Another stab at Green River water

Aaron Million is at it again.

Speaking to the Green River City Council Tuesday night, Richard Mathey, a member of Communities Protecting the Green, said Million has revised a pipeline project that would divert water from the Browns Park area in Utah to the Colorado Front Range.

CPG is a five-member organization funded by local governments that keeps an eye on possible water projects that would impact Sweetwater County and the politics revolving around the water usage laws, which Mathey describes as “mind-numbingly” complex.

Mathey said the proposal is significantly scaled back, as the proposal would aim to divert 25,000-acre feet of water as opposed to his initial project involving the Flaming Gorge Reservoir, which aimed to divert 250,000-acre feet.

“These are the things we keep an eye on,” Mathey said.

Don Hartley, a long-serving member of the organization, isn’t too concerned with Million’s proposal, but thinks a more significant threat comes from a coalition of Colorado and Eastern Wyoming entities also seeking a transbasin diversion. Hartley said the coalition is made up of customers Million originally tried to court with his previous projects.

“They’re still in business, they’re alive and well,” Hartley said.

Mathey said Wyoming municipalities, Cheyenne and Torrington, are involved in the coalition. Mathey believes the inclusion of Wyoming-based interests was designed to help the project go down easier with communities that would be impacted by the diversion.

Councilwoman Lisa Maes is critical of communities in the Front Range that continue to build despite lacking water.

“These communities ... where they’re just building and building and building ... want to drain these other communities,” she said. “If you don’t have enough resources, you need to stop building.”