Aaron Million
Entrepreneur Aaron Million on Friday filed for a second hearing on a federal permit to study development of seven hydropower sites along a 501-mile buried water pipeline that he’s proposed from Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Wyoming to a series of new and expanded reservoirs he’s planning from Fort Collins to Pueblo.
Million’s project would pump 200,000 acre-feet of water a year through federal lands to supply the Front Range and to generate electricity at the power stations.
On Feb. 23, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission dismissed Wyco Power and Water Inc.’s application for a preliminary permit on the basis it was premature. Officials said there was no purpose in issuing a hydropower permit without information on construction and operation of the pipeline, which Million couldn’t provide.
Conservationists hailed the decision as a victory for the environment because, they said, Million’s project, which would divert water from the Upper Colorado River Basin to Front Range cities, would drastically lower the level of Flaming Gorge Reservoir, threaten four species of endangered fish, and further harm ecosystems, wildlife and recreation.
“We hope that FERC will reject this appeal, and the project will die a much-deserved death,” wildlife biologist and fisheries protection advocate Erik Molvar said in a statement from the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance.
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