The new Headwaters River Museum and Ecology Center opened July 14 in Winter Park next to Hernando's.
Utah produces some of the most environmentally damaging crude oil around. Called “waxy crude”, it’s hard to get out of the ground, to process into useful petroleum products and especially difficult and dangerous to ship.
The current proposal for moving this goopy petroleum to refineries includes via train through Grand County along the Colorado River. As many as ten trains as much as two miles long would move the crude through Grand County each day.
Our Trout Unlimited Chapter’s relationship with Denver Water and other diverters has evolved considerably over time. Not that long ago, we fought bitterly in court with diverters. Ultimately, we came to recognize that the diverters had both the well-established legal right to the water as well as the political clout and deep pockets to doom virtually all litigation on our part. We acknowledged that legal battles with the diverters were doomed to failure.
We realized that the strategy that would yield the best real-world outcome to protect our rivers was to communicate and (when appropriate) cooperate with the diverters. Our strategy of working with the diverters, while continuing to apply pressure on them to do the right things has resulted in many, many successes. Read Kirk’s letter for more insights.