Attorney Mely Whiting of Trout Unlimited stressed along with county officials that any allowance for Denver to take more water from the river should be tied to a “reopener clause,” in which stakeholders would revisit the project if degradation of the river reached beyond what was predicted in the NEPA process.

“Our resource is at a critical tipping point,” said Manager Underbrink Curran. “We should all argue that if the predictions that are made in the EIS are not good, and are not solid and do not work out like is being predicted, people have to come back and re-look at it. And we, and Denver and the Corps and everyone needs to sit down and say: How are we going to fix this resource? This is critical, not only to Grand County, but to the state of Colorado.”

“This is a grave situation,” said County Commissioner Nancy Stuart. “In my opinion, it's the life and death of our rivers. So we really need to think about the statements that we make, and I'm putting faith in the Corps that they will listen.”