The state engineer recently approved water rights for lithium drilling on the Green River. She is now reconsidering her decision.
Lithium extraction requires a lot of water. An Australian company promises that a new method uses virtually no water to draw out the metal, which is a fundamental element for rechargeable batteries used in phones, computers, cameras — and especially electric vehicles. The Biden administration considers lithium vital to the nation’s transition to cleaner, renewable energy, and in her approval, Utah State Engineer Teresa Wilhelmsen cited a growing demand for lithium and batteries.
But a group of farmers, residents and environmentalists said that using water from the drought-plagued Colorado River system for an unproven project opens a dangerous door. They asked the state engineer to reconsider the approval, citing concerns about the project’s water use, risks to groundwater and potential impacts on the Green River.
“These recent requests for reconsideration raised several issues that we felt warranted additional review,” said Deputy State Engineer Michael Drake.
Wilhelmsen approved an application from Blackstone Minerals to use the 14,000 acre-feet of groundwater per year from a deep aquifer on May 1. One acre-foot of water can sustain two Utah households for a year.
But Wilhelmsen granted protesters’ request to reconsider that decision on Tuesday.
“We welcome this opportunity to have the record reviewed, assessed and scrutinized,” said Kyle Roerink, executive director of the environmental nonprofit Great Basin Water Network. “The region’s legacy of blowouts, radioactive pollution and aridity warrant reconsideration to prevent environmental degradation and uphold the public welfare.”
Blackstone Minerals’ parent company, Anson Resources, has narrowed in on southeastern Utah for lithium production.
The Utah Geological Survey reported in 2020 that there are 205,500 recoverable tons of lithium carbonate in the Paradox Formation, the resource-rich remains of ancient saltwater seas underneath the Colorado Plateau. With a typical electric vehicle battery requiring 17 pounds of lithium carbonate, that lithium reserve could power over 24 million electric vehicles.
A Las Vegas-based subsidiary of Anson, A1 Lithium, began leasing hundreds of acres from the Utah Trust Lands Administration in the region in 2019.
A1 Lithium also sought approval from the Bureau of Land Management to explore the lithium content in brines near Dead Horse Point State Park in 2021. The BLM withdrew its approval for the project in 2023 after the nonprofit Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance argued that the agency did not adequately evaluate its impacts.
For the project that the state engineer is reconsidering, staked in January 2023, Anson paid $2.4 million for 140 acres of private land in Green River.
“We are aware the state engineer is reevaluating their decision on one of our water rights applications and will make a new ruling based upon it,” said Anson CEO Bruce Richardson, who also serves as the president of both A1 Lithium and Blackstone Minerals. “We look forward to working with the Utah Division of Water Rights regarding this and all other oversight agencies. Our aim is to protect the area’s precious land, air, and water resources.”
Using less water — or more?
To access southeastern Utah’s lithium reserves, Anson would drill thousands of feet underground to pull lithium-saturated brine — a salty, watery solution — up to the surface. Then, the company proposes using a nascent technique called direct lithium extraction, or DLE, using a material developed by Sunresin, a Chinese company.
Anson would rinse the lithium free from that material using water from both the Colorado and Green Rivers. The Wayne County Water Conservancy District approved that water right in January 2023, after Anson solidified an agreement with Green River Companies LLC. Anson paid just $1 to secure the water — 2,500 acre-feet per year — which they can use for 23 years.
Once all the lithium has been taken out, Anson says it would inject almost all the wastewater back underground for “non-consumptive” use of the water.
Applications that claim not to consume water are uncommon. Typically, non-consumptive water rights are granted for generating hydropower, where water flows through turbines to produce electricity before returning to a river.
“Utah’s water law was not created in a way that foresaw applications like this, so we’re flying by the seat of our pants,” Roerink said.
In her approval, the state engineer wrote that if Anson’s project is found to consume water, depleting it from the environment, the company may be fined.
Backers say that direct lithium extraction is a better alternative to another technique that is more widely used to extract the mineral: evaporation. That process requires open-air evaporation to take lithium out of brine, which uses a lot of water. Compass Minerals, a Kansas-based company, planned to extract lithium from the Great Salt Lake using this technique — until Utah state legislators condemned the process.
The jury is still out on whether or not direct lithium extraction projects use as little water as they claim. A March 2023 study found that the method can actually use more water than evaporative techniques.
‘This project jeopardizes everything we’ve worked for’
The Colorado River’s largest tributary, the Green River, starts in Wyoming and merges with the Colorado in the heart of Canyonlands National Park. The Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency in charge of water projects nationwide, wrote to the state engineer with concerns that Anson’s project would contaminate local groundwater and remove water from the drought-strained Colorado River system.
The state engineer dismissed those concerns in her approval, writing that granting the water right wouldn’t interfere with existing rights on the Colorado River or contaminate its water supply.
The environmentalists also worry that, since Anson’s site is located near an old uranium mill, their project will drill through a radioactive aquifer. Roerink said that Anson’s drilling could pollute groundwater supplies and threaten public welfare.
“Our family’s farming operations and future in Green River depend on clean waters and lands free of industrial hazards,” said Green River landowner, farmer and water rights holder Gayna Salinas. “This project jeopardizes everything we’ve worked for and built in Green River.”
In response to those concerns, Anson reported that A1 Lithium organized independent environmental reviews of the old mill site, which is also monitored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Utah Division of Waste Management and Radiation Control.
The protesters also pointed to a recent incident at Anson’s Green River project.
On March 8, 10,000 barrels of brackish water — 420,000 gallons — erupted from an Anson lithium well outside Green River. The well operator said that the burst, the result of hitting an aquifer 1,500 feet underground, was planned. At the time, Cindy Guber, a spokesperson for Anson, said that “more water rose to the surface than was expected, which exceeded the system’s capacity and threatened to exceed the containment area.”
The Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining confirmed that the burst of salty water did not reach the Green River, and Anson Resources disposed of the contaminated water at a site managed by the state. The company said it installed a specialized monitoring valve to prevent similar, uncontrolled blowouts in the future.
“Blackstone and its foreign investors are looking to make money as quickly as possible off of Utah’s resources,” said John Weisheit, co-founder of the environmental group Living Rivers.
He continued: “Would you want mines pumping and drilling in volatile geologic formations near a radioactive aquifer in your community?”
In granting the request for reconsideration, Wilhelmsen withdrew her approval of Blackstone Minerals’ water rights application. If, after reevaluating the application, the state engineer decides to uphold her previous approval, the protesters can seek to appeal her decision in district court.
