WildEarth Guardians

A Force for Nature

Select Page
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

Confronting short-sighted Colorado River diversion project

Save the Colorado et al. v. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Status
Pending, Lost in district court (decision issued on 12/10/20); settled on appeal
Case No.
1:17-cv-02563
Date Filed
October 27, 2017
State, Venue
Colorado, Colorado Federal District Court
Lawyers
Environmental Law Clinic at Univ. of Denver Sturm College of Law
Program
Rivers
In October 2017, a coalition of environmental groups, including Guardians, filed suit against the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) over a planned diversion from the already stressed Colorado River. The lawsuit challenges the Windy Gap Firming Project, which proposes to divert nearly 10 billion gallons (30,000 acre-feet) of water annually from the iconic river to Colorado’s Front Range for municipal use. The Northern Colorado Water Conservation District (Northern Water), the project proponent, wants the diversion to fuel population growth and development in the burgeoning Front Range metropolises from Estes Park east to Greeley and from Fort Collins south to Boulder. The environmental groups claim the federal agencies, in approving the proposal, did not properly consider the full range of environmental impacts of the project, nor did they consider viable alternatives to the diversion.

The federal agencies’ poor decision making in approving the project at face value without exploring and evaluating the actual water needs of Front Range communities and the numerous negative environmental effects of the plan is short-sighted and is in direct violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Clean Water Act (CWA). The lawsuit requested that the court declare the agencies’ approval for the proposal invalid and require the agencies to complete in-depth assessments of possible alternatives and environmental impacts of the project. The court ruled against the plaintiffs on all counts. Plaintiffs appealed and the case settled on appeal. In the settlement, the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District agreed to pay a total of $15 million, over a period of years, “for the design, construction and maintenance of projects to improve a) aquatic habitat, b) riparian habitat, or c) water quality…” in areas of Grand County, Colorado, affected by the Project. The settlement agreement ends the 18-year battle over the permitting and construction of the Project.

All Cases