Environmentalists apprehensive about a planned lithium extraction project near a major tributary of the Colorado River are asking a state court to block the project’s access to groundwater.
The nonprofit groups Living Rivers and the Great Basin Water Network filed a lawsuit Tuesday night in Utah’s Seventh Judicial District Court, seeking to overturn a decision by Utah’s Office of the State Engineer granting the project access to groundwater.
Utah State Engineer Teresa Wilhelmsen in September approved the use of nearly 4.5 billion gallons of brine water by Blackstone Minerals, a subsidiary of Australian company Anson Resources, for its Green River Lithium Project.
Conservation advocates and federal agencies, including the Bureau of Reclamation and the Bureau of Land Management, have raised concerns that the project could affect water quality and supplies in the Colorado River, of which the Green River is a tributary.
