MOAB, Utah — A lawsuit has been filed challenging a lithium extraction project near the Green River.
Living Rivers, the Great Basin Water Network and farmers along the river filed a lawsuit in Moab's 7th District Court on Wednesday, challenging the Utah State Engineer's decision to approve the project. Anson Resource, an Australian company, had sought a water rights application for a project along the Green River, a tributary of the Colorado River.
"The recent decision from the State Engineer gives a foreign-backed company another free pass from Utah regulators to turn Green River into an energy colony," John Weisheit, conservation director of Living Rivers, said in a statement on Wednesday announcing the litigation. "The courts must consider the arbitrary and capricious nature of the State Engineer’s decision."
Anson Resources has been working on the project since 2023, acccording to a post on the company's website. Anson has argued that its proposed project uses "cutting-edge lithium extraction technology which use a fraction of the water needed for traditional hard rock or evaporation extraction methods."
A spokesperson for the company did not immediately respond to messages from FOX 13 News seeking comment on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the Utah State Engineer said they have not yet been served with the lawsuit and could not comment until they reviewed it.
Lithium is becoming an increasingly valuable and necessary mineral in our electrified world. But environmental groups have raised concerns about the harms to water resources from the projects. The state recently rewrote rules governing lithium extraction in the threatened Great Salt Lake.
Read the lawsuit here:
This article is published through the Colorado River Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative supported by the Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water, and Air at Utah State University. See all of our stories about how Utahns are impacted by the Colorado River at greatsaltlakenews.org/coloradoriver
