Colorado River Update: As The River Collapses, They’re Still Trying To Build More Dams!

Hi Friends of the Colorado River!

It’s your support that keeps us working hard! Please donate online by clicking here.

You’re all hearing the extreme bad news about the devastating drought on the Colorado River. The river itself is at some of the lowest flows in history including through the delicate ecosystem of the Grand Canyon. Reservoirs are collapsing. Politicians and decision-makers — including the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation — are enacting “EMERGENCY” measures to try and save Glen Canyon Dam.

But, through all of that, they’re still trying to build more new dams and diversions in the Upper Basin (Colorado, Wyoming, Utah) and we are still fighting them.

Three proposed massive dam projects are expected to trigger their permitting processes in 2022 and we are the ONLY environmental group in the Southwest U.S. that tracks every project and works to stop them in their tracks.

First, the proposed White River Storage Project in Northwest Colorado (Rio Blanco County) is expected to start its permitting process any day now. The White River flows out of Colorado and into the Green River in Utah. The Rio Blanco County Commissioners just gave $4 million to the Rio Blanco Water Conservancy District to launch the process. The massive half-mile long dam would flood a beautiful valley and require huge amounts of water to be pumped up and out of the White River. We are following it closely and will intervene at the earliest possible moment.

Second, the proposed massive 280-foot tall dam on Battle Creek above the Little Snake River in Wyoming is also expected to trigger its permitting this year. The Little Snake River flows into the Yampa River in Colorado which also flows into the Green River in Utah. The proposed boondoggle of a dam even includes a proposed land swap where the U.S. Forest Service would give away public land we all own to the water conservation district proposing to build the dam. Again, we are following it closely and will intervene at the earliest possible moment.

Finally, the Homestake III project — also called the “Whitney Reservoir Project” — in Eagle County, CO, is likely to trigger its permitting process this year. Homestake Creek flows into the Eagle River which flows into the Colorado River along I-70 in Western Colorado. This project would be another huge siphon of water from the Western Slope of Colorado over to the metastasizing Front Range including the Denver-to-Colorado Springs megalopolis. We are in the thick of this fight and are watching it at every step.

If you think it’s INSANE to be further damming and diverting the Colorado River system at this point in history, you are absolutely accurate. Yet, insanity prevails and that’s why organizations like Save The Colorado exist. Altogether, these projects would take tens-of-billions of gallons of more water out of the river each year making all the ecological and political chaos even worse.

We will do everything we can to stop, stall, or significant alter these projects. Our legal and science teams are poised with pencils ready to pounce when these permitting projects begin.

It’s your support that keeps us working hard! Please donate online by clicking here.

Thank you!!