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A pipeline from Flaming Gorge Reservoir to Colorado's Front Range is past the proposal stage and the project is moving forward, project developer Aaron Million said Wednesday.

"The Green River runs above average 25 to 30 percent of the time when Colorado's rivers are running below average," said Million of Fort Collins. "Water taken out of the reservoir would be charged to Colorado. It would benefit agriculture that is getting decimated on the Front Range."

His words came during the Yampa/White Basin roundtable at the Holiday Inn of Craig.

Flaming Gorge Reservoir straddles the Wyoming/Utah border, just east of where the two states and Colorado come together.

The plan entails sending 165,000 acre-feet of water annually to eastern Colorado via a pipeline running through southern Wyoming with pumps powered by natural gas turbines along the route.

An acre-foot of water is the amount required to cover one acre of land a foot deep in water, or 325,851 gallons. Flaming Gorge Reservoir holds 3 million acre-feet of water, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

The project will be privately financed and carries a three-to-five year timeline for completion.

Million noted that Flaming Gorge Reservoir is larger than all the reservoirs in Colorado combined, and Colorado is allowed access to water as the Green River flows through the northwest part of the state, in an area with nearly no consumptive use.

Moffat County rancher T. Wright Dickinson was quick to confront Million on that point of his presentation.

"I must correct your 'no consumptive use' statement," Dickinson said. "There is agriculture and there is energy and there are people in Browns Park. Are you willing to meet the future needs of the Green River Basin?"

Routt County municipal representative to the roundtable, Dan Craig of Phippsburg, also wanted assurance that any water leaving Colorado would return to the state.

"I want Colorado water to stay in Colorado," Craig said. "Is there a guarantee we get it back once it leaves the state?"

Those and many other questions remain to be addressed about the project, which includes a 400-mile pipeline paralleling Interstate 80 from the reservoir to the Front Range of Colorado.

This project, along with the Yampa Pumpback proposal to pump water to the Front Range from a reservoir near Maybell, will be discussed at a meeting of the Upper Colorado River Commission in June.

Dan Olsen can be reached at 824-7031, ext. 207, or dolsen@craigdailypress.com.