On August 23, a coalition of conservation groups sent a notice letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, notifying the Service that a proposed dam expansion violates the Endangered Species Act and giving it 60 days to make a new plan for protecting threatened trout or face potential litigation.
Denver Water’s proposed expansion of Gross Dam in Boulder County, Colo., would divert more water out of small headwater streams that contain the green lineage cutthroat trout, an imperiled species listed under the Endangered Species Act. Thousands of the trout would be killed as a result of operating the new project, but the Service failed to analyze the threat to the fish in its rush to allow even more water to be withdrawn from the Colorado River.
The conservation coalition includes Save The Colorado, Waterkeeper Alliance, The Environmental Group, Guardians, Living Rivers, and Sierra Club.
Read the press release.
