The state engineer has just doubled down on her approval of lithium drilling on the Green River, months after protests from farmers, locals and environmentalists influenced her to reconsider the decision she made earlier this summer.
Now, those opponents, who believe the decision sets a dangerous precedent for water use in Utah, are considering whether and how to challenge it again.
Extracting lithium — a fundamental mineral for rechargeable batteries that power phones, computers, cameras and electric vehicles essential to a clean energy transition — uses a lot of water. Anson Resources, an Australian company, claims their extraction method will reinject 100% of the water they use to draw out the metal back underground, in a “non-consumptive” use of the water.
Opponents are skeptical. After Utah State Engineer Teresa Wilhelmsen first approved the project in May, they challenged her call, arguing that the project poses contamination risks to groundwater, undermines existing water rights and uses water that the overtapped Colorado River system doesn’t have to spare.
Wilhemsen agreed to their request to reconsider her decision in early June but approved the project on Sept. 12.
“This was a unique project with unique circumstances,” Wilhelmsen said in a statement last week. “We spent a lot of time studying the issues and relevant laws, and based on our review, it’s our opinion that water is available for this request.”
In a small win for the project’s adversaries, Wilhelmsen’s approval requires Anson to measure how much water it uses and how much water it returns to the ground to prove its method is truly “non-consumptive.”
If it isn’t, the company could face fines. But the state engineer wrote in her approval that she “has no reason to believe the applicant has misrepresented their intentions.”
“The state engineer is setting a precedent here that says, if there’s brine in aquifers that have been untapped, it’s open season,” said Kyle Roerink, executive director of the environmental nonprofit Great Basin Water Network, which challenged the decision.
“Her ruling startlingly exemplifies that Utah is just going to take the company’s word for their technology when it comes to approving these applications,” he continued.
Wilhemsen, in her approval of Anson’s water right, cited increased demand for lithium and batteries and Utah’s ability to meet that demand. The U.S. Geological Survey estimated in 2020 that the Paradox Formation, the remains of ancient saltwater seas underneath the Colorado Plateau, contains 205,000 recoverable tons of lithium carbonate.
The state engineer’s decision grants Anson the use of 19 cubic feet of water per second “for the year-round purpose of lithium extraction.” The company will draw salty, lithium-laden brine water from 9,000 feet underground and use a method called “direct lithium extraction,” or DLE, to pull the metal out of the brine using a material developed by Sunresin, a Chinese company. Then, Anson will reinject the water 6,000 feet underground.
Anson plans to rinse the lithium from that material using 2,500 acre-feet of water per year from the Colorado and Green Rivers, a water right approved by the Wayne County Water Conservancy District in January 2023. The company paid only $1 for the water, which they can use for 23 years.
The state engineer dismissed concerns that the project will strain the overused Colorado River system and infringe on existing water rights.
The Green River Lithium project “will provide clean lithium in an environmentally responsible manner,” said Bruce Richardson, CEO of Anson Resources, “and importantly support the Utah economy through the creation of well-paying jobs.”
He added that the project is “quickly moving forward and will be a meaningful contributor to the U.S. meeting its strategic and clean energy goals.”
DLE supporters say the method is better than evaporation, another widely used technique to extract lithium, which uses open-air evaporation to take the mineral out of brine. Compass Minerals, a Kansas-based company, planned to extract lithium from the Great Salt Lake using this technique until Utah lawmakers stopped them.
There is still uncertainty about DLE being “non-consumptive.” One study, published in March 2023, found that the method can use more water than evaporation.
The project’s opponents also raised concerns about the location of Anson’s site. Roerink said that since the company’s site is near an old uranium mill, it will drill through a radioactive aquifer, potentially polluting groundwater. The Paradox Formation is also highly pressurized and prone to blowouts, like one that occurred at the Anson’s site this year.
Wilhelmsen responded that other state agencies, like the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining, are responsible for those concerns. Anson told the state engineer that it is completing an environmental analysis to mitigate concerns about blowouts.
Anson’s Green River Lithium project is sited on private land, for which the company paid $2.4 million to construct a lithium extraction and production facility. The company reports that it is currently conducting environmental, archaeological and land surveys to sample brines on the site.
