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PRESSER: BuRec and Walton Family Endorse Massive Fontenelle Dam Expansion; Save The Colorado Will Fight It

For Immediate Release
May 25, 2018
Contact: Gary Wockner, Save The Colorado, 970-218-8310

PRESS RELEASE: BuRec and Walton Family Endorse Massive Fontenelle Dam Expansion; Save The Colorado Will Fight It

Green River, USA: Yesterday, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation sent out a press release saying it would help move forward the biggest proposed new diversion of water out of the entire Colorado River system. (press release here) The so-called “Fontenelle Dam Rip-Rap” would allow the State of Wyoming to divert up to a new 150,000 acre feet/year of water out of the Green River. The State of Wyoming says it would use the water for farming and “energy extraction”.

Ironically, just a few days ago, the same Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Brenda Burman, issued a dire warning to the entire Colorado River basin that its reservoirs — including Lake Mead — could hit “dead pool” in the next several years due to drought. However, Burman did not mention the looming water crisis while endorsing the massive new diversion by the Fontenelle expansion.

“Colorado River water politics are truly insane,” said Gary Wockner of Save The Colorado. “Up is down, right is left, wrong is right — agencies say one thing one day, and the opposite the very next day, and no one blinks an eye.”

What may be even crazier is that just last year the massive funder of environmental groups in the Colorado River basin, the Walton Family Foundation, has also endorsed the Fontenelle Dam expansion (page 16), calling it a “critical infrastructure project”.

In addition, Senate Bill 2800, called “America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018“, passed out of the U.S. Senate Public Works Committee on May 22nd. The Bill would allow the “Colorado River Storage Project” to be amended so the State of Wyoming could divert the new water out of Fontenelle Dam.

“Massive forces are colluding to further drain and destroy the Colorado River and force the Southwest U.S. into watery chaos,” said Wockner. “But they still appear to need federal permits, and so Save The Colorado will intervene however we can to try to stop it.”

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