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DENVER - A water developer whose proposal to pipe billions of gallons of Western Slope water to the Front Range was rejected in a Colorado Supreme Court ruling earlier this month said Monday he has asked the court to reconsider.
Attorneys for Dave Miller, the head of Natural Energy Resources Co., said in a filing Friday that the court made several mistakes in its 6-0 Sept. 11 decision.
Opponents of the proposal have said the ruling was the "final nail in the coffin" of Miller's proposal to build a reservoir near Crested Butte to store up to 1.2 million acre-feet from the headwaters of the Gunnison River to be piped to fast-growing Arapahoe County and to generate power to add to the Western electrical grid.
The Supreme Court had upheld a Montrose-based water judge's ruling canceling the company's 20-year-old conditional water right after determining there wasn't enough water available in the system for the company to carry out its plans.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court said the overall project depended in part on a proposed change of use of the existing Taylor Park Reservoir, which had been ruled as not feasible.
Miller's attorneys argued in the court filing that the question of whether the project could be completed had not been fully answered in nearly two decades of litigation.
"NECO (Natural Energy Resources Co.) has lost its decreed conditional water right without being afforded adequate notice and right to be heard - a denial of due process," the filing said. "The economic and environmental futures of Colorado and the southwestern region hang in the balance with the court's decision to honor NECO's rights."
Attorneys for Dave Miller, the head of Natural Energy Resources Co., said in a filing Friday that the court made several mistakes in its 6-0 Sept. 11 decision.
Opponents of the proposal have said the ruling was the "final nail in the coffin" of Miller's proposal to build a reservoir near Crested Butte to store up to 1.2 million acre-feet from the headwaters of the Gunnison River to be piped to fast-growing Arapahoe County and to generate power to add to the Western electrical grid.
The Supreme Court had upheld a Montrose-based water judge's ruling canceling the company's 20-year-old conditional water right after determining there wasn't enough water available in the system for the company to carry out its plans.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court said the overall project depended in part on a proposed change of use of the existing Taylor Park Reservoir, which had been ruled as not feasible.
Miller's attorneys argued in the court filing that the question of whether the project could be completed had not been fully answered in nearly two decades of litigation.
"NECO (Natural Energy Resources Co.) has lost its decreed conditional water right without being afforded adequate notice and right to be heard - a denial of due process," the filing said. "The economic and environmental futures of Colorado and the southwestern region hang in the balance with the court's decision to honor NECO's rights."
