Coyote Gulch

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Denver Water appoints two to board

From The Denver Business Journal, "Denver Water on Tuesday added two people to its board of commissioners. Susan Daggett, an attorney who now works as an independent consultant, replaces Denise Maes, who served on the board since 1995. Denver Water also reappointed George Beardsley, a commercial real estate developer and principal with Inverness Properties LLC, to the board. Daggett previously was an attorney for Earthjustice, representing nonprofit environmental groups in litigation under environmental statutes including the Clean Water Act. She earned her law degree from Yale Law School."
"colorado water"
6:00:26 PM

Colorado Pikeminnow friendly diversion structure on Colorado River

Here's an update on efforts to build a fish friendly structure around the Price-Stubbs dam on the Colorado River, from The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. From the article:

Most of the Colorado River's fall flows have been shunted away from the old Price-Stubb Dam that pooled the river for nearly a century and closed off the highest reaches of river from endangered fish. Before the year is over, the old dam will be notched and work begun on a new channel down the highway side of the river that will reopen the river to the endangered Colorado pikeminnow and razorback sucker. Before the spring runoff, the fish should have a 600-foot-long channel they can use to swim past the dam and into the highest 40 river miles of their native territory.

The $10 million fish passage will include the channel that will be studded with 190 concrete baffles to be placed in such a way as to create eddies and riffles the fish can navigate. The baffles will be placed in a series of chevron formations -- triangular shapes with a concrete cylinder at each of the three points, said Mark Wernke of the Grand Junction office of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The formation "creates the best velocity for the fish to get up the ramp," Wernke said. Workers with Kissner Construction have placed basalt boulders from the Molina area along the base of the dam. This week, the bureau hopes to complete a coffer dam -- a fingerlike structure that runs across the river and sends the flow through a diversion structure built with the dam. They'll pump out the stretch of river immediately below the Price-Stubb Dam and close off the river several hundred feet below with another coffer dam. That will give workers a clear, dry area in which to form the passage channel and anchor the concrete baffles.

Once the job is done in the spring, the diversion channel built to accommodate construction of the fish passage will remain for potential use as a holding area for the Peach Queen hydropower plant that Eric Jacobsen, a Grand Valley native, hopes to build, Wernke said.
"colorado water"
6:10:56 AM

Energy policy: Hydroelectric

From The Aspen Times "reg", "Pitkin County commissioners could make it easier to build small-scale hydroelectric plants on local rivers and streams. Woody Creek resident Bruce Fabrizio hopes to put a small hydroelectric plant along Brush Creek near his home at the intersection of Highway 82 and Smith Way, county officials said. But the current land-use code forbids any construction in delicate riverside riparian areas, so Fabrizio proposed a land-use code amendment that would allow for micro-hydroplants. The amendment will come before the Pitkin County commissioners in coming weeks and calls for design specifications -- intake pipes no larger than 12 inches, for example -- as well as a 'site-specific analysis' for any proposed plant."
"2008 pres"
6:00:04 AM

Global warming: The earth is a beautifully complex system

From The Pueblo Chieftain, "Gov. Bill Ritter on Monday unveiled a plan relying heavily on voluntary participation to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions. Ritter's plan, which he announced at Coors Field before several hundred people, calls for goals to reduce the state's so-called "carbon footprint" by as much as 80 percent over the next three decades. Exactly how the state would would achieve that was not fully explained. The plan calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. The governor said those goals would be achieved primarily through voluntary programs by those industries that create the most emissions, such as power companies."
"2008 pres"
5:46:56 AM

Denver: Tax increases, ballot issues and school board

Progress Now sends the following in email: For Denver voters, the following drop-off sites will be open Tuesday (11/6 -- Election Day) from 7AM to 7PM:

Elections Division Office Lobby, 303 W. Colfax Ave. (Colfax & Court Place)
Wellington Webb Municipal Office Building, 201 W. Colfax Ave.
Tattered Cover BookStore, 1628 16th St.
Tattered Cover Book Store, 2526 E. Colfax Ave.
Athmar Recreation Center, 2680 W. Mexico Ave.
Barnum Recreation Center, 360 Hooker St.
District 3 Police Station, 1625 S. University Blvd
Eisenhower Recreation Center, 4300 E. Dartmouth Ave.
Glenarm Recreation Center, 2800 Glenarm Pl.
Green Valley Ranch Recreation Center, 4890 Argonne Way
Harvey Park Recreation Center, 2120 S. Tennyson St.
Hiawatha Davis Recreation Center, 3334 Holly St.
Montbello Recreation Center, 15555 E. 53rd Ave.
Montclair Recreation Center, 729 Ulster Way
Scheitler Recreation Center, 5031 W. 46th Ave
Westerly Creek Elementary School, 8800 E. 28th Ave.
"denver n2007"
5:37:22 AM

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