Tuesday night after several environmental groups attempted to kill the project, said Jay Winner, general manager of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, who represented the Arkansas Basin Roundtable at the meeting.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Flaming Gorge pipeline: Conservationists are not convinced that the proposed feasibility study is worth even $72,000

From the Colorado Independent (David O. Williams):

“We are encouraged that the state will waste less taxpayer money on this study, but we still think it’s a complete waste of time and money even in its watered-down form,” said Gary Wockner of Save the Colorado.

“The pipeline would irrevocably harm the Green and Colorado Rivers, cost up to $9 billion, and negatively impact the West Slope’s economy. The state should spend the public’s money elsewhere.”

Here’s a joint release from Save the Colorado (Gary Wockner), the Colorado Environmental Coalition (Elise Jones) and Western Resource Advocates (Peter Roesmann):

At its Wednesday, September 14, 2011 meeting, the Colorado Water Conservation Board passed a diluted proposal to fund an exploratory study for the Flaming Gorge Pipeline. The original proposal was for $240,000 and multi-year meetings; the final proposal approved by the board funds just over $72,000 with only a few months of meetings. The watered-down proposal passed despite opposition from thousands of members of the public, a large coalition of environmental groups, taxpayer representatives, and West Slope businesses. Board members expressed many concerns, only some of which were addressed in the water-down version.

Our organizations continue to have numerous concerns about the project even in a scaled back form. While smaller, the proposal would still spend thousands of dollars in state funds to investigate a controversial and environmentally damaging project which thousands of Colorado citizens believe should not be funded at all. This week members of the Joint Budget Committee expressed their concerns over the project notably that this process seems to duplicate an existing efforts of the Interbasin Compact Committee.

Ultimately, a Flaming Gorge pipeline project entails enormous costs and infeasibility. We will continue to work with the CWCB, project proponents, water utilities and other stakeholders to further the important and difficult dialog around meeting Colorado’s future water needs, in ways that—unlike the Flaming Gorge pipeline—are cost-effective, feasible, and do-able in a short time frame.

Finally, Trout Unlimited released results today from a survey of Wyoming reaction to the proposed pipeline. From their release:

Public Opinion Strategies recently completed a statewide survey of voters throughout Wyoming regarding their perceptions of water. The survey results show that Wyoming voters are soundly opposed to a proposal to pump water from the Green River near Flaming Gorge Reservoir to Colorado communities and farms, and to eastern Wyoming. In fact, a majority are strongly opposed to the proposal, and opposition remains high even after hearing arguments in support of the project. After all additional information was provided, an overwhelming 90% of Wyoming voters reject the proposed pipeline.

Respondents in the survey and those in focus groups conducted earlier in Cheyenne indicate their opposition is founded in a concern for allowing Wyoming water to leave their state and an uncertainty over the state’s future needs due to drought or other conditions.

More Flaming Gorge Task Force coverage here.

The Colorado Water Conservation Board is set to pony up $70,000 to study feasibility of the proposed Flaming Gorge pipeline water supply project

From the Fort Collins Coloradoan (Bobby Magill):

“I think it’s interesting and probably good that the state is looking at it,” said Fort Collins entrepreneur Aaron Million, whose Regional Watershed Supply Project is the most advanced proposal for a Flaming Gorge pipeline now being considered. CWCB members think the project proposal is strong enough for the state to study it, Million said. “I’ve always argued for the project to be fully vetted on all environmental issues and all issues associated with it,” he said. “The more it can be looked at, the more beneficial it will be to the eventual outcome.”[…]

Environmentalists are unhappy that the state is spending money to study a pipeline they believe will be too costly both to taxpayers and the environment.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

The Colorado Water Conservation Board votes unanimously to fund Flaming Gorge pipeline study, now whittled down to $70,000 with more dough available if project looks feasible

I just got out of staff meeting at work and I was wondering about the outcome from the CWCB meeting in Grand Junction, so I opened up Twitter. You have to love the Internet.

Here’s a tweet from @beckylong who attended the meeting, “Statements from proponents & Board members on the #FlamingGorge proposal. Say they’ve invited us [ed. conservationists and environmentalists] to dinner. Feel a little like the turkey.”

From The Denver Post (Bruce Finley):

Members of the Colorado Water Conservation Board voted unanimously to spend $70,000 on a study exploring the idea for a 570-mile pipeline — and $170,000 more if the first study deems the diversion promising, according to participants at a CWCB meeting in Grand Junction…

This morning’s CWCB decision “shows the potential value of the project” for delivering “a new water resource for Colorado,” [Aaron Million] said. “We’ve been watching from the sidelines. The project needs to be studied. This is a move-forward decision.”

Some environmental groups objected to spending state money to explore the project, saying it would hurt the reservoir and the Green River ecosystems. Western Resource Advocates, a Boulder-based law and policy group, called state pursuit of the pipeline “a colossal waste of time and energy… All interested parties should instead spend time on more realistic means to meet future water demands.”

The CWCB is charged with protecting and developing water resources for the state.

More Flaming Gorge Task Force coverage here.

Flaming Gorge pipeline: The CWCB will discuss funding today for the Flaming Gorge Task Force

Click on the thumbnail graphic for the image of the billboards on display in Grand Junction this week. The Colorado Environmental Coalition, Save the Colorado [ed. be careful clicking on this link at work] and Western Resource Advocates are hoping to influence the vote. The photo is from Peter McBride and is of the dry Colorado River estuary in Mexico. The Colorado River is now an ephemeral stream at its terminus.

Here’s a report detailing the state of the battle over moving water from the Green River basin to slake the thirst of the Front Range, from Bob Berwyn writing for the Summit County Citizens Voice. From the article:

The Colorado Water Conservation Board is meeting Sept. 13 in Grand Junction to decide whether to spend $150,000 in taxpayer dollars on a special task force to further study the feasibility of the project, projected to cost as much as $9 billion to construct.

One big goal of the billboards is to raise public awareness. In the past, many major water projects received little public scrutiny in the early stages. By the time formal public comment periods are announced, the projects have already taken on a life of their own.

“At a time when government budgets are in deficit and we need to create jobs, it makes no sense to spend $9 billion on a pipeline that will hurt our economy,” said Bill Dvorak, owner of Dvorak Expeditions. “If we drain billions of gallons out of the Colorado River basin, fewer people will come out here to fish, boat and hike – businesses like mine will suffer and the West Slope will lose jobs.” Dvorak’s company leads boating expeditions on the Green River, which is a tributary of the Colorado River, and other rivers in the region.

Colorado Environmental Coalition, Save the Colorado and Western Resource Advocates joined forces to unveil the billboards, which display an image of a dried-up river bed with the message, “This will only cost you $9 billion.”

More coverage from NBC11News.com (Scott Aldridge):

…the chairman of the Colorado Wyoming Coalition, Frank Jaeger says he doesn’t know where they are coming up with those numbers, because their initial studies aren’t even done yet. “As far as numbers that others have thrown out there or published, I can’t speak to that…Right of way is going to be of immense concern, cost of pipeline, cost of pumping, electrical cost, all of these things are going to be reviewed in a study that we’re proposing to get those answers to…All of those issues have to be answered before you can put numbers on the table.”

Yet the Colorado Environmental Coalition is convinced the impacts would be devastating to Western Colorado. “Many aquatic habitats being devastated, all the great fishing on the green river would be hugely impacted.” Argues Wedemeyer.

“The Colorado River is the lifeblood of this community, we use it for our winery’s, we use it for tourism, for rafting, fishing, it’s the most important thing to our economy, and protecting water on the Western Slope is crucial to our livelihood.” Says Claudette Konola with Western Colorado Congress of Mesa County.

But Jaeger asks, how can critics cite these problems if the proposed study to find problems hasn’t even been done yet?

“Well it’s premature in that when we started this process two and a half years ago we went immediately to the Bureau of Reclamation first to find out if there’s adequate water. We are still waiting to determine that because the Bureau of Rec started a study to determine what the hydrologic amount of water would be on the reservoir, we don’t have that information yet…Until you’ve done a full investigation of a project how can you tout the pros and con’s if you don’t have the answers? I mean it’s kind of nonsensical to me for people to sit on the outside and say this is bad or that is bad, they don’t know what all the issues are.”

More coverage from KJCT8.com (Honora Swanson):

[Save the Colorado’s Gary Wockner] says the pipeline would cost between seven and nine billion dollars, making it the most expensive water in Colorado’s history. He says instead of a pipeline, the state should pursue conservation and recycled water.

More coverage from Alan Prendergast writing for Westword. He’s linking to Joel Warner’s in-depth piece from 2009 about the proposed pipeline. Here’s an excerpt Mr. Prendergast’s article:

The Colorado Water Conservation Board has pegged the cost of the pipeline at somewhere between $7 billion and $9 billion, up to triple the cost of Million’s own estimates. Despite that daunting figure, the CWCB is looking into spending $150,000 on a task force to study the project.

When board members arrived in Grand Junction to take part in that discussion, they were greeted by three billboards erected by a cadre of conservation groups, including Western Resource Advocates, Save the Colorado and the Colorado Environmental Coalition. The signs feature the dried-up, parched delta where the Colorado River supposedly (but only rarely) reaches the Sea of Cortez and refer viewers to an online petition at a website address — which, according to WRA spokesman Peter Roessmann, shut down at midnight last night after collecting 21,300 signatures protesting the plan.

More Flaming Gorge Task Force coverage here.

Flaming Gorge pipeline hydroelectric generation project moves to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission permit process

From the Fort Collins Coloradoan (Bobby Magill):

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, is now considering Fort Collins entrepreneur Aaron Million’s permit application for the Regional Watershed Supply Project, a 501-mile water pipeline that would stretch from Flaming Gorge Reservoir in southwest Wyoming to Pueblo via Interstate 80 and northeast Larimer County, supplying water to Front Range water districts and irrigators…

Million filed revised plans for the pipeline with FERC on Sept. 1 as president of a new company formed on Aug. 25, Wyco Power and Water, Inc. [ed. I couldn’t find a website], 1436 W. Oak St. According to Million’s application, the pipeline would be up to 120 inches in diameter and would take water from the Green River about three miles downstream of the city of Green River, Wyo., and from the western shore of Flaming Gorge Reservoir. It would produce about 550 megawatts of hydroelectric power on its journey from Wyoming to Colorado while using nine natural gas-powered pump stations to send water over the Continental Divide. If the pipeline is built, it will also require construction of the proposed 185,000-acre-foot Cactus Hill Reservoir near Fort Collins…

In the application, Million said studies required for the permit would cost up to $4 million and he would pay for them.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Over 7,000 attend telephone town hall meeting about the proposed Flaming Gorge pipeline

Here’s the report about the meeting from Western Resource Advocates. Here’s an excerpt:

Residents of the West don’t want their rivers dried-up, their recreation ruined, and special places destroyed. They especially don’t want their taxpayer dollars to support irresponsible projects. That was the feedback received through a telephone town hall meeting that provided 7,400 members of the public the opportunity to learn and ask questions about the proposed Flaming Gorge pipeline.

The controversial pipeline is a 560 mile-long project that would remove a massive amount of water from both the Green and Colorado Rivers. The water would be used for future growth along Colorado’s Front Range. The audience uniformly expressed concern and consternation about this proposed pipeline that would from stretch from Flaming Gorge Reservoir in southwestern Wyoming to cities in the South Denver Metro region.

A panel of experts, including WRA Water Program director Bart Miller, laid-out what’s behind the proposal and what it means to residents in a three-state region. Callers lit-up switchboards to ask questions about how much the project would cost, who would benefit, and remark how little information has been publicly available up until now.

Participants sent a clear message: they are not convinced that the pipeline should be built at all. It would transport the most expensive water Colorado has ever seen, use a huge amount of energy, and have severe negative economic impacts to the region around Flaming Gorge Reservoir. The proposal also ignores less expensive and less controversial solutions for meeting water needs, such as conservation, efficiency, reuse, and other smaller projects.

In mid-September, the Colorado Water Conservation Board will determine whether they will continue to use taxpayer dollars to fund a task force looking into the viability of the Flaming Gorge pipeline. Upon gathering feedback from the public at the town hall forum, this appears to be a very unpopular idea.

Click through for video from Peter McBride.

More Flaming Gorge Pipeline coverage here and here.

Flaming Gorge Task Force: Colorado conservation organizations have collected 16,195 signatures opposing funding the task force (and the project) as of this morning

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

The groups plan to ask the Colorado Water Conservation Board not to fund a proposed task force that has been approved by basin roundtables throughout the state…

As of Thursday, more than 13,000 [ed. 16,195 as of 5:30 a.m. today) had signed the online petition at the Change.org website.

From the Change.org website:

As population increases along the Front Range of Colorado, from Pueblo to Fort Collins, some developers and water utilities have proposed projects to ship and sell more water to the region. One extreme proposal is to take 81 billion gallons of water every year out of the Green River at Flaming Gorge Reservoir in southwest Wyoming and pump it 560 miles across Wyoming, up and over the Continental Divide, and down to Colorado. This proposal – called the “Flaming Gorge Pipeline” – could cost up to $9 billion. If it were constructed, it would deliver water at a price that would be the most expensive in Colorado’s history.

The true cost only begins with the outrageous financial figures. The environmental damage would be severe. A world-class trout fishery, the ecosystem within Dinosaur National Monument, and other important habitat would be harmed by the project. This, in turn, would hurt the local tourism economy, and take away recreational opportunities that are the core of our Western way of life. This great river system and the people who depend upon it need your help to speak up for its protection!

On September 13, 2011, the Colorado Water Conservation Board – which is appointed by Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper – will consider a $150,000 grant request from a regional water authority pushing the Flaming Gorge Pipeline to create a special task force to study the proposed project. There are existing stakeholder forums, such as the Interbasin Compact Committee, that can, and are, evaluating this project and others, but the pipeline’s proponents want a special process with their rules and their participants. We are petitioning the Colorado Water Conservation Board to deny this grant request – taxpayer money should not used to study or support a project that would irrevocably damage Colorado’s rivers.

Please sign the petition. You do not have to live in Colorado to sign – anyone, anywhere who wants to protect the Green River and the Colorado River can sign on.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here.

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