The developers of a stalled Utah oil-shale project once owned invaluable rights to 11,000 acre-feet of Green River water. But for a mere $10, they sold those rights to the operators of Utah’s Bonanza Power Plant, a coal-fired generating station whose days may be numbered.
In a formal protest on file with the Utah State Engineer, the Grand Canyon Trust contends this 2013 deal is part of an illegitimate scheme to keep the water rights alive long after 2015, the year it should have been retired...