GREEN RIVER, Utah (AP) — A plan to extract lithium — the lustrous, white metal used in electric vehicle batteries — in southeast Utah is adding to an anxiety familiar in the arid American West: how the project could affect water from the Colorado River. The company has also acquired rights to freshwater from the Green River nearby, leading to questions about how groundwater and river water are connected, and how its plans to produce lithium could affect the environment. The Green River is a tributary of the Colorado River, the over-tapped powerhouse of the West upon which 40 million people rely. So far, Anson has acquired rights for 2,500 acre-feet of water from the Green River. “There’s a difficulty turning anything down in a community like Green River,” he said.

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Persons: ”, Lauren Wood, Anson, “, ” Anson, Bruce Richardson, Michael McKibben, Ren Hatt, Gayna, Salinas Organizations: Anson Resources, University of California, Interior Department, Land Management, . Department, ExxonMobil, Associated Press, Walton Family Foundation, AP Locations: GREEN, , Utah, Utah, Colorado, An Australian, Utah , Colorado , New Mexico, Arizona, Green, Green River , Utah, Anson, U.S, Riverside, Argentina, Qinghai, China, Arkansas, Nevada, Amargosa, Las Vegas, , Nevada, Australia, Chile, Gayna Salinas, “, America