Pipeline comment to be extended

By JoAn Bjarko
North Forty News

A civil but unenthusiastic crowd greeted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers when it came to Fort Collins for a public meeting on a proposed pipeline to bring water from the Green River in Wyoming to Colorado's thirsty Front Range.

Eighty-four people signed the attendance register in Fort Collins on April 20 compared with 252 who signed in at the Green River meeting on April 14. In Wyoming, the sentiment was that the loss of water would hurt local industry, curtail future growth and threaten a world-class fishery. The mayors of Green River and Rock Springs, Wyo., both oppose the plan.

Written comments for this scoping phase of the project will be accepted beyond the original deadline of May 19 because the Corps will hold additional meetings on the Western Slope. Dates had not been set at press time.

The Corps is just beginning the process to prepare an environmental impact statement for the Regional Watershed Supply Project proposed by Million Resources Conservation Group. The principal player, Aaron Million, lives in Fort Collins.

The project proposes to tap unappropriated water in the Colorado portion of the Upper Colorado River Compact and divert it through a 560-mile pipeline to southeastern Wyoming and eastern Colorado. The 1948 compact allows water to be moved from state to state as long as water allocations under the compact are met. Other members of the compact are Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

The Corps hosted six meetings in April to compile questions that citizens want to have answered as work on the EIS continues. Other meeting sites and registered attendance were Vernal, Utah, 80; Laramie, Wyo., 83; Denver, 58; and Pueblo, 30.

Water from the Green River currently flows into Flaming Gorge Reservoir and from there into western Colorado. The current preferred plan calls for taking water from both the river and the reservoir.

Rena Brand, project manager for the Corps, told the Fort Collins audience that the federal agency might have a draft EIS ready for public review by 2012 and a decision made by 2014. A third-party contractor, AECOM Environment, is doing the research for the Corps at the applicant's expense. The company has an office in Fort Collins.

Other agencies involved in the review include the Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, Environmental Protection Agency, National Park Service, tribes and state governments, Brand said.

People in Fort Collins asked the Corps to look for other sources of water, including maximized conservation, as an alternative to a pipeline. A key concern was a fear that invasive species could be transferred from Flaming Gorge Reservoir to Colorado.

Some said the Green River, in reality, does not have extra water and that current water users in the Colorado River Basin will suffer if water is diverted. Wyoming also has water rights in the Green River that have not been exercised.

Others objected that a private group, rather than a public or governmental entity, is trying to appropriate the water and sell it.

Brand said the Corps is neither an opponent or proponent of any project that has to undergo the permitting process. Critical questions, such as how much water is available and who will use the water, will be answered as the process continues, according to the Corps.

Million is asking to withdraw about 250,000 acre-feet of water annually from the Green River and Flaming Gorge Reservoir. An acre-foot is equivalent to about 325,851 gallons.

A buried 72- to 120-inch pipeline would largely follow the Interstate 80 corridor across the Continental Divide toward Laramie and cross into Colorado between Laramie and Cheyenne.

Preliminary studies estimate that the project would withdraw 165,000 acre-feet from Flaming Gorge Reservoir and 85,000 acre-feet from the Green River during a dry year. The river volumes would increase to about 157,000 acre-feet in an average year and 195,000 acre-feet in a wet year. Three water storage reservoirs would be needed along the route. The proposal places one at the existing Lake Hattie in Wyoming, a future Cactus Hill Reservoir northeast of Fort Collins in Weld County and a future reservoir near Pueblo.

Specific water users and ways to deliver water to them will be determined as the review continues.

Comment forms are available online at https://www.nwo.usace.army.mil/html/od-tl/eis-info.htm or comments may be mailed directly to MCRG.EIS@usace.army.mil.