Coyote Gulch

 



















































































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  Monday, May 28, 2007


Memorial Day
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Remember to thank a veteran for their service.


8:34:24 AM     

? for President?

SquareState.net is pointing to the video of Ron Paul's appearance on Bill Maher's show Friday night.

"2008 pres"
8:20:59 AM     


Corruption

Andrew Sullivan: "The latest reporting on the DOJ scandal reveals something quite remarkable. The lawlessness and contempt for the Constitution displayed by the Bush administration drove up to 30 conservative Republican political appointees to the brink of a mass resignation."

"2008 pres"
8:16:42 AM     


Iraq

Talking Points Memo: "For all of the talk from war supporters about lowering expectations for September -- John McCain has been at it, as has Gen. Petraeus -- it appears the train has already left the station. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who no one would describe as anything but a very conservative Bush loyalist, appears to have climbed aboard."

Andrew Sullivan:

The president's press conference last week left me at a loss for words. Spluttering is not a real response. But how else to respond to a man who has spawned a catastrophe in the Middle East and then behaves as if it's his critics who are out of touch with reality? Then we get this latest news about pre-war intel from the WaPo and the dreadful but obvious reality in the NYT that every road ahead in Iraq - staying or leaving, surging or redeploying - is full of death, terror and chaos. The light at the end of this tunnel is hard to glimpse. But Bush is still proudly digging the tunnel.

"2008 pres"
8:13:53 AM     


Immigration

From the Los Angeles Times "reg", "The roiling congressional debate over a plan to legalize undocumented immigrants has rekindled a bitter fight in the Republican Party over the best strategy to restore the GOP to political dominance -- with each side accusing the other of following a course that would destroy the party for decades. The clash has grown increasingly intense in recent days, drawing in the most senior figures in Republican politics. President Bush aimed unusually pointed language Thursday at critics, many in his own party, who opposed a more permanent status for illegal immigrants. Two conservative senators were booed by Republican crowds in their home states last week for endorsing the legalization effort. And conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh attacked the Bush-backed plan as the 'Destroy the Republican Party Act.'"

"2008 pres"
8:10:13 AM     


Desalination plant for San Diego
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Cheap federally subsidized water for Southern California is coming to an end. The Colorado River can barely be expected to keep up with growth in Las Vegas, along with new needs in Colorado for oil shale development. Californians are looking to the Pacific Ocean as a source of water now that the costs of desalination are becoming competitive. Here's an article from Processingtalk.com. They write:

GE Water and Process Technologies has announced its participation in what will be the largest seawater desalination facility in North America, the Carlsbad Seawater Desalination Plant. GE Water and Process Technologies, Poseidon Resources Corporation, American Water and Acciona Agua have joined together to invest in the final stage of the desalination project to bring a long-term, drought-proof, safe and affordable supply of drinking water to the water-scarce region...

The facility, which will draw water from the Pacific Ocean to create a cost-certain, drought-proof supply of fresh water for San Diego County, will dramatically reduce the area dependence on imported water from the Sacramento San Joaquin Bay Delta and the Colorado River...

The Carlsbad Seawater Desalination Plant will be located alongside the Encina Power Station and use its existing intake and discharge infrastructure. Over 100 MGD of seawater can be diverted from the circulating water system to supply the desalination facility. The plant source water will be pretreated by the GE ZeeWeed membranes, and then processed through reverse osmosis membranes to produce high-quality potable water.

"colorado water"
7:59:28 AM     


Glen Canyon Dam celebration Friday
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Glen Canyon Dam is 50 years old now. Numerous problems have been caused by the dam and some would decommission it. Here's a short article about the dam and a celebration of it's construction in Page Arizona Friday, from the Arizona Republic. They write:

If Glen Canyon Dam were a person, it would surely suffer from low self-esteem. It was born of a compromise, the second choice as a storage site for Colorado River water. It lacks the art deco flair and iconic stature of downstream sibling Hoover Dam. Edward Abbey imagined blowing it up in his classic eco-novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, and environmentalists still clamor for its removal. Arizona's Sen. Barry Goldwater, once a staunch ally, said before he died he wished he'd never voted to build it. That's a lot of angst for a 710-foot-tall hunk of concrete...

On Friday, residents of Page will mark the 50th anniversary of their community, a true company town that sprang from dusty Manson Mesa for the sole purpose of housing workers on the nearby dam project. Their celebration will acknowledge none of the controversy and sing only the praises of a structure whose departure would take most of Page with it.

Not many people had heard of Glen Canyon when site studies began in the late 1940s and early 1950s. No roads led to it, and the only inhabitants were Navajos, whose land included the present Page town site. "Back in 1948, before anything was there, National Geographic explored Glen Canyon and sent an expedition into what is now Lake Powell," said Barry Wirth, regional spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Salt Lake City. "They reported on the absolute barren desolation and wrote about seeing only a few hogans and Navajos herding sheep. They said it was the most remote spot in the United States, that if it wasn't the end of the world, you could see it from there." Remote as it was, it offered for engineers a good location for a dam and for water managers the deep canyon walls needed to form a reservoir...

The goodwill ended sometime after the grass started growing. Environmental groups never wanted the dam built there, insisting it would destroy a priceless ecosystem in Glen Canyon. As years passed, they seized on another consequence: The water released from the dam back into the Colorado River was cool and clear, not the warm, muddy habitat needed by native species. A series of lawsuits forced the government to conduct environmental studies and find a way to blunt some ill effects. By the 1990s, several environmental groups began agitating for the removal of Glen Canyon Dam. In 1997, a reflective Goldwater stunned people with this admission: "I have to be honest with you. I'd be happier if we didn't have the lake," the former senator said in a PBS miniseries based on the book Cadillac Desert. "I'd vote against it. I've become convinced that, while water is important, particularly for those of us who live in the desert, it's not that important."

"colorado water"
7:49:36 AM     


SB 07-220
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The Colorado State Senate passed and sent to Governor Ritter, SB 07-220 [pdf], Concerning an Increase in the Powers of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District, and, in Connection Therewith, Specifying the Establishment, Operation, and Financing Procedures of Subdistricts of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District, according to CBS4Denver.com. From the article:

The Senate approved and sent to Gov. Bill Ritter a plan that would allow a Rio Grande Water Conservation subdistrict to charge fees that opponents say would drive some farmers in the San Luis Valley out of business. Lawmakers said without the fees, the state water engineer might have to shut off 5,000 wells because of the recent drought. They said one way or the other, the valley will be forced to idle 40,000 acres of farmland. Rep. Rafael Gallegos, D-Antonito, said the water district petitioned lawmakers to allow them to impose the fees rather than facing a shutdown of the wells and the state should grant their wishes.

"colorado water"
7:36:49 AM     


Northside Croquet Club Game 3
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Here's the game 3 report from the Northside Croquet Club:

Melanie was the big winner, moving her into a 3 way tie for second place ( 2 points each) with Mike G, who won his second game, and with Shane, who got a wicket kill. Melanie called a park that was very, very, very far away, and people are unhappy to say the least, with talks of veto votes, league splitting, boycotting, etc. We'll see what happens. In addition to Mike, Shane, and Melanie's points, Jess and Dom also got on the board with game wins, jumping into a massive tie for third. Dave is still leading, but will miss the next couple of games to give everyone else a chance.

7:25:00 AM     

Blue River runoff
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Here's a report about expected runoff on the Blue River, from the Summit Daily News "reg". From the article:

With water levels in streams expected to rise to their highest level in 10 years, officials are preparing for possible localized flooding and dangerously swift stream flows as peak runoff approaches...

The Upper Blue, from Hoosier Pass to Dillon Reservoir, may see the brunt of it, [Summit County emergency manager Joel Cochran] said, explaining that some of the water normally captured for diversion to the Front Range will course down the west side of the Continental Divide instead. Big flows are expected in the Town of Blue River, through Breckenridge and on down to the Blue River inlet. High water could also reach north of the reservoir, along the Lower Blue, where flows are expected to climb as high as 1,800 cubic feet per second (cfs), levels that haven't been reached since the mid-1990s, according to Silverthorne town manager Kevin Batchelder...

Frisco is not expecting any significant high water issues this year, according to spokesperson Linda Lichtendahl. Town officials recently reviewed snowpack data and found that the snowpack on Hoosier Pass, the key watershed, is at about 19 inches, as compared to 23 inches last year.

"colorado water"
7:05:51 AM     



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