Environmental group files objection to Flaming Gorge pipeline

Western Resource Advocates announced it will file an objection today with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission concerning a proposed pipeline project that aims to pump water more than 500 miles from the Green River near Flaming Gorge in Wyoming to the Colorado Front Range.

Joining in the objection to the project, proposed by Fort Collins resident Aaron Million, are 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 every day and it’s not going to get cheaper or more realistic in the future.”

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Million, president of Wyco Power and Water Inc. is seeking a federal permit to review his proposal and help move it forward.

The WRA objection claims the proposal is “ridiculously expensive,” costing an estimated $9 billion according to an estimate by the Colorado Water Conservation Board. The WRA also says the project is unnecessary and would amount to illegal water hoarding.

Million responded to the WRA filing by saying he believes his “Regional Watershed Supply Project” – which includes moving up to 250,000 acre-feet of water each year from the Green River at Flaming Gorge Reservoir to southeastern Wyoming and then down the Front Range as far south as Pueblo for municipal, agricultural and hydropower use – is environmentally sound and helps keep the region’s water in the region and not flowing away to other states.

“They have a right to weigh in during the comment period, as does anybody,” he said. “I think my objectives and the environmental community’s objectives are pretty well aligned. This is arguably the only solution to capturing Colorado and Wyoming’s remaining (water) compact allocations.

“We’re doing the best we can to move what we believe is a good project forward.”