Court rejects Green River pipeline plan to move Utah water to Colorado

(UI) — The Utah Supreme Court has rejected a proposal to divert tens of thousands of acre-feet of water from the Green River, a tributary of the Colorado River, to Colorado through a planned cross-state pipeline.

In a unanimous decision, the court ruled that Water Horse Resources failed to show the diverted water would be put to beneficial use outside Utah, as required under state water export laws. The project sought to export up to 55,000 acre-feet per year of Utah’s share of Colorado River water by pumping it across Wyoming into Colorado for industrial and municipal users.

Justice Diana Hagen, writing for the court, said the developer “failed to establish a reason to believe that the exported water can be put to beneficial use in Colorado,” noting that the Utah State Engineer had previously denied the application for similar reasons. The decision upholds lower-court rulings that sided with the state’s water regulators and environmental groups that opposed the project.

The court emphasized that Utah’s water export statute requires clear evidence of a feasible end use before an appropriation can be granted. Without that assurance, the justices said, the proposal lacked legal standing.

The ruling ends a years-long push to move Utah’s Colorado River allocation out of state and underscores the growing scrutiny over large-scale diversion projects in the drought-prone basin.

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