21,000 Oppose Disastrous Western Water Pipeline Ahead of Tuesday Vote

"This'll only cost you $9 billion," reads a billboard put up over the weekend on the side of I-70 near Grand Junction, Colorado.

Pictured is the desolate scene—the parched dry bed of the Colorado River's largest tributary— that would become reality if a proposed water project called the Flaming Gorge Pipeline ever gets built.

The pipeline would spell disaster on a number of levels, according to experts, editorial boards and activists in the region. With the astronomical cost of piping water from Southwest Wyoming's Green River to Colorado, 560 miles up and over the continental divide, the piped water would be the most expensive in the state's history, delivered to fuel even more unsustainable population growth along Colorado's booming Front Range.

The Flaming Gorge Pipeline would would also devastate the Green River ecosystem and Dinosaur National Monument. This can't be a good sign for thousands of recreational river users and the significant local tourism businesses they support. Lastly, given that the Flaming Gorge would withdraw 81 billion gallons a year from the Colorado's largest tributary, this pipeline is only going to exacerbate existing intractable conflicts among the seven Basin states that share this increasingly scare resource.

So what's a concerned citizen to do?

More than 21,000 have signed Save the Colorado's petition on Change.org (short link: http://stopflaminggorgepipeline.org) to stop this pipeline in its tracks.

The project—proposed by Aaron Million, a controversial private developer from Fort Collins—is in its early stages and has been altered a number of times to exploit the regulatory path of least resistance. The latest twist is an application for $150,000 from the Colorado Water Conservation Board to commission a special study that would expedite this project. The petition asks the Board members, appointed by Governor Hickenlooper, to reject spending taxpayer dollars on "studying" a misguided project that shouldn't even be considered in the first place. The vote happens tomorrow, and this petition will close at the end of today so that signatures and comments can be delivered tomorrow at the meeting.

A coalition of dozens of regional conservation, sportsman and recreation groups are behind the mass mobilization. They are also supported by a number of local businesses and larger green-minded companies, such as Patagonia, Teva and New Belgium Brewing Company. Through their work publicizing the issue, key editorial in key papers such as the Grand Junction Sentinel and Denver Post have opposed the grant.

But most important may be the show of grassroots opposition to a body of board members who are unused to such a strong reaction from the public.

In addition to the signatures, more than 1,000 people have left impassioned comments on the petition to further explain why they care. Read just a few and, if you have a few moments today, sign the petition and share it with your friends. There's one day left to take a stand.

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