Sunday, December 9, 2007

War on terror Talking Points Memo: "I'm hesitant to jump to conclusions, but I think there are a few lawmakers, including some Democratic leaders, who might want to comment on torture-policy briefings they received way back in 2002." "2008 pres" 6:12:56 PM

Middle east policy Captain's Quarters: "NATO and Afghan forces captured two Taliban leaders in Musa Qala, the only city held by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Their capture comes amid the long-awaited push to liberate Musa Qala and end its ten-month loss. The Taliban has been forced into the city center, and the coalition forces have patiently kept up the pressure." "2008 pres" 6:11:41 PM

? for President? Mt. Virtus: "I have written little here about the Presidential campaign. While I have no horse in the race, I do have some clear opinions and preferences. For the most part I've been sitting back and watching things unfold as the frontrunners vie for my support. "However, the recent overpublicized 'Huckabee Surge' has stirred me from my silence. That's because the thought that the former Arkansas governor and would-be Preacher-in-Chief could actually secure the Republican nomination is quite disturbing." Political Wire: The first MSNBC/McClatchy/Mason-Dixon polls in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina are out and show "we're in for a wild ride these next six weeks." In Iowa: * Among Democrats, Clinton 27%, Obama 25% and Edwards 21%. In the all-important second-choice category, all three frontrunners are tied, with Obama 30%, Clinton 29% and Edwards 27%. * Among Republicans, Huckabee 32%, Romney 20% and Thompson 11%. In New Hampshire: * Among Democrats, Clinton 30%, Obama 27% and Edwards 10%. * Among Republicans, Romney 25%, Giuliani 17%, McCain 16% and Huckabee 11%. In South Carolina: * Among Democrats, Clinton 28%, Obama 25% and Edwards 18%. * Among Republcans, Huckabee 20%, Giuliani 17%, Romney 15%, Thompson 14% and McCain 10%. "2008 pres" 5:57:11 PM

Mark Benner for U.S. Senate? Spencer Speaks: "A member of Colorado's Democratic executive committee and state central committee said Friday night that he intends to run against Congressman Rep. Mark Udall for the U.S. Senate nomination. Mark Benner said he intends to file paperwork with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Senate. Benner sent an announcement of his candidacy to the Udall campaign, but has yet to file required paperwork to make it official. "I would do this not to run against Mark Udall so much as to run on issues," Benner said in an interview Friday night at Colorado Democratic headquarters. Benner's main issues are single-payer health insurance, which Udall has not endorsed, and impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, which Udall does not support." "denver 2008" 8:59:19 AM

Gay rights Andrew Sullivan:"The revelations of his previous statements about gay people and people with AIDS are immensely depressing but should hardly be surprising. The views Huckabee held were much more common in 1992 than now - although even then, Huckabee's callous sentiments were irrational, outside any scientific consensus, ignorant for 1992, and clearly based on animus. I don't doubt he will distance himself from those early statements about HIV, just as even Jesse Helms did in his later years. But I wonder if Huckabee will be able to distance himself from the statements about gay people as such. Watching every Republican debate this year, you can see how no one ever dares take a position that could be deemed in any way supportive of gay people, understanding of the challenges many gay people face in a sometimes hostile world, let alone supportive of those of us constructing stable relationships. "So this is perhaps a real opportunity for Huckabee, to express what a Christian really should express about the dignity and value of gay people, and about the moral necessity not to demonize or stigmatize those living with HIV or any illness. This culture and society has grown a lot on the issues of homosexuality and HIV in this past decade and a half. This is a chance for Huckabee to show that he has as well." "2008 pres" 8:51:48 AM

? for President? Political Wire: "Oprah Winfrey drew roughly 18,500 people in support of Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign in Iowa, according to the Des Moines Register. "The event sported one of the largest Iowa crowds so far in the 2008 race for president. Attendance even outpaced mammoth Democratic fundraisers such as Sen. Tom Harkin's annual steak fry in September where 15,000 people attended." Said the talk show host: "I am not here to tell you what to think, I'm here to ask you to think.'" Talking Points Memo: "It's probably fair to say that Mike Huckabee has had a strange week. On the one hand, he's been surging in the polls, picking up religious right endorsements, and is now considered the frontrunner in the Iowa caucuses. On the other hand, he's been caught lying about the Wayne Dumond scandal, he's proven that has no idea what the National Intelligence Estimate is, he's completed a dramatic flip-flop on immigration policy, and he's presented himself as literally God's own anointed presidential candidate. It's created an odd political dynamic -- a folksy Baptist preacher who can charm radical Christian fundamentalists and DC media establishment types like David Broder and David Brooks with equal ease. There's one detail, though, that the prior group appreciates and the latter group ignores: Mike Huckabee has some very odd beliefs. He rejects modern biology; he's argued publicly that Roe v. Wade may have created an immigration problem; and he's said that if a man and a woman live together outside of marriage, they're engaging in a "demeaning ... alternate lifestyle.'" "2008 pres" 8:42:09 AM

War on terror Captain's Quarters: "The CIA briefed four Congressional leaders, including Nancy Pelosi, on the controversial practice of waterboarding over five years ago. Not only did no one object to the practice during the September 2002 briefing, but one attendee asked the briefer whether the technique was tough enough." Captain's Quarters: "The decision to destroy the tapes of interrogations that included waterboarding two al-Qaeda terrorists came from the director of the clandestine services of the CIA and in opposition to requests from both Congress and the White House. Jose Rodriguez, the Director of Operations, made the decision without consulting the CIA's attorneys or the DCI, Porter Goss. While a member of Congress and head of the House Intelligence Committee, Goss had demanded that the CIA retain all such recordings." "2008 pres" 8:36:20 AM

Iraq Juan Cole: "Guerrillas differ from conventional armies in that they typically avoid direct, conventional engagements on the battlefield. They melt away before a conventional army's advance, and then reemerge to engage in sniping, sneak attacks, and bombings from an unexpected quarter. The advantage of Fred Kagan's troop escalation or "surge" is that it allowed a tamping down of violence in Baghdad through a US campaign to disarm the Sunni Arabs there. There were two disadvantages of it. First, it allowed the Shiite militias to take advantage of the disarming of many Sunni Arabs, and to ethnically cleanse hundreds of thousands of Sunnis from the capital during the past six months. As a result, Baghdad is virtually a Shiite city now, like Isfahan or Shiraz. Second, the Sunni guerrillas melted away in West Baghdad, either laying low or relocating to other provinces, so that the violence was displaced to the provinces. Very likely when the extra US troops are removed, the guerrillas will reemerge in the capital, though their loss of so many Sunni neighborhoods to the ethnic cleansing may put them at a disadvantage now." "2008 pres" 8:34:00 AM

Great Outdoors Colorado Legacy Grants Here's an update on the Great Outdoors Colorado legacy grants with respect to the South Platte River from The Centennial Citizen. From the article: Dec. 3 proved to be a red-letter day for the South Platte Working Group as the organization received a $5.25 million legacy grant from Greater Outdoors Colorado. This is the second largest legacy grant GOCO has awarded. "This grant is a major milestone for our group because, added to the money committed from entities in the group, we can begin projects to protect, preserve and enhance the river corridor," said Susan Beckman, one of the founders of the group. "The working group has identified eight or nine projects as priorities, with the goal to complete them in the next three to four years. The money will help make those projects realities. However, we see these projects as the first steps in the effort to cleanup, preserve and enhance full length of the river corridor through the county that could stretch over the next 10-20 years." The South Platte Working Group was formed to develop an action plan to preserve, protect and improve the river corridor from Douglas County to Denver... She said, in the past, each community worked on the river corridor within its borders. The working group was formed to have all the entities pool resources and work together on the entire river corridor. "By joining forces, we were able to leverage the money from group members as matching funds needed to apply for grants," Beckman explained. "The fact so many entities were working on this project probably was a factor in receiving the GOCO grant. After all, there have been no GOCO legacy grants awarded for our area." Some of the proposed working group projects include acquiring land in the Lee Gulch area, purchasing environmental easements along the Highline Canal, doing improvement projects along the Bear Creek Trail and purchasing land on the Englewood-Littleton border near the confluence of Big Dry Creek and the South Platte River... The first success story was purchase and preservation of the Oxbow property. It is just north of the Littleton city limits and is adjacent to the new Lowe's Home Improvement store. The land includes wetlands created by the former course of the river and is a habitat for a variety of birds and wildlife. The property was identified as a desirable purchase by the South Platte River Open Space Plan and approved in 2003 as part of Englewood's comprehensive plan. The purchase price is $730,000. Englewood successfully requested a $250,000 Arapahoe County Open Space Grant toward buying the property and the city added $62,500 of the money received returned to local governments annually from proceeds of the Arapahoe County Open Space Tax, plus the city allocated $125,000 in open space money in the contingency fund for improvements on the Mary Carter Greenway. More GOCo news from The Steamboat Pilot & Today. From the article: The state organization known as GOCO, which uses lottery revenues to protect and enhance wildlife areas and parks across the state, announced a $2 million grant Monday that will fund projects along the Yampa River in Steamboat Springs and Hayden... Linda Kakela, director of intergovernmental services for the city of Steamboat Springs, said part of the $2 million from this latest grant cycle will be used to purchase land and conservation easements adjoining the Howelsen-Emerald Mountain regional park and along the Yampa River south of Steamboat. Kathy Hockett, Hayden's parks and recreation director, said the funds will also help the town purchase land for trails to connect Hayden parks -- including Hayden Town Park on Third Street and Dry Creek Park near the Routt County Fairgrounds -- to the Yampa River. "It could potentially be our first trail access from the town to the river," Hockett said. "Eventually, we would like to go west, hopefully hooking up with the Yampa River State Park, and east, to the Nature Conservancy. It's essentially bringing together the core pieces of the park system and getting it to the river." More Coyote Gulch coverage here. "colorado water" 8:06:46 AM

South Metro Water Authority wins award for master plan From The Centennial Citizen, "Last June, the South Metro Water Supply Authority released its master plan to reduce dependence on non-replenishing groundwater. Last week, the authority won an engineering excellence merit award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Colorado for the plan. "You get awards when you do good work," said Rod Kuharich, executive director of the authority. "The master plan recognizes the need for SMWSA to develop a reusable water supply." The plan will get suppliers to an 86 percent renewable water standard by 2030." "colorado water" 7:58:52 AM

Pueblo West gets decree for Chaffee County Water Here's an update on Pueblo West's efforts to secure a sustainable water supply for future growth, from The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article: Pueblo West secured a new source of water supply this week, obtaining a court decree for the Hill Ranch in Chaffee County. The growing community of more than 30,000 west of Pueblo should be able to count on an additional 1,891 acre-feet of water in an average year, based on the historical yield of ditches in the area. That amount represents about one-third of Pueblo West's current annual use. Division 2 Water Court Judge Dennis Maes signed a decree to change the use of the water from agricultural to municipal Tuesday after all parties in the case reached agreement. The major objectors in the case were the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, which agreed to stipulations in the case in October and the state Division of Water Resources, which reached agreement on Nov. 30. "We won't see any additional water from it until 2009, because we need to put in measuring devices up there next year. We'll have to wait until after the runoff to put in the gauges," said Don Saling, Pueblo West Metro District manager... Pueblo West recently signed an agreement with Colorado Springs, Security and Fountain to participate in the Southern Delivery System, if it connects to the joint use manifold at Pueblo Dam - one of seven alternatives now under consideration in a Bureau of Reclamation environmental impact study. Its participation would add 18 million gallons per day capacity to the 78 million gallons per day already anticipated by the other communities. The bulk of that - 70 million gallons per day - would go to Colorado Springs through a 66-inch-diameter, 43-mile-long pipeline. Pueblo West's share of the costs in SDS would be $1 million toward the expected $1 billion total cost. If Reclamation's EIS determines Colorado Springs cannot build the SDS pipeline from the dam, Pueblo West would have to apply for an excess capacity contract to use the joint use manifold for its future needs. The manifold is now used by Pueblo West, Pueblo Board of Water Works and Colorado Springs... Pueblo West now has the capacity to pump up to 12 million gallons per day from the dam, but its needs at build-out will be to provide a peak demand of 30 million gallons per day, Saling explained. Peak demand last year was 8 million gallons per day, with average daily consumption less than half of that. During a dry year, however, Pueblo West's demand often reaches 12 million gallons per day during the summer months. Pueblo West uses 36-inch and a 24-inch lines to pump the water uphill from the base of the dam to its treatment plant, with a 30-inch line to move the water from the joint use manifold to its pumping plant. Pueblo West would tie into SDS to gain the extra capacity... Pueblo West also will proceed with construction of a river intake below Pueblo Dam that would have a capacity of 2 million to 5 million gallons per day as a source of emergency or peak demand supply. Pueblo West has relatively meager native water rights in the Arkansas Valley, including 17 wells, a ranch water right and some shares in the Colorado Canal. It gets most of its water from Twin Lakes, which imports water from the Roaring Fork on the Western Slope, and next year will be eligible for a small amount of Fryingpan-Arkansas Project water, imported from the Fryingpan River, for the first time. Pueblo West has also signed on as a partner in the Pueblo water board's attempt to buy shares in the Bessemer Ditch, although shareholders have not met with the partners. A meeting to explain the sale terms to shareholders is scheduled today. Until Pueblo West needs the water, the district would continue to lease its surplus supply it is unable to store, Saling said. More Coyote Gulch coverage here. "colorado water" 7:55:18 AM

Climate change: The earth is a beautifully complex system From The Environmental News Network, "One hundred fifty scientists from more than 40 universities in nine countries are starting a coordinated program aimed at gaining new insights about the Earth's climate and the complex, interconnected system involving the oceans, the atmosphere and the land. The program will study the southeastern Pacific Ocean, the marine area off South America's west coast -- a region where the interplay among low clouds, strong low-level winds, coastal ocean currents, surfacing of deep water, the Andes Mountains, aerosols and other factors shape the regional climate and affect global weather in ways that are poorly understood." "2008 pres" 7:42:37 AM

Ritter names Dick Wolfe State Engineer Governor Ritter recently appointed Dick Wolfe as State Engineer. Wolfe takes over for the Hal Simpson who retired earlier in the year. Mr. Wolfe also inherits over-appropriated rivers and streams, water quality problems, opposition and support for transbasin projects, the possibility of a compact call on the Colorado River and an unknown future for snowpack due to climate change. Here's a background piece from The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article: The next great battlefield for Colorado water wars may be an arena of ideas where the laws of the state are pitted against the laws of nature. As always, the state engineer will be at the forefront, trying to make all of the laws - man's and nature's - fit into some sort of neat box. The realist in him tells Dick Wolfe he probably will have a hard time making it work. The idealist says it's worth the effort. "A lot has changed as our understanding of science has grown," Wolfe said during an interview last week. "In the past, our focus was on the resource of water. Now, we have to focus on the impact as well."[...] Wolfe, 46, was appointed state engineer in November by Gov. Bill Ritter. As state engineer, he heads the Division of Water Resources and serves as the state's chief of water supply. As a practical matter, the job means supervision of an increasingly complex web of water law and court decrees. With pending state Supreme Court cases, hot-button issues in every water division, statewide roundtables drawing more people into the world of water and hundreds of phone calls and e-mails to respond to, Wolfe said his first week on the job was like being asked to drink from a fire hose... During his time at Water Resources, Wolfe has had some degree of oversight in all seven state water divisions, which follow the boundaries of major river basins. The 2002 drought, new laws, court decisions and new rules have made the job increasingly complex. "It has created more structure and brought more notice to the process," Wolfe said. "We have more input from water users." And more work. The state has seen a threefold increase in water applications of all kinds in the past five years - with storms on every horizon, as plain to see as the clouds hugging the Rockies in the view from his eighth-story window in Downtown Denver... The state is also affected by efforts to quantify its remaining water resources. The Colorado Water Conservation Board, a separate agency, is in the process of setting up a $500,000 study that will attempt to quantify the remaining water. State Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, has suggested legislation that would protect senior water rights in Colorado by tying future diversions to the water supply for downstream states in the Colorado River Compact. Colorado is also beginning to talk about curtailment rules that would determine how shortages on the Colorado River would affect water users within the state. Meanwhile, the state is still struggling to come to grips with how to use the water it thinks it has, Wolfe said. There has been a lot of concern about agricultural dry-ups since the Statewide Water Supply Initiative in 2004 identified the potential need to dry up hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland to meet the needs of growing cities. Yet, the drought has shown water may be in even shorter supply already, and climate change could make that situation more dire, Wolfe said... "I think my key focus now is to build relationships with the public and mend relationships that may have been broken in the past," Wolfe said. "We need to plan for sustainable, optimal use of the resource. Our future water needs will include population growth, the environment and the economy, including the agricultural economy. We have to have the legal, administrative and socioeconomic models in place to plan for the future." More Coyote Gulch coverage here. "colorado water" 7:33:02 AM

Grand Canyon Trust files lawsuit over management of Glen Canyon Dam The Glen Canyon Trust filed a lawsuit against Reclamation on Friday over the management of the Glen Canyon Dam, according to The Deseret Morning News. From the article: An environmental group says the Glen Canyon Dam, a key Colorado River dam on the Utah-Arizona border, is being mismanaged by the federal government, threatening already endangered species for the benefit of power production. The Grand Canyon Trust made the allegations in a federal lawsuit filed Friday in Phoenix. The suit names the U.S. Interior Department's Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the dam, which has created Lake Powell. The Flagstaff-based group's suit claims the government releases water from Lake Powell in a way that benefits power production but destroys downstream habitat for native fish. River flows in the Grand Canyon have been an issue for more than two decades. Before it was dammed in 1963, flows ranged from heavy springtime flooding that cleansed the river's sand and gravel bars to slow late fall flows. The dam's steady releases changed that habitat, and combined with introductions of non-native fish like trout, native fish populations plummeted. The government already settled one lawsuit that claimed the dam's operation failed to protect endangered fish in the Colorado River. In early 2006, five other environmental groups sued, claiming the Bureau of Reclamation's dam operations were driving four endangered fish species, the humpback chub, razorback sucker, Colorado pikeminnow and bonytail chub, closer to extinction... The new lawsuit alleges that the Bureau of Reclamation hasn't followed its existing 1996 dam operations plan that was designed to adjust river flows to avoid undue environmental damage. "To put it bluntly, current flows from Glen Canyon Dam are in violation of federal law," said Nikolai Lash, senior program director at the trust. "colorado water" 7:16:40 AM

Restoration on Pikes Peak Erosion on Pikes Peak from the highway to the summit is a growing problem. Here's an article about it from The Colorado Springs Gazette. They write: The problem is runoff from the often-violent storms that batter the peak. Water rushes quickly off the highway, taking with it tons of gravel dumped on the road each year into watersheds below. Creeks and reservoirs have become clogged with this sediment, posing threats to aquatic life and Colorado Springs' water supply. Said Billmeyer, "Whenever the stormwater rolled off the highway, it just cut through the landscape like a knife in butter." The paving of the upper 12 miles of the highway, mandated by the legal settlement [with the Sierra Club], is expected to be completed by 2012, at a cost of $1 million a mile, funded by tolls on the highway. Although the newly paved sections have elaborate drainage controls, including culverts, rock weirs and ponds to collect stormwater, it does nothing for the estimated 120 unnatural gullies on the mountain, and the streams and wetlands below. The Rocky Mountain Field Institute began work in 2005, building rock barriers in gullies to slow runoff. But these were small compared to the work ahead. It wants to restore 4 acres of wetland near Elk Park, at the headwaters of Severy Creek, the gullies above the wetlands, and to restore Ski Creek, which begins near Glen Cove. The Elk Park project area is steep and remote, and the gullies are massive, so Billmeyer doesn't know yet if the group will fly in equipment to dig out sediment, or do it by hand. It will also re-vegetate the area. The cost is well beyond what the group received in the settlement, so it will be heavily dependent on volunteers and grants. Without the work, Severy Creek, home to a rare species of cutthroat trout, will continue to fill with rock and gravel, Billmeyer said. Ski Creek, he said, will continue to wash sediment into the drinking water reservoir below. "Unfortunately, they'll continue to widen. You'll continue to lose trees, you'll continue to have more sediment washing downstream," he said. "The whole system is completely out of equilibrium. We still have a chance to prevent the sediment from moving all the way into the wetland and the creek itself." The U.S. Forest Service is accepting public comments for an environmental assessment of the project through the end of the month. Comments can be submitted to Ski and Severy Creek Restoration Proposal, District Ranger, Pikes Peak Ranger District, 601 S. Weber St., Colorado Springs, CO. If approved, Billmeyer hopes to begin next year. "colorado water" 7:03:16 AM

© Copyright 2009 John Orr. Last update: 3/14/09; 9:54:32 PM.