Paiute Indians in Arizona oppose a plan to pipe Colorado River water from Lake Powell in Arizona to St. George in Utah, according to documents released by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
"Any potential alignment of the Lake Powell pipeline would pass through lands that hold spiritual and cultural significance to Southern Paiutes, who fear the project would jeopardize their culture and upset the balance of nature," reports Brian Maffley.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation recently released the environmental impact statement for the proposed pipeline, revealing the concerns of the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians about the project's intentions to divert Colorado River water to feed growing demand in the urban areas around St. George.
"Utah has a legal right to some of the Colorado’s flow and intends to put 6% of its share to use by piping it across northern Arizona and southern Utah for use in Washington County, whose population is expected to more than double by 2060 to nearly half a million," according to Maffley.
The environmental documents for the project present two alternatives: "One alternative route passes through Arizona’s Kaibab Indian Reservation and the other, preferred by the water project’s Utah proponents, skirts the reservation around its southern borders by following an existing utility corridor," writes Maffley.
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