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Critics of a proposed nuclear power plant near Green River took their case to the Utah Court of Appeals this week.
The appeal, filed Tuesday by the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, seeks to overturn a November ruling by 7th District Judge George Harmond granting rights to Blue Castle Holdings to use Green River water to cool a pair of nuclear reactors required for the plant.
Matt Pacenza, policy director for HEAL Utah, accused Black Castle of engaging in speculation, effectively securing water rights and other permits to then sell the project to a developer, which HEAL Utah argues is prohibited by Utah law.
"We believe that the project is, by definition, speculative and Utah water rights law forbids uses of water for speculative purposes," Pacenza said. "You have to demonstrate that you intend to put the water to good use."
Pacenza said Blue Castle has raised just $20 million toward the $20 billion needed to complete construction of two reactors.
But David Wright, an attorney representing Blue Castle Holdings, said that HEAL Utah's argument is based on a "flat misunderstanding" of how the development process works.
"They don't understand that this is a phased approach and there's nothing under state or federal law that requires a developer of this nature to have $20 billion in the bank," Wright said.
He said HEAL Utah was correct that roughly $20 million has been spent on the project, but the group's estimate of a $20 billion final price tag was speculative and on the higher end of projections.
"Whether it's $20 billion or $15 billion, I can't say, and we really won't know until the project gets under construction," he said.
HEAL's appeal also raises the issue of water volume, questioning whether the Green River can support the project after years of drought and estimating that the water needed to support the proposed reactors is roughly equivalent to the water used by a city of 200,000 residents.
The Green River also is home to four endangered fish species, Pacenza said, which would be threatened by lowered water levels if nuclear reactors are allowed to draw from the river.
"It is a massive amount of water and we just believe it deserves scrutiny," he said. "Most of the time appeals don't succeed. But in this particular case, the stakes are high enough and there's strong enough facts that were ignored."
Wright said the concerns raised by HEAL, including water volume and the stream environment for native fish species, are "flat wrong." Those aspects of the reactor project, he said, had already been examined and approved by the Utah state engineer as well as ruled on by a trial judge
"So far the state engineer and the court have agreed with Blue Castle on these issues and we have no reason to think anything will be different as a result of the appeal," Wright said.
A hearing on the appeal is expected sometime next year.