PINEDALE -- Sometime this century, the three lower Colorado River basin compact states will start getting their water supplied by the planet's oceans.

California, Nevada and Arizona already have plans on the drawing board for more traditional methods of tapping into the ocean's vast water reserves to meet their ever-growing water needs, including the construction of desalination plants and pipelines.

Then there are the seemingly off-the-wall proposals to use giant tanker ships with huge water bladders to sweep across the ocean and drag water back to the West coast. Or using tankers to tow giant, insulation-wrapped icebergs from the Arctic to the coast.

Until that actually happens, though, the state can expect a lot of people will be eyeing the unused water in western Wyoming's Upper Green River Basin in order to quench those thirsty downstream states.

"Sooner or later, the lower basin will have to go to the ocean to get their water ... and those projects show how broadly we continue to think because water is so precious and important in the West," Wyoming State Engineer Pat Tyrrell said.

"Wyoming can't stand by ... we must preserve our developable (water) apportionment until that time," Tyrrell warned during a two-day conference this weekend on water management issues in the Green River Basin sponsored by the Stroock Forum on Wyoming Public Lands and People.

"If Wyoming, Colorado and Utah were to quit using water today ... even a full Colorado River will not satisfy the future needs of Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix and other cities," said Tyrrell.

"Our job is to keep what we have here, develop what we have here ... and fight them until its economically viable for them to go to the ocean," he said.

The Green River Basin is one of the last remaining areas of Wyoming that has water to develop and the land necessary to build additional dams and reservoirs. Wyoming also has water rights in the Green River that have not been exercised.

But other areas in Wyoming and other states such as Colorado also have their eyes on Green River Basin water.

In 2003, a proposal to move water from the Green River to the North Platte River by pipeline was resurrected and state officials conducted a feasibility study on the proposal.

And in 2006, Colorado entrepreneur Aaron Million proposed piping water from the Green River's Flaming Gorge Reservoir south of the city of Green River to the booming Colorado Front Range, and perhaps to a portion of eastern Wyoming as well.

The 400-mile long pipeline would cost between $2 and $3 billion and would supply enough water for up to 500,000 people a year, according to plans.

Lots of interest

Ben Bracken -- general manager for the Green River, Rock Springs, Sweetwater County Joint Powers Water board and its regional water system that serves around 40,000 customers in southwest Wyoming -- said there's an awful lot of interest in the Upper Green River Basin's water.

"The interest is not going away ... it's the joker in the deck when it comes to the demand on the (Green) river," Bracken told conference participants.

He told participants proposals such as Million's Flaming Gorge project clearly "shows that an excess of water (anywhere) in the West always garners a lot of attention," he said.

"When there's available water in the basin, there is always plenty of interest to develop it," said Bracken. "If we can't do it, there are always other people willing to try."

The Green River is the chief tributary of the Colorado River. The headwaters river begins out of Green River Lakes in northern Sublette County on the western side of the continental divide in the Wind River Mountain Range.

Powerful and wide, the scenic river flows south through the Upper Green River Valley into the Fontenelle Reservoir, then down to the Flaming Gorge Reservoir below the city of Green River in Sweetwater County. into Utah and through Canyonlands National Park, where it joins the Colorado.

Wyoming's consumptive use of Green River Basin water is limited by two Colorado River water compacts and a treaty with Mexico.

State water officials said there is approximately 16.5 million acre-feet of water in the Colorado River Basin allocated to the seven states in the compact, which includes Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, California and Colorado.

Under the compact, the three lower basin states are allocated 7.5 million-acre feet of water annually and under the treaty, Mexico is allocated 1.5 million acre-feet of water.

The remaining water -- which averages about 7.5 million acre-feet -- is allocated to the four upper basin states based on a percentage rate. Wyoming receives 14 percent of the remaining water each year for consumptive use, or approximately 1.1 million acre-feet on average years.

But storage in the Colorado River Basin has been generally declining since 1999, Tyrrell said. Lake Powell, for instance, is currently about 145 feet below the full level.

At the same time, there's been an "explosion" in population and use by the three downstream states, said Wyoming State Climatologist Stephen Gray.

"We've seen an incredible population growth in the lower (Colorado) basin, and that means more (water) taps to go around," he said.

"If we extend into the future and look at 50-year population estimates, there is a chance for an additional 10 million people or more to be living in those major cities like San Diego, Las Vegas and Phoenix," he said.

"In fact, Vegas alone could double in population," he said. "Imagine how that's going to put the pressure on a finite resource."

Gov. Dave Freudenthal said the notion that the lower states can take water from Wyoming to support their population explosion continues to be a problem for the state.

"It's perplexing situation ... the allocated water versus (where the most) use is or will be," he said. "The challenge is how do we protect the water we have against the interests of others in the region?"

Southwest Wyoming Bureau reporter Jeff Gearino can be reached at 307-875-5359 or at gearino@tribcsp.com.