CB council will keep an eye on Flaming Gorge water project

But not yet ready to take a position

While they want to keep an eye on the situation, the Crested Butte Town Council members aren’t yet ready to take a formal position on a proposal to move water from west of the Continental Divide to the Front Range.

The council was approached in early January by “Protect the Flows” consultant Jeremy Rubingh. He asked the council to approve a resolution opposing the proposed Flaming Gorge Pipeline project. That project would move about 250,000 acre-feet of water out of the Green River and Flaming Gorge Reservoir each year through approximately 560 miles of pipe to the Front Range.
“This proposal is so bad and has so many issues that communities all across the West Slope, even historically ‘conservative’ ones like Grand Junction, are banding together to oppose,” Rubingh wrote to the council in a memo for the January 3 meeting.
Town Public Works director Rodney Due wrote a memo to the council for the January 17 meeting stating that based on his research, the proposal was withdrawn from the Army Corps of Engineers review process and was moved to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
Due said he spoke with the general counsel for the Colorado River District Conservation District and he said he didn’t expect FERC to approve the project. He also informed Due that the formal comment period to FERC is over. Due recommended to the council not to comment on the project since “it would be premature to write a letter of support at this time.”
Rubingh argued that since the FERC comment period was over, the council comment would actually carry more weight since it could be “directed to our state representatives, governor, congressional representatives and so on, not to FERC.”
“I think the council should get ahead of the game on this,” Rubingh said. “If we’re against it and we know it, why not do it now?”
Due said the people he spoke with either said the project wasn’t even on the radar or felt it was going nowhere. “It’s an important issue and I was just passing along information and facts. No one seems to think it is a priority at the moment,” he said.
Town manager Susan Parker agreed. “When public comment is taken, if it is submitted during a comment period, it becomes part of the record and has more impact than comments taken outside the period. There is no comment period going on right now,” she said.
Parker said the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District board is also waiting to take a stand on the project. “I talked to the director, Frank Kugel, and he said the board is also waiting. They haven’t taken a position yet.”
“It seems the two trains of thought [are] either ‘save our bullets’ vs. an ‘emotional, do something now’ stand,” summed up mayor Aaron Huckstep.
High Country Citizens Alliance water director Jennifer Bock said the council could do both. “There will be a time to make deeper comments,” she said. “Right now, Protect the Flows is looking for more of a policy statement. There aren’t a lot of reasons for a West Slope community to support this idea.”
Bock said the idea of the Flaming Gorge project is simply wrong. “The concept of a big water development like this is sort of a dinosaur from the past,” she said.
“So what’s the drawback of taking a position now?” asked councilperson David Owen.
Huckstep responded that the local impacts haven’t been explored. “It could use more scrutiny,” he said. “I think at this moment we can’t make an informed decision yet.”
Council members Glenn Michel and Roland Mason both said more information was needed before the council could take a position.
“We’ll monitor it as it moves through the process,” promised Parker. “We’ll also look to Frank Kugel and Steve Glazer and Jennifer for guidance. We really rely on Frank and his team to guide us. When the time is right, we want a strong statement.”
“I agree that the Upper Gunnison board is where we look to for leadership on these issues,” agreed Huckstep.
The council took no action on Rubingh’s request.