Sunday, May 17, 2009

Comment period for "The Big Straw" extended until July 27

Wyomingites are calling it "The Big Straw."

It's the water diversion project cooked up by some guy in Colorado with the last ominous name "Million," as in "I want a million gallons of your water -- for starters."

Million and his entrepreneurial pals plan to divert water from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir in southwest Wyoming to the Front Range of Colorado.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is holding scoping hearings on the project. The Corps held what the Casper Star-Tribune called a "contentious meeting" on April 14 with the townfolk of Green River. The Green runs right through the town on its way to Flaming Gorge. Green Riverites are afraid that "The Big Straw" will turn the river into a rivulet and the gorge into a puddle.

Army Corps of Engineers project manager Rena Brand said the agency has extended its deadline for accepting public comments for inclusion to July 27. The input will go into an environmental impact statement that may take up to three years to assemble.

But how can anyonwe predict how much water will be flowing out of the Wind River Mountains and into the Green River Valley in the next decade?

Bill Sniffin, a columnist from Lander who ran for governor on the Republican side in 2002, said in a syndicated column today that experts have seen increased melting of the glaciers in the mountain range. Add a drought to that, and there may not be enough water in the Green for current users once the Corps makes up its mind. It was in Bill's column where I saw "The Big Straw" reference. I also saw it recently in The Denver Post.

Global climate change is a moving target.

Meanwhile, get yourself to one of these scoping meetings and see if you can carry on Wyoming's contentious reputation when it comes to water thievery.

1 comment:

New Orleans Ladder said...

Hey Y'all. I don't know if your Corps is at all like the Exquisite Corps we have down here, but...
If they already have you going to these "scoping" meetings then the game is pretty much over. You can scream until blood pours out of your ears, but the Fix is in, you actual concerns are patsy.
The Corps has this Flack-Catcher game completely down'pat. Yes, they will hear you. Yes, your comments will be entered into the public record. NO, your public concerns will not make a prairie dog's ass of a difference to how this project will proceed, Not One Difference.
Just sayin... we deal with these scoping meetings all the time. Sometimes they get downright embarrasing.
By attending them, you folks acquiesce in a way to the notion that this is a done deal, and it is only a matter of going through these "scoping" meetings. We call them "Cool Aid Partays".

So, if you don't want this Water Titan to steal all of your water, then y'all had better gear-it up a bit more and make your wishes Physically Evident.

I mean, it looks to me from my own experience, that the Corps is already looking at y'all through a rear-view mirror.
You might try seeing them through our mirror.

Thank you,
Editilla~New Orleans Ladder