“The cost to Colorado taxpayers and our economy that would result from the development of the Flaming Gorge pipeline would be devastating. This project would also increase the risk of a compact call that would hurt our state’s water users,” the letter (pdf) from 118 affected businesses reads.

Last week the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reaffirmed an earlier decision to deny a rehearing of Aaron Million’s permit application to build a lucrative 578-mile pipeline, which would annually siphon 80 billion gallons of water from Wyoming’s Green River to Colorado’s Front Range.

A state task force convened in January to review the proposal and it is set to finish in December.

Protect the Flows, a coalition of over 500 small business owners in the seven-state Colorado River region, recently released a report showing that the Colorado River and its tributaries support a quarter million U.S. jobs and generate $26 billion annually in economic output. In Colorado alone, the Colorado River supports about 80,000 jobs and about $9.6 billion in total economic output.

The Green River is a principal tributary to the Colorado River. (Photo by Brent Gardner-Smith/Aspen Journalism)

A study by Western Resource Advocates indicated that the pipeline would take nearly a quarter of the Green River’s flow, resulting in a $58.5 million dollar annual loss to the region’s recreation economy. That same study reported that the water delivered to the Front Range by the pipeline would have to be sold at a price that is the most expensive in Colorado’s history. The threat of diversions has made the Green the nation’s second most endangered river, according to one group.

Messages left for Hickenlooper’s spokespeople were not immediately returned.

FERC deemed the application from Million’s company, Wyco Power and Water Inc., inadequate in February but Wyco returned the next month asking the agency to reconsider.

“We are not persuaded by any of Wyco’s unsupported arguments that it should be issued a preliminary permit for its proposed Regional Watershed Supply Project,” the commissioners wrote in their decision. “Therefore, we affirm the February 23 Order and deny Wyco’s request for rehearing.”

The region’s conservation community is aghast at the prospect of the pipeline sucking 81 billion gallons of water each year from the Green River, a tributary of the depleted Colorado River.

A section of the Green River below Flaming Gorge and above the Colorado River. (Photo by Brent Gardner-Smith/Aspen Journalism)

“The Flaming Gorge Pipeline has been rejected more often than a freshman before prom,” Boulder-based Western Resource Advocates analyst Stacy Tellinghuisen said in a press release. “It doesn’t matter how you try to alter the proposal, or whose name is on top. You can change the wording. You can change the font. You can print it on a different color paper. It’s still too expensive, too harmful to the environment, and just not necessary for meeting future water demands.”

Pipeline opponents are calling on state officials to send a similar message to Million.

“The thousands of people in our region whose jobs depend upon a strong Colorado River system dodged another bullet today, but it’s time to move beyond this threat once and for all,” said Molly Mugglestone, coordinator of Protect the Flows, which is a a coalition of over 400 businesses. “Enough time and public money has been spent fixating on this one controversial idea, it’s time to bring people together to come up with a smarter way forward.”

State officials have assembled a special task force to study the viability of the Flaming Gorge pipeline. The task force commenced in January and is set to finish its work in December of this year. The pipeline would include three reservoirs, nine natural-gas-powered pump stations and six hydropower facilities.

A diverse collection of voices are speaking out against the threats to the Colorado River and its tributaries that support jobs and have a meaningful economic impact.

Million’s pipeline would take water from the Green River, which this week was ranked the second most endangered river in America in large part due to development pressures. In addition to Million, Parker Water & Sanitation District manager Frank Jaeger and others have similar ideas.

“Enough is enough. This is a strong signal to the state of Colorado to focus more time and attention on proposals that — unlike the Pipeline — are more ripe for serious consideration,” said Robert Harris, an attorney with Western Resource Advocates.

Wyco officials could not be reached for comment.

Climate change, urban demand and a burgeoning energy industry are tapping the Colorado River to death. The 1,450-mile waterway hasn’t reached its historic destination since the 1990s.

In recent months, the United States and Mexico have been in negotiations over a new allocation agreement that could help spring some life back into the Colorado River Delta. A coalition of conservation groups in the Southwest delivered more than 5,000 signatures this week to the U.S. Department of State urging officials to work with Mexico to restore water flow to the river delta.

“We need to focus on collaboration and compromise,” said Gary Wockner of Save the Colorado when he announced the conservation groups’ petition on Sunday. “The U.S. and Mexico have a historic opportunity to meet their own water needs while allotting a small flow back to the river.”

The Colorado River’s headwaters are in the state of its namesake where it collects much of its water west of the Continental Divide. To feed Denver and other cities and farmlands along the Front Range, where most of the state’s population lives, the water has to be pumped east over and through the Rocky Mountains. The river naturally flows in the other direction, through seven states and Mexico, supplying water for Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego and Baja California.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a former Colorado senator, spoke about the pressures on the Colorado River during the State of the Rockies Project conference this week at Colorado College where the degradation of the Colorado River Basin has been the central theme for students this year.

A scene from the Colorado River in Westwater Canyon on a recent spring day. (Photo courtesy of Brent Gardner-Smith/Aspen Journalism)

Humans already drain over 5 trillion gallons of water a year from the Colorado River and a recent study shows that if climate change continues at its current rate, there soon won’t be enough water in the river to satisfy the 30 million people or so who depend on it. Additionally, planned diversions to quench the thirst of the urban masses are on the rise — many of them, like the proposed Flaming Gorge mega pipeline from a tributary in Wyoming to Colorado’s Front Range, are steeped in controversy. Add in the rush of oil and gas companies that require vast quantities of water to flush down the holes they drill in the ground and the Colorado River ranks as one of the nation’s most endangered rivers.

The Colorado River Delta used to be a 2-million acre wetland with one of the continent’s most vibrant migratory bird populations. Like a mirage in the desert, that has all disappeared. Low flows in the United States are now a threat to endangered fish, riparian ecosystems, native plants and animals.

There isn’t a specific water quantity on the main stem of the Colorado River designated for environmental needs, stressed a Colorado College State of the Rockies Report Card released this week. The student report is full of supporting data and first-person accounts, including those of two recent Colorado College graduates and field researchers, Will Stauffer-Norris and Zak Podmore, who completed a 110-day-long expedition of the entire Colorado River that was mostly spent kayaking, except for sections that were too depleted for their boats to navigate.

The Colorado College report recommends five actions for the Colorado River Basin:

• Recognize the finite limits of the river’s supplies and pursue a “crash course” in conservation and water re-distribution that sustains current users while leaving water in the river.
• Modify and amend the “Law of the River” to build in cooperation and flexibility.
• Embrace and enshrine basin-wide “systems thinking” in the region’s management of water, land, flora and fauna, agriculture, and human settlements.
• Give “nature” a firm standing in law, administration, and use of water in the basin.
• Adopt a flexible and adaptive management approach on a decades-long basis to deal with past, present, and projected future variability of climate and hydrology.

Fort Collins entrepreneur Aaron Million recently provided the Associated Press with his business plan, which reportedly would reap a net profit between $1.4 billion and $2.4 billion.

Opposition to Million’s proposal is fierce. The region’s conservation community is aghast at the prospect of the pipeline sucking 81 billion gallons of water each year from the Green River, a tributary of the already depleted Colorado River. The plan includes development of three reservoirs, nine natural-gas-powered pump stations and six hydropower facilities, the AP reported.

A section of the Green River below Flaming Gorge and above its confluence with the Colorado River, a section popular with rafters and canoeists. (Photo by Brent Gardner-Smith/Aspen Journalism)

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission deemed the application inadequate in February but Million’s company, Wyco Power and Water Inc., returned last month asking the agency to reconsider.

“Aaron Million wants to drain and destroy the Green and Colorado rivers and part of the economy of Western Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah so that he can become a billionaire. The environmental community 100 percent opposes this project and will fight it as long as it takes,” wrote Gary Wockner, coordinator for Save The Colorado River campaign, in an email to The Colorado Independent last night.

Wyco would shepherd the project through the permitting process, the AP reported, while earning a management fee that could range from 0.25 percent to 3.0 percent of money raised for the pipeline.

Million reportedly has shown the business proposal to potential contractors. The estimated cost of the project is between $2.8 billion and $3.2 billion, with annual operating costs landing between an estimated $70 million and $90 million annually paid by water users, according to the AP.

Million has cited Colorado’s growing demand for water as the impetus of his ambitious plan.

A bidding war between farmers and the oil and gas industry at the state’s premier auction recently underscored the unquenchable thirst of the state’s bustling Front Range. Oil and gas drillers are providing new competition for farmers, the Denver Post reports, as they target large volumes of water for hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” that have traditionally been used to grow crops.

Yet critics of Million’s pipeline say it would only add to Colorado’s mounting environmental problems.

“This project is irresponsible, unsustainable, and insanely expensive. Instead, the Front Range of Colorado needs to meet its water supply challenges by focusing on water conservation, better growth management, water recycling, and cooperative agreements with farmers,” Wockner wrote.

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U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (Photo via http://degette.house.gov)

“The researchers found higher lifetime cancer risks for people living closer to the wells,” reads the letter from DeGette and Rep. Henry Waxman. “They also concluded that these nearby residents have a higher risk of experiencing neurological and respiratory health effects, such as headaches, throat and eye irritation, impaired lung capacity, dizziness, fatigue, numbness in the limbs, and tremors.”

The study that DeGette, D-Colorado, and Waxman, D-California, referenced was based on a three-year review of the Battlement Mesa area of Garfield County where several companies are drilling for natural gas that a class-action lawsuit claims is endangering the community.

Escalated levels of ozone pollution have been recorded in the Uintah Basin in Utah and the Green River Basin in Wyoming near oil drilling sites and researchers say residents living near hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” operations in the Piceance and Denver-Julesberg basins in Colorado are also susceptible to dirtier air, which can impair breathing and worsen respiratory problems such as asthma.

Regulators at all levels of government are trying to establish safe standards for air emissions from fracking, which the EPA has also, at least preliminarily, linked to ground water contamination in Wyoming. Opponents of oil and gas drilling contend existing regulations are too lenient and that they are not adequately enforced. A recent report found there were 516 spills in Colorado last year and only five of them resulted in fines for the companies that allowed them to happen.

Gov. John Hickenlooper recently convened a task force to “help clarify and better coordinate” the regulatory jurisdiction between state and local governments but his critics claim the task force is a Trojan horse, designed to take away rights from local governments and instead leave their fates up to the allegedly inept state system. Boulder County, Longmont and Colorado Springs have already temporarily halted drilling activity while Commerce City, Erie and Aurora, Arapahoe County, Douglas County, Elbert County, El Paso County and Huerfano County are vying for their own regulations.

DeGette and U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D- Colorado, have previously asked President Obama to strengthen federal environmental and public health standards to protect against the risks associated with fracking. In speeches this year and last, Obama has emphasized natural gas as a key resource in his “all-of-the-above” strategy to reduce the nation’s reliance on foreign oil.

Many Coloradans are protesting the increased drilling in the state, and asking for the federal government to stave off oil and gas development in the North Fork Valley and other locales.

Here is DeGette and Waxman’s letter in its entirety:

April 3, 2012

The Honorable Lisa Jackson
Administrator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Ariel Rios Building
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20460

Dear Administrator Jackson:

EPA is working to finalize new standards for oil and gas operations to reduce emissions of smog-forming volatile organic compounds and toxic air pollutants that can cause cancer and other serious health effects. As you consider these standards, we ask that you consider a new study from the Colorado School of Public Health that raises concerns about the potential public health impact of air emissions from unconventional gas drilling operations. The findings from this study, while preliminary, reinforce the importance of your forthcoming rules and the need for additional research.

Scientists at the Colorado School of Public Health examined three years of air monitoring data in Garfield County, Colorado and concluded that residents living near natural gas wells may face increased exposure to benzene, a known human carcinogen, and other toxic chemicals, such as ethylbenzene, toluene, and xylene. The researchers found higher lifetime cancer risks for people living closer to the wells. They also concluded that these nearby residents have a higher risk of experiencing neurological and respiratory health effects, such as headaches, throat and eye irritation, impaired lung capacity, dizziness, fatigue, numbness in the limbs, and tremors.

The authors concluded:

[P]reliminary results indicate that health effects resulting from air emissions during development of unconventional natural gas resources are most likely to occur in residents living nearest to the well pads and warrant further study. Risk prevention efforts should be directed towards reducing air emission exposures for persons living and working near wells during well completions.

We support the responsible and safe production of U.S. oil and natural gas resources. The good news is that we can control potentially harmful air emissions from drilling operations by implementing proven technology and best practices already in use today. We hope that you will consider the results of this new study in your rulemaking, and we look forward to reviewing EPA’s new rules once finalized.

Sincerely,

Henry A. Waxman
Ranking Member

Diana DeGette
Ranking Member

Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

Colorado entrepreneur Aaron Million has filed a new application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which last month deemed the proposal premature and short on specifics.

The Green River passing through The Gates of Lodore in northwestern Colorado. (Image courtesy of Jim Wark/Airphoto)

“Wyco contends that it will be counterproductive and cost-prohibitive to secure all necessary permits and authorizations to construct the pipeline without confirming the locations of the associated hydroelectric facilities,” the filing says.

Critics say the pipeline would drain 81 billion gallons of water each year from the Green River, a tributary of the already stressed Colorado River, and the state of Colorado projects the pipeline could cost as much as $9 billion to build. The Colorado River Water Conservation District, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, county and local governments in southwestern Wyoming and a multitude of conservation groups are opposing the potential pipeline that Million claims is needed for Colorado to meet its rising demand for water.

“FERC made the right decision in February,” said Matt Rice, director of the Denver-based chapter of American Rivers. “It is clear this is nothing more than a speculative project that if ever built would severely harm the recreational, economic, agricultural and natural values of the Green River. Mr. Million is grasping for straws. It is highly unlikely that FERC will reverse their decision.”

Gary Wockner of Save The Poudre added that “Mr. Million seems to think this process is like an Etch-A-Sketch, where he can just keep shaking and redrawing until he finally wears down the federal agencies and the opposition. The Flaming Gorge Pipeline is a fatally flawed concept that would devastate the Green and Colorado River ecosystems — we will fight it at every opportunity.”

The Colorado Water Conservation Board recently funded a “project exploration committee” that is considering the Flaming Gorge pipeline. The task force held its first meeting Jan. 12 in Silverthorne, and it is scheduled to continue meeting to discuss the pipeline through the end of the year.

A forest decimated by pine beetles.

“We’ve been doing research on the effects of a changing climate to the vegetation on our nation’s forests for over two decades,” he told the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources in Washington, D.C. “When it comes to fire, we’re definitely seeing much longer fire seasons in many parts of the country, another 60 or 70 days longer than what we used to experience.”

The Forest Service is not only dealing with an uptick in the number of wildfires, wind storms, droughts and other extreme weather as a result of climate change. “We’re also seeing much more severe fire behavior than we’ve ever experienced in the past,” Tidwell noted.

The wildfire risk is heightened as beetles make their way through the forests, sucking the life from trees and leaving dead, dried wood in their wake. The expansion of bark beetles “has started to slow a little bit,” he said, but “we’re still seeing about an additional 600,000 acres infested each year, so we’re going to have to continue to maintain this focus for the next few years.”

Sen. Udall

Referencing a new Forest Service report – “Increasing the Pace of Restoration and Job Creation on our National Forests” (pdf) – Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colorado, said that expanding the market for forest products from national forests will require streamlining contracting procedures and federal cooperation with private companies that want to use beetle-kill wood for commercial purposes.

“The private sector is key to dealing with this epidemic,” Udall said.

The federal government already is collaborating with communities and businesses to create wood and biomass supply for forest products, bioenergy production and home construction.

“We have examples all over the country now where these collaborative efforts are coming together,” Tidwell said. “People understand the type of work that needs to be done.”

He said the Forest Service is doing more with less by broadening its National Environmental Policy Act requests to include larger landscapes and by emphasizing agency efficiency and flexibility.

The Forest Service budgets about $100 million each year to mitigate bark beetles in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and South Dakota, he said.

Sen. Franken

U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minnesota, expressed frustration that politics are polluting scientific discussions. He said it only makes sense for Congress to begin incorporating the effects of climate change into budgetary decisions.

“To me it is so obvious the costs of climate change that we are already paying, and these are never factored in when we talk about the costs of things like burning more coal or burning dirtier oil,” Franken said. “This debate that has been going on in this country – it saddens me sometimes when what your scientists are telling us is called a hoax. I don’t know if it’s for political gain or to curry favor with big donors who can fund super PACs or what it is, but there is a climate-change-denial culture among some of my colleagues that I find very disturbing.”

President Obama’s budget requests $4.86 billion for the Forest Service, an increase of less than one-half of one percent over the 2012 appropriated level. The restoration of lands impacted by beetles, disease, fire, urban sprawl and warming temperatures are heavily emphasized.

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“Our region’s economy depends upon river flows that can support recreation and tourism,” said Arvin Ramgoolam, owner of Rumors Coffee and Townie Books in Crested Butte.

“The state should be working to protect and promote jobs out here rather than pursuing dead end projects that will rob the resources on which our jobs depend,” Ramgoolam said.

The Colorado Water Conservation Board recently funded a “project exploration committee” that is considering the Flaming Gorge pipeline. The task force held its first meeting Jan. 12 in Silverthorne, and is scheduled to continue meeting to discuss the pipeline through the end of the year.

Flaming Gorge Reservoir

The multi-billion-dollar project would suck 240,000 acre-feet of water a year from Flaming Gorge Reservoir, along the border of Wyoming and Utah, and ship it to Colorado’s increasingly thirsty Front Range. An acre-foot of water is about enough for two families to live off of for a year.

The proposal requires FERC approval because it is being pitched as part of a hydropower system but opponents have argued that pumping the water over the Continental Divide to reach Colorado’s sprawling cities along the Front Range would ultimately spend more energy than the project would produce.

Critics say the pipeline would drain 81 billion gallons of water each year from the Green River, a tributary of the already stressed Colorado River, and the state of Colorado projects the pipeline could cost as much as $9 billion to build, though other estimates have come in much lower.

A Western Resource Advocates study said the pipeline would deprive the Green River of almost a quarter of its flow, and result in a $58.5 million annual loss to the region’s recreation economy. The same study said it would produce the most expensive water ever seen in Colorado.

Protect the Flows, a coalition of over 370 businesses who depend upon the Colorado River system, says it is rounding up resolutions opposing the pipeline from local governments. “This is a victory for Colorado’s economy, the West Slope’s Economy, water users and our communities. It’s time to get past this proposal once and for all,” Mesa County Commissioner Steve Acquafresca said.

The ruling reaffirmed a three-judge decision issued on Oct. 21, 2011, that upheld the roadless rule, passed under former President Bill Clinton, which prohibits development on nearly 60 million acres.

Thompson Divide near Carbondale (Image: Thompson Divide Coalition)

The Court of Appeals decision harkens back to 2008 when a federal court in Wyoming found that the roadless rule violated environmental law. When the 10th Circuit overturned that 2008 ruling last fall, it opened the door for the Obama administration to enforce the Clinton rule.

“[The] court decision gives President Obama a green light to implement one of the nation’s most important conservation polices,” said Jane Danowitz, director of the Pew Environment Group’s U.S. public lands program. “With the last legal barrier cleared, the administration should move quickly to enforce the roadless rule as the law of the land.”

It is possible the national rule could land before the Supreme Court.

In the meantime, Republicans in the House led by California Congressman Kevin McCarthy are promoting the Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act, which would essentially invalidate the 2001 Clinton rule. Dozens of GOP congressmen, including Doug Lamborn and Mike Coffman in Colorado, are co-sponsoring the bill. Many Colorado businesses oppose the legislation, saying it poses “a serious threat” to the state’s outdoor-recreation-based economy.

For a decade, the federal roadless rule has been immersed in legal challenges. The uncertainty prompted Colorado and Idaho to craft their own rules. The Department of Agriculture is reviewing Colorado’s plan, which would allow exemptions for coal mining, logging and expansion of ski areas.

Now that there is a final decision in the 10th Circuit, conservationists say Colorado’s rule isn’t needed.

“The court’s action eliminates the need for the administration to pursue a separate policy in Colorado, undertaken when the roadless rule’s legal status was in doubt,” Danowitz said. “The Colorado plan would open up a majority of the state’s best backcountry to coal mining, drilling, and other large-scale activity. The importance of a national policy to preserve what remains of America’s pristine forests cannot be overstated. Without the roadless rule, protection of these areas would be left to the patchwork management system that has resulted in millions of acres lost to industrial development.”

Nonetheless, sportsmen’s groups, other forest users and special interests continue to work with Colorado officials and the U.S. Forest Service to tweak the Colorado rule and improve it.

The civil penalty is part of a settlement Union Pacific reached with the EPA for allegedly violating the Clean Water Act and the Oil Pollution Act. In 2003 and 2004, the EPA claims the company spilled oil and coal along railroad lines in all three states and committed other violations at 20 of its rail yards.

“Today we have secured a settlement that will help prevent spills, protect water quality, and improve the safety of Union Pacific’s operations in 20 communities across Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming,” said Jim Martin, EPA regional administrator. “Union Pacific has already begun putting necessary measures in place and we will ensure they continue to do so.”

A Union Pacific Railroad locomotive.

Union Pacific will deposit $1.4 million into the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, which is used by federal agencies to respond to oil spills. The remaining $100,000 will be paid to the U.S. Treasury for the coal spills and stormwater violations.

The settlement also requires Union Pacific to develop a management and reporting system to ensure compliance with the EPA’s Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure rules, Facility Response Plan regulations, and storm water requirements in all three states.

“Union Pacific must take further actions to control stormwater runoff at the Burnham Rail Yard in Denver, which are anticipated to prevent the discharge of approximately 2,500 pounds of chemical oxygen demand, 50 pounds of nitrate, 11,000 pounds of total suspended solids, and 30 pounds of zinc annually to waters in the Denver area,” an EPA press release said. “This settlement will benefit many communities in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, many of which are disadvantaged, by requiring Union Pacific to install secondary containment to safely store oil and prevent oil spills from leaving its properties.”

Union Pacific will also be required to designate an environmental vice president responsible for complying with oil spill prevention and stormwater control requirements at its 20 rail yards.

The Colorado rail yards in question are located at Burnham, 36th Street in Denver, Denver North, East Portal Moffatt Tunnel, Grand Junction, Kremmling, Pueblo and Rifle.

“Union Pacific is working to ensure our response plans are up-to-date across our entire network and that our derailment response is as swift as possible while at the same time conforming to all applicable environmental laws,” Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said. “We are committed to protecting the environment now and for future generations. Our employees, customers, shareholders and the communities we serve can expect our full compliance with all laws and regulations.”

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