Congressman Salazar Opposes Union Park Project

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman John T. Salazar (CO-3) today denounced the proposal to develop the Union Park Reservoir, stating his opposition to any efforts to move water from rural communities to the Front Range.

“I am adamantly opposed to any project that takes water out of rural communities,” said Salazar. “No one in the community supports the development of this project. As far as I’m concerned this is a dead horse. Stop trying to revive it.”

The Union Park proposal will develop a series of pipelines and a 1.2 million acre foot reservoir to transfer water from the Upper Gunnison River to metro areas of Colorado. Though the Union Park project has met with fierce local and legal opposition for years, recent efforts have been made to revive the proposal. This past week, Club 20 passed a resolution opposing the development.

“Water is the lifeblood of rural communities,” said Salazar. “Those of us who work the land everyday understand that lack of water can be devastating – it isn’t a matter of keeping our lawns green, it’s our very livelihood at stake. When water that is being used for agriculture is taken away, it devastates the entire community and our way of life.

Said Salazar: “I will always fight to defend rural water rights against metro water grabs.”