Colorado River Update: Our Fight To Stop Holy Cross Dam Highlighted in Denver Post!

Hi Friends of the Colorado River,

Last Sunday’s Denver Post highlighted our fight to stop a proposed new dam in the Holy Cross Wilderness in Colorado. This proposed new dam and diversion would divert up to 24 billion gallons of new water out of the headwaters of the Colorado River every year to be slathered across bluegrass lawns in the sprawling Denver-to-Colorado Springs megalopolis.

As bad or worse, the project would drown and destroy irreplaceable wetlands in and near the Wilderness Area and cause irreparable damage to the Whitney Creek watershed.

The story mentions our legal opposition to the project, “Environmental groups led by Colorado Headwaters, the Sierra Club, Save the Colorado and WildEarth Guardians strongly oppose the dam and reservoir.”  We are locked and loaded with a legal team readying to pounce if the U.S. Forest Service issues the permit to drill test holes for the dam.

The story, by longtime environmental reporter Bruce Finley, correctly nails the issue — that population growth is driving the desire for this dam and all the new proposed dams along the sprawling, booming Front Range of Colorado. On that issue, I waded into the story:

“Opposing all new dams and reservoirs, Save the Colorado director Gary Wockner counters that an ideology of “growth-ism” pervades government and is driving the destruction of nature. Colorado Springs, Aurora and possible Western Slope partners pushing for a reservoir reflects the grip of growth-ism that is “devouring the soul of the natural and cultural landscape of our state,” Wockner said.

Rest assured, we are fighting hard to stop this dam and bring sanity back to the river-protection world in Colorado. Most of the big environmental groups sit these fights out, and it’s our scrappy laser-like focus on dam opposition that is Save The Colorado’s unique niche. After all, a river that is dammed and diverted is not a river at all!

And, it’s your support that keeps us working hard fighting these dams and protecting the Colorado River watershed.

Please donate by clicking through to our website here: http://savethecolorado.org/donate/

Thank you for your support!

Gary Wockner, Save The Colorado