Fort Collins – Time will tell whether Aaron P. Million’s plan to bring water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir to the Front Range will make him a legend in Colorado water lore or just another wild-eyed, big-talker with a water scheme.
Million’s $3 billion project, which he says will be completed in three to five years, would move up to 250,000 acre-feet of water annually from the reservoir on the Utah/Wyoming border.
Water would be pumped through a 400-mile pipeline across southern Wyoming along Interstate 80 to Colorado’s Front Range – serving up to 650,000 homes.
“It’s like dropping another Colorado River and a 3.8-million-acre-foot reservoir in the state that no one knew existed,” Million said.
It is a solution for a growing state with a dwindling water supply threatened by climate change and drought, according to Million.
Or it is a complex, expensive, potentially environmentally dubious plan that could jeopardize downstream water-sharing agreements and may never happen anyway, according to other water experts and environmentalists.
“It strikes me as the latest in a long line of magic bullets,” said George Sibley, a Western State College professor.
Million says all relevant issues have been addressed and the project is on a fast track. Permitting has begun and financial institutions are lining up to help pay for it, Million said.
“This project, in the end, is nothing more and nothing less than a water transportation project,” Million said. “Our biggest hurdles? We don’t have any. This thing is over.”
The project requires no new dams or congressional approval and would run side-by-side, 42-inch-diameter pipes down an existing energy corridor. It is privately funded, so the project avoids federal funding roadblocks.
Energy costs could be between $65 million and $95 million a year for pumping water over the Continental Divide with turbines fueled by natural gas already in place, Million said. Water coming down the pipelines could generate hydropower. Energy costs would be paid for by water users.
The pipeline would tie into existing and future reservoirs in Wyoming and Colorado, allowing storage that could reduce the threat of water shortages in drier years, he said.
“This one is looking like it has less impacts than other projects on the east slope,” said Dave Truman, head of the resource management division for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Utah. “It looks like it could be part of the puzzle on the east slope.”
Maverick plan of giant size
Never in Colorado history has one person using private money completed a transmountain water diversion of this size.
Million – who has made a living in agriculture and real estate investments – sees himself as an outlaw, like a member of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch, battling the established water oligarchy.
He first envisioned the project in Colorado State University’s library in 2003, when he was taking graduate classes. He was on a break looking at a map and noticed the state’s northwest corner, where he once managed ranches and farms.
Million fixated on the Green River curving into Colorado through Brown’s Park just below Flaming Gorge Reservoir – a 40-year-old impoundment.
The sight hit him like a lightning bolt, Million said.
“I saw that loop and said, ‘What is that?’ I knew immediately the benefits that it would mean for Colorado. I knew instantly that the game would change for the state.”
The river’s 41-mile jog into Colorado allows for a legal filing and appropriation of water for use in Colorado. Moreover, it meant water could be used out of Flaming Gorge Reservoir – which holds back 3.8 million acre-feet of the Green River fed by glaciers and snowmelt from the Wind River Mountains.
Million made the project his master’s thesis. He formed the Million Conservation Resource Group and gathered water attorneys, engineers and former water officials.
He met with the state’s major water users – Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, Aurora Water and Denver Water and state officials – seeking comments.
“No one has found a snake bite or a fatal flaw,” Million said.
Yet, some have expressed concerns about how the project fits into the hierarchy of Colorado water rights and what it could do to the state’s allotment on the dwindling Colorado River.
“The biggest question about this project and all other projects of similar sort is how much water do we have left?” said Eric Kuhn, director of the Colorado River Water Conservancy.
Competition for water rights
The state of Colorado has never used its full portion of water in the Colorado River that was established under the 1922 Colorado River Compact.
Average consumption is 2.3 million acre-feet a year.
Million says Colorado should take more of its share, not letting the water flow downstream.
Others worry that the river is overappropriated and has less water than believed.
They fear if Colorado takes too much water with projects like Million’s, lower basin states of California, Arizona and Nevada could shut down Colorado’s water projects – known as a “compact call.”
In a compact call, senior water rights would trump junior ones. Front Range utility officials worry where Million’s project would fall in the hierarchy.
“None of the utilities want to see that project move forward if they put their existing systems and water rights at risk,” said Chips Barry, general manager of Denver Water.
Million said his project will likely get a 2007 water right or a 1957 priority based on the authorization of the reservoir, both junior to Front Range utilities.
“A more likely scenario is, the states won’t wait for disaster,” said Million’s attorney, William Hillhouse. “If we are at risk, there will be some sort of conservation measures to keep us from falling over the cliff.”
Environmental considerations
Other critics fear Million’s project could threaten endangered fish species on the Green River – specifically the Colorado pikeminnow.
“Taking that amount of water out is not something that can be done,” said Dan Luecke, environmentalist with the Upper Basin Fish Recovery Program. “To think all of that water is going to be taken out upstream and the environmental community doesn’t have a problem with that, I just don’t think that is so.”
A study last year said releases from Flaming Gorge should mimic pre-dam flows, control water temperatures and create backwater habitat in the Green River for the fish.
Million says his project would not alter that process. And the project will undergo a thorough environmental study before it is built, he said.
Million is now waiting for an answer from the Bureau of Reclamation on his formal request for a water supply contract out of the Flaming Gorge, which is expected within the next month.
To his detractors who doubt the pipeline will ever be built, Million scoffs.
“They can talk about that at the coffee shop while we are drinking beer from the water that we brought in,” he said. “We’ll send them over a big, 16-ounce mug.”
Staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer may be reached at 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
