Hello Fishing Friends,
Hopefully you have had a year full of fishing adventures and are taking advantage of the fantastic fall!
Today, I am writing for your help in the support of trout and the beautiful places they live.
Unfortunately, the “Million Pipeline” has reared its ugly head once again. This terrible project won’t die and has moved into a public comment period. My fishing buddy, Lance Egan, wrote a great piece about it on his FF blog and provides some details about this project.
It affects the Green River in Utah and Wyoming by diverting water to the Colorado front range. This would be a devastating blow to the landscape of this beautiful area. I know for some of you this may be a long way from where you fish but it is a very special place that I hope you can help us save.
Take a few minutes to learn about it and then make your opinion a part of the proceedings by following the instructions below. It is very easy and only takes a minute or two!!
To leave comments on www.ferc.gov:
- Go to www.ferc.gov
- Go to Documents and Filings
- Go to eComment
Click on the orange “ecomment” box. Next it will ask for your name and email address. Once given, you will receive an email with a link to the comment form.
- The Docket # for the Flaming Gorge Pipeline is p-14263
If you are not sure what to say, you can review what others have said by looking here:
- Enter the docket # p-14263 and hit “SUBMIT”.
- Then look under any filing and hit the “FILE LIST” link and then hit the “XXXXX.TXT” link.
Open comment period runs until Dec. 17th, 2011 so do it NOW!
If we haven’t chatted for awhile, feel free to drop me a line and let me know how you are doing!
Catch ya’ later,
Kurt
3 Comments
Thanks Kurt, for helping out, and thanks to all who care enough to respond to FERC. The Green River below Flaming Gorge Dam is home to some of the highest local fish densities in North America. The crystal clear water, the wild brown trout, and the gorgeous high desert surroundings, make it one of the most visually stimulating places to wet a line.
Truly a place that after fishing hard all day, getting nothing, you cannot say as you walk away, “There just didn’t seem like there were any fish in there.”
This a very important issue! Kurt please get in touch with the folks at Protect the Flows Protect our Profits! This organization has protecting the Green River and Colorado River from flow tapping and river destroying projects. We are going to DC on the Dec. 4-6 to put some ideas on the table.
Zeke
Downstream trout fishing’ is only one of the resources threatened by Mr.
Millon’s project. River flows will be altered by the project (especially
during drought periods) which could have a profound effect on key riparian
and aquatic downstream resources within National Parks (Dinosaur NM) and
BLM lands. At the very least insist that NPS step up to the plate and
respond appropriately to this proposal at all stages either as a
cooperating agency or as an outside commentor. You may hear from some
that NPS has no authority to give such input, however, the 1978 amendment
to the NPS Organic Act says differently. Sepcifically, that the Secretary
of the Interior is specifical ly charged with protecting parks from
outside effects. (Current leadership will not use this authority for fear
of losing jobs) Politicians are scared of NPS in DC and its better just
to keep them muzzeled. You can see just how much effect NPS can have by
what happened in at Echo Park. Therefore you must take your concerns
directly to NPS (and other agencies) leadership in DC and to the Secretary
of Interior. The local land managers including the RDs have been told to
keep a low profile so if left to their own devices they will not say
anything the least bit disparaging or even insist that the proper
environmental documents are prepared. DC managers want to pretend they
are looking out for the environment but are telling the local land
managers to back off from any enforcement and keep the water politics cool
out in the west.
Any environmental impact statement that is written by FERC should include
a complete analysis of the effects of the proposal during extreme drought
conditions since that is when the effects would be most pronounced. While
FERC is the lead, Million must prepare the first set of environmental
documents so comment heavily when the proposed study plan documents are
relased since that specifies what Milloin must evaluate for the EIS. Also
remember that while FERC is the lead on the EIS at this point, they claim
FERC only responsible for the hydroelectric portion of the EIS. There is
likely to be a much larger piece of the project that is water delivery
only and other agencies, like BLM and BOR, will be in charge of that
piece, however, the public will be lead to believe that FERC is in charge.
The Army Corps will still enforce the Clean Water Act requirements.
Insist that BLM and BOR analyze all enviroinmental effects of the water
delivery system including the cultural effects. The game that is being
played now is that the environmental effects of increased growth caused by
the new water would not be considered uin the EIS because the growth would
have happened anyway.
There is a parallel ongoing process in Utah called the Lake Powell
Pipeline Project. The proponent there (Utah Department of Water
Resources) choose to use FERC as well because there is perception that the
process is more streamlined. The LPP is further along in the process than
Million’s who is just getting started but if you want to see how the
process has worked thus far look at the FERC website for the LPP. NPS has
been severely throttled from saying anything disparaging and for insisting
on a proper environmental analysis. People have already lost their jobs.
The state of utah who is promoting the LPP is running into problems with
financing. They are asking the citizens of the state to cough up 1.4
billion for a project that benefts a handful of people in southern Utah,
and even the governor is choking a little. UDWR is jamming the
environmental process and pulling out all their political stops so that
effects to water supplies are glossed over and the consequencial effects
water withdwrawal are not analyzed at all wth the conclusion that there
are no effects of the project to downstream resources. Expect the same
for Mr. Million’s project if it gets that far since many of the same
players are involved.
Your group could be a major player in the evolution or termination of this
project but you must consistently engage the agencies and the proponents.
If you want to make a difference you must stay engaged.