The Tenth Circuit unlawfully greenlighted a water contract that gives Utah 72,600 acre-feet of water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir each year, environmental groups said in a petition that asked the full court to take another look at the case.
Center for Biological Diversity: DENVER The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments Thursday on a challenge to a federal decision allowing Utah to take tens of thousands of additional acre-feet of water each year from the Upper Colorado River Basin at the Green River below Flaming Gorge Dam. The Interior Department’s 2019 decision failed to account for drought-induced climate warming.
Split into basins by an imaginary border at Lees Ferry, Arizona, each state can share blame for the rapid depletion of reservoirs that once held over four years’ flow of the Colorado River. But now,…