No Gunnison Water for the Front Range

Good morning readers,

Good news for the Western Slope and Gunnison County this week. The final decision was made on an earlier ruling regarding a HUGE Western Colorado water storage and distribution proposal by Natural Energy Resources.

Essentially, the judge upheld the determination that there isn’t enough Western Slope water to support such a project. Review the article below.

Thanks for visiting today.

Channing Boucher
Visit My Site

Big CO water-pumping project quashed
 
DENVER – Colorado’s highest court has upheld an earlier ruling to cancel the Natural Energy Resources Co.’s conditional permit to pipe water from the Gunnison River to Arapahoe County, according to an Associated Press report on CBS 4.

Natural Energy Resources proposed constructing a reservoir near Crested Butte to store up to 1.2 million acre-feet of Gunnison River water for use by the state’s populous Front Range communities, the story said.

In August 2005, state water court Judge Steven Patrick canceled Natural Energy Resources’ 20-year-old water right after determining there was not enough water available for the company to move ahead with the project, according to the article.

John McClow, general counsel for the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District, which called the proposal a threat to its water, said in the report that the Supreme Court ruling "was the final nail in the coffin" of the water project.