Photo: Kent Vertrees, AW Volunteer
FERC Dismisses Preliminary Permit for Flaming Gorge Pipeline
In September, 2011, Wyco Power and Water, Inc., filed a preliminary permit application to study the feasibility of developing the Regional Watershed Supply Project. This project would include seven hydropower projects and 501-mile water pipeline that would run from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir and the Green River in Wyoming to a proposed reservoir near Pueblo, Colorado.
This week, FERC dismissed the preliminary permit application.
Conservation Alliance grantee, American Whitewater to a lead in the opposition of the project that would have had significant impacts on the iconic river canyons of the Green and Colorado Rivers, including Gates of Lodore, Desolation and Gray Canyons, and Cataract Canyon, among others.
Nathan Fey, Director of American Whitewater's Colorado River Stewardship Program had this to say after the FERC decision was announced:
"Support from the Conservation Alliance in 2006 was instrumental in launching our work in the Colorado basin, including the Yampa/Green River Project. Our big-picture goals in these basins is to prevent any large-scale water transfer from either the Green or Yampa Rivers, and to ensure that these iconic waterways, which run through Dinosaur National Monument, Desolation and Gray Canyons, Canyonlands National Park and Cataract Canyon, are protected and restored.
These rivers are critical components of the Colorado River system and of AW's Colorado River Program. With support from Conservation Alliance, we've been able to make significant progress in protecting these places."
This decision is a significant milestone for conservation and protection of the Colorado River Basin.
Photo: Kent Vertrees, AW Volunteer