By Gary Harmon Grand Junction Sentinel
With the state’s approval of plans for water to operate a proposed nuclear plant just outside Green River, Utah, the developer cleared a major hurdle.
Opponents of the plant, however, said they would move quickly to reverse the decision by the Utah State Engineer’s Office on Friday to approve a request by two counties downstream from Green River to change their points of diversion to accommodate the power plant.
The significance of the approval of the plans by Blue Castle LLC, named for the rock formation on the Book Cliffs that overlooks the site of the proposed plant west of Green River, can hardly be understated, Blue Castle President and CEO Aaron Tilton said.
If the company had to prioritize its assets, “Water would be number one,” Tilton said.
Blue Castle faces four more years of regulatory work before it begins construction on the two-generator plant, which is estimated to cost about $18 billion to construct. Backers of the plan said the plant will mean about 2,000 high-paying jobs.
John Weisheit of LivingRivers.org in Moab, Utah, downstream on the Colorado River, called the state engineer’s decision “a tragic mistake” that will force the recognition that there is no water left in the river for the plant.
The decision is “not helping” to quell controversy among the states on the question of how much water remains in the Upper Colorado River Basin and is making issues more contentious, Weisheit said.
Conservation organizations are lining up to ask the state engineer’s office to reverse the decision, the first step before it can be appealed to the courts, Weisheit said, noting he is confident of the opposition case.
“I’m going to enjoy this one,” Weisheit said.
The 53,600 acre-feet of water expected to be used annually by the nuclear plant already have been set aside for use by coal-fired plants, but the projects never were built. Blue Castle is leasing the rights from San Juan and Kane counties.
The plant will pull water from the Green River and use it to cool the reactors. There are no plans to return the water to the river.
Backers maintain that even in drought conditions the effect of the plant on the level of the Green River will be minimal.
The economies of Emery and Grand counties both stand to be improved by the plant, said Mike McCandless, economic-development director for Emery County, population 1,100, which would be home to the plant. Neighboring Grand County and the town of Moab have served as a wellspring of opposition to the plant, with dozens of residents turning out last year to voice opposition in a public hearing.
Grand County, however, stands to be a “big winner” if the plant moves forward because 30 percent to 40 percent of the employees will come from there, McCandless said.
“I am having more folks from Moab reach out to me in support” of the nuclear plant, McCandless said.
While the nuclear plant is moving toward approval by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, another proposal to use Green River water to supply the burgeoning Colorado Front Range also is under study.
Fort Collins businessman Aaron Million, a Green River, Utah, native, said the Blue Castle proposal was “interesting.”
It’s unlikely that his project will conflict with the nuclear plant, Million said, because he is proposing to use only Colorado’s share of water from the Green River, which dips into the northwest corner of Colorado after leaving Wyoming and flowing into Utah.
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/articles/water-deal-big-win-for-nuke-plant
