3 Arguments Coloradans Keep Having With Their Utah Neighbors

When Colorado decided to bring back wolves, a Utah lawmaker responded with a resolution.

Coloradans and Utahns share a border, and their governments don’t always see eye to eye.

Here are the arguments Coloradans keep having with their Utah neighbors, and what they could mean if you live near the line.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Laws are subject to change.

1. Uinta Basin Railway

Colorado’s argument over the Uinta Basin Railway starts with an 88-mile line that seven Utah counties want to build to carry crude oil out of the Uinta Basin.

Oil trains on that line would run through your state, so Eagle County and several environmental groups sued in 2022.

They argued federal regulators hadn’t looked hard enough at wildfire and oil-spill risks near the Colorado River’s headwaters.

They won in August 2023, when a federal appeals court threw out the Surface Transportation Board’s approval of the line.

Colorado’s attorney general, Phil Weiser, led a coalition of attorneys general in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to keep that ruling in place.

The justices reversed that ruling 8-0 in May 2025, clearing the way for the railway.

The Utah counties’ coalition then approved a plan to seek $2.4 billion in private activity bonds, which are tax-exempt bonds for public-private transportation projects and are only expected to cover about 70% of the cost.

In January 2026, Sen. Michael Bennet and Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado asked the board to order a fresh environmental review.

They want it to cover what the line would mean for your state’s communities and water.

Their letter says the line would run up to five two-mile trains a day for more than 100 miles alongside the Colorado River’s headwaters.

As of January 2026, the board was still weighing the Utah counties’ request to reaffirm its approval.

2. Wolf Reintroduction

Colorado’s wolf reintroduction drew a reaction from Utah in February 2020, when a Utah lawmaker introduced a resolution condemning your state if voters approved a wolf ballot measure.

Colorado voters approved it that November.

As Colorado wrote its wolf plan, Utah’s Department of Natural Resources asked Colorado to reimburse Utah livestock owners for wolf losses.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife released ten wolves in your state in December 2023.

In 2024, the Utah legislature passed a resolution that encourages Utah’s wildlife division to capture wolves found in the state and return them to Colorado.

In early 2025, Colorado’s wildlife agency warned Utah that a collared wolf was heading toward the border, and Utah’s wildlife division had plans ready if it crossed.

The wolf changed course before it got there.

Utah’s wildlife agency says an animal from Colorado briefly entered Utah in 2025, and it expects crossings to continue as Colorado keeps releasing wolves.

3. Lake Powell Pipeline

In September 2020, Colorado and five other states sent a joint letter urging the federal government to halt the approval process for Utah's Lake Powell Pipeline.

Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming signed it with your state, and they warned that moving ahead could bring years of lawsuits.

The line would carry 86,000 acre-feet of water 140 miles from Lake Powell to Washington County, around St. George.

An acre-foot is enough water to cover an acre of ground a foot deep.

Utah disagreed.

Utah's Division of Water Resources answered that the project had been under review for about 20 years.

Washington County needs the water for its supply and its economy.

You can check the federal permitting dashboard, which lists the pipeline's environmental review as paused as of October 2026.

Cannabis at the Border

Cannabis came up at the border in 2018, when a retail marijuana shop opened in Dinosaur, Colorado.

The shop was about 3 miles from the Utah line, in a town of about 350 people.

In 2018, the Uintah Basin Narcotics Strike Force and the Utah Highway Patrol said they were concerned.

A narcotics officer said marijuana turns illegal the moment you carry it over the line and that marijuana busts from Colorado had doubled over four years.

Dinosaur's mayor said people were free to come if they chose.

Where They Agree

Colorado and Utah don't argue about everything, and the Colorado River talks show it.

Your state sits in the Upper Basin with New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, while Arizona, California and Nevada make up the Lower Basin.

Ahead of a Feb. 14, 2026 deadline, Colorado and Utah were among the Upper Basin states that presented a framework to the Lower Basin states.

Utah's river commissioner said the Lower Basin states didn't counter the framework and didn't accept it.

The director of Utah's Colorado River Authority said the state had potential appropriations of up to $6 million for litigation support.

A Tribal Lawsuit

Colorado has faced a lawsuit since December 2025 over access to state parks you can visit, filed by a tribe based in Utah.

In December 2025, the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation sued the state in federal court.

A 2025 Colorado law gives members of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe free access to state parks.

The law leaves out the Uintah and Ouray tribe, which argues it denies the tribe equal access to the land.