U.S. Water News Online
GREEN RIVER, Wyo. -- Wyoming state officials are "skeptical" of a Colorado businessman's proposal to pipe water from the Green River and Flaming Gorge Reservoir to Colorado's growing Front Range communities.
Even assuming Aaron Million can clear all the physical and legal hurdles to build the pipeline -- which he says could carry between 250,000 and 450,000 acre feet of water per year -- Wyoming Water Development Commission Director Mike Besson says it might come down to the question of whether Colorado has a right to that much water.
An acre foot can supply two average urban families for one year. That means Million's proposal could provide for the water needs of 500,000 to 900,000 people.
"It's the volume of water that I think is the real problem," Besson said.
"I worry that 450,000 acre feet of water -- or even 250,000 acre feet of water -- might exceed (Colorado's) allocation, because that allocation is basically a percentage of whatever Mother Nature says the hydrology is," Besson said. "I doubt very many people have considered this last seven years of drought on all the hydrology ... Those studies and analysis sure need to be done first."
Million said he already has lined up much of the financing for the proposed pipeline, which would follow Interstate 80 to Laramie, then follow U.S. Highway 287 into Colorado, serving communities from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs.
"This is a forever-type project," Besson said. "But the old adage is that water flows to money, ... and this might be affordable from their perspective."
But financing is only part of the process, Besson said, noting that Million also would have to secure rights-of-way along the hundreds of miles of pipeline corridor.
"First of all, this is in the private sector, and I think even getting an easement for a pipeline that long would be problematic," Besson said. "I think the only way this will fly is if the state of Colorado really gets involved in this at a state level."
Lara Azar, spokeswoman for Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, wrote in an e-mail that the governor is watching the project, "but he's incredibly skeptical."
"He's not inclined to say much until he knows whether it's just another pipe dream or whether it really goes forward," Azar said.
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