In rural Utah, concern over efforts to use Colorado River water to extract lithium

By SUMAN NAISHADHAM and BRITTANY PETERSON
Associated Press

GREEN RIVER, Utah (AP) — A company’s plan in southeast Utah to extract lithium is adding to an anxiety familiar in this part of the arid American West: how the project could affect water from the Colorado River. An Australian company and its U.S. subsidiaries are analyzing saline waters deep underground. Anson Resources’ plan has sparked concerns about the lithium project’s potential water use, especially as the company also seeks rights to water from the Green River, a tributary of the Colorado, the over-tapped powerhouse of West upon which 40 million people rely.