STOP MOFFAT: Why we oppose Denver Water’s river draining, dam-expansion plan

Save The Colorado has taken a formal position in opposition to Denver Water’s Moffat Collection System Project. We oppose the project for these Top Ten Reasons:

1. The Moffat Project would further drain and destroy the Fraser River and its tributaries in Grand County.

2. The Moffat Project would further drain the Upper Colorado River, which has been named one of the Most Endangered Rivers in America, and is already near the brink of collapse.

3. The Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Moffat Project was filled with fatal flaws.

4. The proposed mitigation for the project won’t even remotely mitigate the impacts to the rivers, streams, habitat, and fisheries in Grand County and downstream.

5. Denver Water says it “needs” the water, but nearly half of all of Denver’s current water and future proposed water from Moffat is used to keep lawn’s green for 3 months in Colorado’s late-summer semi-desert environment.

6. The Final Environmental Impact Statement completely fails to address the impact of the diversion on the Colorado River Compact and the potential for a “call on the river” especially in light of future climate change which will further decrease flows.

7. The Moffat Project would require a massive 5-year construction project — the largest in Boulder County history — to expand Gross Dam and Reservoir that would completely disrupt the lives and quality of life of homeowners living near and around the reservoir in Southwestern Boulder County.

8. Denver Water doesn’t need more water, but even if it wants more water it can easily get more water by investing more money in alternative water supply systems including water conservation, efficiency, reuse/recycling, growth management, and working with farmers.

9. The construction project to expand Gross Dam would be a huge emitter of greenhouse gas emissions, an impact that is not studied in the Final Environmental Impact Statement.

10. Instead of hiring independent, peer-reviewed, unbiased scientists to analyze the Moffat Project proposal, the Army Corps of Engineers hired engineering firms — which specialize in building dams and large construction projects — to create the Final Environmental Impact Statement, and thus the entire process is biased and scientifically invalid.

Save The Colorado has inserted numerous documents, comments, and technical reports into the Army Corps of Engineers’ permitting process for the Moffat Project. We are waiting now to see what the Corps will do — they say they will make a permitting decision in “2016.”

StopMoffat.org