Major water interests in Colorado are trying to put the brakes on a plan to bring a pipeline from Flaming Gorge Reservoir across Wyoming to Colorado’s Front Range. Aaron Million, who developed a theory to use the water for Colorado as a graduate student at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, is applying for a 165,000-acre-foot allocation from Flaming Gorge through the Bureau of Reclamation. He wants to move the water to thirsty Front Range communities through a 400-mile pipeline along the Interstate 80 utilities corridor to serve communities in Colorado. Million said the water could help fulfill development of Colorado’s entitlement under the Colorado River Compact. The claim is based on the Green River, which flows below Flaming Gorge through Utah, but briefly enters and leaves Colorado near Dinosaur National Monument. “This is the least environmentally damaging project when you look at pipelines that are proposed from Pueblo to the (Cache La) Poudre (River),” Million said. “It adds a large storage component to Colorado’s water system.” Million is displeased by the reaction of state water users to his project, saying they are protecting territorial interests, rather than looking for statewide solutions.

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