Groups Ask Full Tenth Circuit to Rehear Utah Water Contract Case

The Tenth Circuit unlawfully greenlighted a water contract that gives Utah 72,600 acre-feet of water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir each year, environmental groups said in a petition that asked the full court to take another look at the case.

A three-judge panel on the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled in July that the Bureau of Reclamation sufficiently analyzed the contract’s environmental effects.

The “Green River Block Exchange” contract allows Utah to draw water from releases from the reservoir instead of taking water from the Green River, a Colorado River tributary. But conservation groups said that the ...