Utah High Court Blocks Colorado River Pipeline Plan
A pipeline plan that would convey water from Utah through Wyoming and into Colorado was blocked by the Utah Supreme Court.
Utah’s Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that blocked state approval for a proposed, privately funded 338-mile pipeline project to convey 55,000 acre-ft of water annually from Utah’s Green River and Flaming Gorge Reservoir through Wyoming into Colorado’s Front Range region.
In an Oct. 17 opinion, Utah’s top court said the project developer, Fort Collins, Colo.-based Water Horse LLC, “failed to establish that there is ‘reason to believe’ that exported water can be put to beneficial use in Colorado.” However, the court left open the possibility that the firm could resubmit a new application in the future.
Water Horse LLC says Utah’s top court did not rule on the merits of the pipeline itself, only that the company has not made a strong enough case that its plan will benefit Coloradoans facing potential water shortages, according to news reports. The firm did not return requests for comment.
Conservation groups opposed to the project say it would further drain the Colorado River and cause damage to fragile ecosystems. But the Water Horse project proponents contend the pipeline would reduce pressure on overdrawn aquifers in eastern Colorado, protect agricultural water use by relieving pressure on municipalities to take water out of land use and provide a new source of “affordable augmentation water,” according to the firm’s website.
