Agribusiness  January 19, 2007

Hurdles remain for possible interstate water pipeline

FORT COLLINS – A Fort Collins man has a plan he says could solve Colorado’s water needs for at least the next 100 years.

Aaron Million has been traveling all over the region and to Washington, D.C. since 2003 extolling the virtues of his idea of tapping into the Flaming Gorge Reservoir in southwestern Wyoming and northeastern Utah just across the northwest Colorado border.

At the core of his project is a 400-mile, $3 billion pipeline that he says could bring Flaming Gorge water eastward along the Interstate 80 corridor to Laramie and then drop southeast into Colorado north of Fort Collins. Running just east of I-25, the pipe could then bring water to thirsty communities and drying-up river basins along the Front Range as far down the state as Pueblo, thus ensuring continued growth and sustainable agriculture.

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Million, who grew up in the Green River, Utah area, was pursuing a master’s degree in resource economics at Colorado State University in the summer of 2003, when he said he was sitting in Morgan Library staring at a map of Colorado. He noticed that the Green River loops briefly into Colorado from Utah, making it a legal tributary of the Colorado River mainstem.

That geographic fact meant a legal filing and appropriation of Flaming Gorge water could be made and, according to Million, no one in Colorado had ever done so.

“Colorado is in the situation where they’ve never been able to figure how to capture their recurring (water) compact allocation until now,” he said. “This project can certainly do that.”

So far, so good

Million said he’s talked to water experts all over the region, as well as officials from a variety of state and federal agencies that would need to sign off on his plan. So far, he said, he’s been getting a green light.

“Behind the scenes there’s been a huge amount of support and we have probably the best water team we could get for an Upper Basin water project,” he said. “No one that we’ve talked to about the project has found a fatal flaw.”

Lining up behind Million on his development team are Jeris Danielson, former Colorado state water engineer; Jeff Fassett, former Wyoming state water engineer; Jim Eddy, a former NBC executive handling strategy; Larry Anderson, former director of Utah’s Division of Water Resources; and Walid Hajj, former head of water resources for the city of Thornton.

It’s a concept that has been kept under wraps as much as possible to avoid having it stolen but Million believes he now has a “protectable interest” in the project, partly by taking it public through the media. Last October, Colorado Biz Magazine did a multi-page spread on Million and his proposal and he’s been interviewed by several newspapers.

He’s also represented by William Hillhouse, a high-powered Denver-based attorney who specializes in water cases. “This was kept very confidential for two and a half years as we briefed all the major water users,´ said Million, who hopes to secure funding from investment bankers and users in a public-private partnership.

Million said he believes his project is environmentally sensitive and would be relatively easy to build compared to, for example, the Northern Integrated Supply Project being proposed by the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District based in Berthoud. That project, at an estimated cost of $400 million, proposes to build 2,500-surface-acre Glade Reservoir near the mouth of Poudre Canyon and another 2,800-surface-acre reservoir in the South Platte River basin.

But critics of the NISP project have said they fear it will have severe impacts on the Poudre River. With Flaming Gorge Reservoir already built and a pipeline that would mostly follow existing rights-of-way on relatively flat land in Wyoming and Colorado, Million says his project would have the least impact on the landscape.

“At the end of the day it is nothing more than a pipeline project and you can go around obstacles, mitigating a whole host of environmental issues,” he said. “When you do a comparative analysis in terms of environmental impact, it’s night and day.”

Million said he doesn’t see a major problem in a project that moves across state lines. “Utah and Wyoming have been very respectful of the project, recognizing that the states are required to assist each other to realize their compact allocations,” he said.

Monster delivery possible

Million estimates the project would deliver between 165,000 to 240,000 acre feet each year, with re-use opportunities hiking that to an effective yield of 600,000 to 800,000 acre feet. The NISP project, if approved, is expected to provide about 40,000 acre feet annually.

Million said every entity he’s approached has treated him fairly and respectfully except one – the NCWCD, NISP’s promoter and advocate of another recently proposed water project that would originate from the Yampa River on the state’s West Slope

Million said he thinks the District fears his project might disrupt their water delivery plans. But Brian Werner, District spokesman, said that’s not the case and that every project that can deliver water should be seriously considered.

“If (Million’s project) could be built and brought online, it would be something the NISP participants would be interested in,” he said. “There’s going to be a gap for water supplies even if everything on the drawing board is built.”

Werner categorically denies that the District proposed its Yampa diversion project as an alternative to Million’s proposal. “Because Aaron did his isn’t why we’re doing ours,” he said. “We think he’s facing a lot more problems because of all the federal permitting (to use Flaming Gorge water) and having to go across state lines.

“I have some doubts that he’ll go as far as he thinks he can,” Werner added. “The federal process isn’t easy. We hope that if nothing else comes out of this idea, at least the state will figure out what our (Colorado) allocation is out of that compact.”

Werner said he’s not surprised that Million proposed the idea of pulling water from Flaming Gorge to deliver to the growing and increasingly thirsty Front Range. He said it’s a concept that never made much financial sense until now.

“We’re at a point where the costs of doing something like this have finally caught up to the need,” he said.

For his part, Million says he wants to do all he can to help protect drying up farmlands in the South Platte basin and help the state cope with projected growth while protecting the region’s environment. And that means finding ways for all water projects to succeed, he said.

“At the end of the day, we want to work with everybody.”

FORT COLLINS – A Fort Collins man has a plan he says could solve Colorado’s water needs for at least the next 100 years.

Aaron Million has been traveling all over the region and to Washington, D.C. since 2003 extolling the virtues of his idea of tapping into the Flaming Gorge Reservoir in southwestern Wyoming and northeastern Utah just across the northwest Colorado border.

At the core of his project is a 400-mile, $3 billion pipeline that he says could bring Flaming Gorge water eastward along the Interstate 80 corridor to Laramie and then drop southeast into Colorado north of Fort Collins.…

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