Coyote Gulch

Monday, February 25, 2008

? for President?
Political Wire: "The latest USA Today/Gallup poll shows Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. Hillary Clinton among Democrats nationally, 51% to 39%. Caveat: Obama's 13-point lead -- his first outside the survey's margin of error -- 'is at odds with a separate Gallup tracking poll. Taken Friday through Sunday, it gave the Illinois senator a narrow 47% to 45% lead over Clinton.' On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain is way ahead of Mike Huckabee, 61% to 23%."

Political Wire: "A new CNN/Opinion Research poll in Texas finds Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. Hillary Clinton, 50% to 46%. With the 3.5% margin of error, the race is technically a statistical dead heat."

Political Wire: ""Momentum is rapidly swinging Barack Obama's way in Ohio," according to a new Public Policy Polling survey. Sen. Hillary Clinton's lead over Obama has been cut to four points, 50% to 46%. Just a couple weeks ago Clinton held a lead over 20 points in some polls. Key factor: 'Obama is benefiting from the decided nature of the Republican contest. That's increasing the number of Republicans and independents who plan to cast their ballots in the Democratic primary next week, and Obama leads those groups 80% to 13% and 64% to 33% respectively. Clinton actually has a 56% to 40% edge among self identified Democrats.'"

Political Wire: "Two new polls from the American Research Group: Texas -- Obama 50%, Clinton 42%; Ohio -- Clinton 49%, Obama 39%"

Political Wire: "With just eight days until the Ohio presidential primary, the latest Ohio Poll finds Sen. Hillary Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama by eight points, 47% to 39%, among likely Democratic primary voters. The poll was conducted by the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati. In the GOP race, the survey finds Sen. John McCain leads Mike Huckabee 55% to 20% among likely Republican primary voters."
"2008 pres"
6:37:41 PM

Climate Change: The earth is a beautifully complex system

The Cherry Creek News: "Scott Denning, associate professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University, will talk about climate change March 5 at the Denver Athletic Club as part of the Engineering Innovations Breakfast Series sponsored by the College of Engineering. Denning, a CSU alumnus, Monfort Professor and Engineering Faculty Award of Excellence recipient, will talk about how the Earth's climate works, how greenhouse gases are expected to warm the Earth's surface and discuss options for mitigation and adaptation to future climate changes in his talk, 'Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities.' The event will be at 7:30 a.m. at the Denver Athletic Club, 1325 Glenarm Place. The event is $20 per person and open to the public. Reservations are required at (970) 491-7028."
"2008 pres"
5:59:35 PM

War on terror
Say hello to The National Religious Campaign Against Torture. From their mission statement, "Torture violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions, in their highest ideals, hold dear. It degrades everyone involved -- policy-makers, perpetrators and victims. It contradicts our nation's most cherished ideals. Any policies that permit torture and inhumane treatment are shocking and morally intolerable. Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation. What does it signify if torture is condemned in word but allowed in deed? Let America abolish torture now -- without exceptions."

Thanks to The Moderate Voice for the link.
"2008 pres"
5:48:45 PM

Iraq
Daily Kos: "No candidate who has any sense talks 'meta' with reporters, at least not candidly. Speaking to reporters today on his ironically named 'Straight Talk Express', John McCain provided an object lesson in how he'll manage to undermine his own campaign's carefully crafted message. John McCain said Monday that to win the White House he must convince a war-weary country that U.S. policy in Iraq is succeeding. If he can't, 'then I lose. I lose,' the Republican said."
"2008 pres"
5:44:09 PM

? for President?
Andrew Sullivan is linking to a video designed to move Latino voters to support Barack Obama.

Political Wire: "'Buoyed by a big shift among college-educated voters,' Sen. Barack Obama is gaining on Sen. Hillary Clinton, who now leads 51% to 40% among Ohio likely Democratic primary voters, according to a new Quinnipiac poll. Clinton held a 21 point lead in mid-February."
"2008 pres"
7:33:47 AM

Jennifer Gimbel: The time has come for people to realize the connection between water quality and water quantity

Here's a look at Jennifer Gimbel, Governor Ritter's choice to lead the Colorado Water Conservation Board, from The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

"I'm well-acquainted with all the past directors, going back to Felix Sparks (director from 1958-1979), from working with them in my other jobs," Gimbel said in an interview last week during her visit to Pueblo. "It's a job I'd always wanted and thought I would do well in." As the new executive director of the CWCB - she was chosen late last year to replace Rod Kuharich, who retired in July - she said she will work on balancing conservation goals with development, realizing that the state's water issues have gotten more complicated since she left Colorado to take a job in Washington seven years ago. Gimbel joined the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 2001, after serving 10 years with the Colorado attorney general's office under Ken Salazar and Gale Norton. "Having worked with several directors of the CWCB, I felt a draw toward the challenges that face the CWCB and the state on water issues," Gimbel said. "It pleases me to be able to be in a position to make a difference on some of those issues."[...]

Gimbel met with the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District Board last week, saying she plans to continue to visit with the board and other conservancy districts around the state. In her new job, Gimbel will look at new solutions for protecting the state's streams. One idea she outlined is a current bill in the Legislature, H1280, that would protect the water rights of ranchers who donate in-stream flows to the CWCB. "We want to make sure the senior water rights aren't penalized for using the water to keep flows in the stream," Gimbel said.

She also talked about water management partnerships, in which the state would help smaller water users make improvements in exchange for the nonconsumptive use of water in streams. The CWCB is in the unique position in Colorado to fund water conservation projects and hold in-stream flow water rights, and Gimbel believes it can do work to more fully integrate the two ideas. "We have the money to be more creative," Gimbel said. "We have some authority and the cash to move forward and protect the environment."

Gimbel also walked into the job at a time when a sister agency, the Colorado Division of Water Resources, is proposing agriculture efficiency rules for the Arkansas Valley. While her agency is not making those rules, it is affected, since the CWCB oversees interstate compacts. The state is proposing the rules in order to prevent future claims of Arkansas River Compact violations by Kansas. "I was involved in the 1990s with the well rules," Gimbel said. The attorney general's office is the legal arm of the CWCB. "We do know we have issues. But we've decided to step back to deal with the work in smaller groups. We're not anti-efficiency, but there are issues we have to address."

Another task of the CWCB is completing the Statewide Water Supply Initiative. Phase I of the SWSI report was completed in 2004, and showed a gap between identified water projects and the future needs of cities. Since that time, the CWCB has been trying to refine the numbers, as well as look at nonconsumptive uses - the needs of fish, wildlife and recreation - and identify new projects to meet identified needs since that time. The task is more complex, because of the Interbasin Compact Committee and nine basin roundtables, which were created in 2005. Part of their task is to develop basin needs assessments, which was folded into the SWSI II effort after the change of administration when Gov. Bill Ritter took office..."The time has come for people to realize the connection between water quality and water quantity," Gimbel said.

More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"colorado water"
7:10:10 AM

Tamarisk control

Here's an article about tamarisk control from The Pueblo Chieftain. They write:

Nearly 70 percent of Colorado land taken over by tamarisk is in the Arkansas River Basin, a recently completed mapping project reveals. "They are causing serious impacts to an already limited water resource in an over-appropriated basin," said Jean Van Pelt, conservation outreach coordinator for the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District. Tamarisk, also called salt cedars, were found on 67,000 acres along the Arkansas River and its tributaries, particularly the Purgatoire River. In fact, the Purgatoire acreage alone represents about 10 percent of the statewide total - more than along the Colorado River mainstem. "My jaw dropped when I saw the numbers," Van Pelt said.

The Southeastern District has taken the lead in an effort to map and coordinate plans to control tamarisk in the Arkansas Valley. Putting a master plan in place is considered a first step toward getting federal funds to address the problem. Right now, tamarisk is covering about one-third of the acreage where it has been found, but it likely will choke out other plants until it is the only vegetation in the area. The leaves of the plant provide little nutrition to wildlife and the plants leach large quantities of salt from the soil into the water. Unlike native cottonwood trees, the plants also spread to upland areas. Some stands of trees near John Martin Reservoir are up to 1.5 miles wide.

The Tamarisk Coalition estimates water losses in the watershed from tamarisk, above and beyond what native vegetation would use, is 76,600 acre-feet per year, or about the same amount needed by Aurora each year. If the problem is not addressed, future water losses from "infilling" (no expansion from existing infested areas) alone are estimated to be 198,000 acre-feet per year, or enough for Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Aurora combined. The mapping and survey project estimated it would take $70 million to completely eradicate and restore the watershed...

Pending state legislation proposes a Colorado Water Conservation Board grant program to provide $4 million over the next four years to cost share with federal, local and private funds for tamarisk restoration projects. Federal legislation was passed in October 2006 to assist in rectifying the tamarisk problem. In the Arkansas watershed, several groups have formed, including: Bent County Tamarisk Working Partners, Conservation Partners Conquer Tamarisk, Tackling Tamarisk on the Purgatoire, Upper Arkansas Regional Weed Management Cooperative, Bent's Fort Project and local landowner groups. The Southeastern district and Bent County have assembled a collaboration of partners to fund and develop the Arkansas River Watershed Invasive Plants Plan for the watershed. Funding has been provided by local governments, organizations, and the state Department of Local Affairs. The group plans to coordinate efforts valleywide to remove tamarisk and restore vegetation and will soon provide a Web site to share information, techniques and plans. Tamarisks, which can grow 5-20 feet tall, are an invasive species brought to the United States from central Asia as an ornamental plant in the mid-1800s. They were planted along river banks and ditches to control erosion in the 1900s, before their potential negative impact was understood. The seeds and leaves lack nutrients and are of little value to most wildlife and livestock. They also excrete excess salts through the leaves and drop the leaves on the ground, which increases soil salinity.

More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"colorado water"
6:54:41 AM

Increasing eolian dust deposition in the western United States linked to human activity

Here's a background piece on dust in the West from The Boulder Daily Camera. Dust can increase the melting of the snowpack due to the albedo effect so it is of concern to water managers. From the article:

According to a new study led by the University of Colorado, the western United States has become 500 percent dustier in the past two centuries. The study, published online this week in Nature Geoscience, blames the town and railroad construction and livestock and ranching activity that bombarded the West during the migration. "In 1850, all of the sudden something happened," said Jason Neff, lead author of the study and geological sciences assistant professor at CU. "The sediments started accu-mulating very quickly." Neff and his team poked shallow holes throughout the alpine lakes in southwest Colorado's San Juan Mountains, a resting place for dust blowing west. Dust particles are extremely small and take a long time to build up, so sediment yanked from only 2 to 3 feet into the earth can represent thousands of year's worth of data, Neff said. Researchers discovered a sharp rise in dust deposits -- five to seven times heavier than at any time in the previous 5,000 years -- from the samples representing the mid- to late 19th century. All of the developments from this time, particularly grazing, kicked up vast amounts of dust, disturbing the soil and causing a loss in fertility, according to Neff. "There was an estimated 40 million head of livestock on the western rangeland during the turn of the century, causing a massive and systematic degradation of the ecosystems," Neff said in a news release...

The study also found a five-fold increase in nutrients and minerals in the lake sediment during the last 150 years. Byproducts of ranching and farming activity -- such as phosphorus or nitrogen -- have been shown to change water alkalinity, aquatic productivity and nutrient cycling. Colorado has been known to receive some fine-grained dust from Asia; however, Neff said the larger-sized particles discovered in the study were unmistakably from the West. Neff said the data can be used to study droughts, which are known to build up large dust deposits. "One of the real consistencies with climate change is more drought and longer droughts," Neff said. "Knowing what the past is helps us know where we want to go in the future."

More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"colorado water"
6:47:31 AM

Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel update

Governor Ritter is asking Reclamation to commit to the treatment of the polluted water around the Yak Tunnel and California Gulch Superfund sites "in perpuity," according to The Denver Post. From the article:

Gov. Bill Ritter on Sunday asked for long-term federal funding to relieve pressure building in a Leadville mine tunnel, launching the latest volley in a dispute over who will pay to avert potential disaster at the Superfund site. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which purifies metals-laced mine water for release into the Arkansas River, should commit to do so "in perpetuity" and should reimburse agencies that pay to drain the mine and unstop future blockages, Ritter said...

Ritter also thanked the bureau for agreeing to a series of shorter-term solutions that include drilling a well into the drainage tunnel and building a pipeline to ferry more water to its treatment plant. The bureau purchased the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel for $1 in 1959 on the premise that it could produce marketable water needed in the growing West. After the EPA placed the mining district and the surrounding area on the national Superfund list -- reserved for the most polluted sites in the country -- the bureau built the water-treatment plant in 1992 as part of the federal cleanup effort. The two federal agencies determined in 2005 that the operation of the treatment plant should be permanently handled by the state. "It's something the state never wanted to do in the first place, but in the interest of getting the remedy done, we were willing to discuss it," said Jeff Deckler, remedial-programs manager with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The deal fell through, though, when federal officials offered only $30 million to offset operation-and-maintenance costs rather than the $50 million requested by the state. At the time, even Lake County officials advised the state to refuse the deal, noting that the plant costs just less than $1 million annually to operate and eventually will need an overhaul that could cost $20 million or more.

Here's a look at the politics around the disaster declaration at the LDMT from The Rocky Mountain News. From the article:

Lake County's dramatic declaration nearly two weeks ago of a "disaster emergency" over water rising behind a clogged mine tunnel was not a move made in haste. Nor was it fashioned in public. For days, Lake County commissioners worked behind the scenes with state Sen. Tom Wiens, a Castle Rock Republican, to lay the groundwork for the emergency announcement. Wiens even set up a Web site - savethearkansasriver.org - four days ahead of the emergency declaration. It includes repeated references to Wiens' role in heading off disaster. He appears in videos, stories and headlines such as "Federal and state agencies answer to Sen. Tom Wiens." It was part of Wiens' plan to use "every communications tool the 21st century provides" to get the story out, he said. He paid for it himself, spending "a few thousand dollars," he said. But left out of the process was the entire community of Leadville: its mayor, its firefighters, its police department and many others, including scores of regulators with oversight of the area's old mines and groundwater. Furthermore, Leadville officials, as well as several state and federal regulators, say they're skeptical any disaster exists. They're also weighing the impacts of the county's actions, including, they said, cancellation of the city's liability insurance...

Leadville Mayor Bud Elliott said he is furious at Wiens and the commissioners, saying they "grossly mismanaged" the matter and accused them of "staging" the emergency. The fallout, he said, includes skiers canceling trips, collapsed real estate deals, and another black eye for a town still reeling from its inclusion as part of a Superfund cleanup site in the 1980s. "There were ways (to get the problem solved) short of causing panic," Elliott said...

To be sure, the disaster declaration appears to have had its intended effect: pushing federal agencies closer to confronting the rising subterranean mine waters. It also brought a cascade of media coverage and a free-for-all among Colorado's congressional delegation, whose members scrambled to let the public know they were concerned and demanding the federal government act. The reaction was fueled, in part, by a Lake County commission news release on Feb. 13 that warned of the potential for a "catastrophic failure" of a blocked mine tunnel that could unleash a billion gallons of "toxic acid and metals-laden water." The statement compared the situation to the 1976 Teton Dam disaster, which released some 80 billion gallons of water. It also warned of 20,000 gallons of water-treatment chemicals stored near the mouth of the collapsed mining tunnel. "We have elements of Bohopal (sic), India, the Teton Dam and the Summitville Mine in Colorado all rolled into one," it said.

Commissioners and Wiens defended their approach, saying they had to make the declaration of emergency to get the government to deal with the long-simmering problem. In addition, they note, the EPA's top regional chief expressed similar concerns late last year. Advocates of the declaration also point to a bloated snowpack, suggesting that the spring melt will add to groundwater loads in the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel...

In fact, groundwater is backed behind enormous stores of rock and debris, and is itself intermixed with soil and rock - much like water in a sponge. That makes it unlikely, experts say, that a burst of water will explode out of a hillside like a scene from a disaster film. "Even if a blowout happened, it wouldn't happen like that at all," Deckler said. "There's a lot of water in the mountain, but (if it came out), it's going to come out over the course of several days, not in an instant." A similar "blowout" occurred at the Yak Tunnel in Leadville in 1983. But that "didn't look like a flood at all," Deckler said. Instead, flows increased from the tunnel three to five times its normal rate, the water was orange and it polluted the Arkansas River. "But in terms of a physical or safety hazard, I think we need to put some of that into perspective," he said, echoing several state and federal regulators who expressed similar sentiments. Even Robbie Roberts, the EPA's regional administrator who signed a letter expressing concern of a blowout, said he didn't know if such a thing would actually happen.

Here's some background about the LDMT from Ed Quillen (via The Denver Post):

But you can't blame this situation on the greed of the mining industry. It was a federal project, pure and simple. In 1943, the U.S. was at war and needed metals. The Climax Molybdenum Mine a dozen miles above Leadville was a high-priority defense production site since molybdenum was used to harden the steel in tank treads and cannon barrels. The cannons needed projectiles to shoot, so it was important to boost lead production, too. The old Leadville Mining District had boomed with silver in the late 1870s, but it also produced lead by the ton. However, the deeper the mines got, the more water they encountered, and at some point, the cost of pumping water exceeded the value of the ores. One way to improve production was to find a cheaper way to drain the mines. So in 1943, the U.S. Bureau of Mines began work on the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel. It would come in from below town and provide a route for the water to flow away from the drifts and stopes. However, World War II ended in 1945, before the tunnel was completed, and work stopped. But then came the Korean conflict in 1950 and work resumed. The 12,000-foot-long tunnel was completed in 1952.

In "Leadville: A Miner's Epic," mining historian Stephen M. Voynick explains that "Technically, the tunnel was a success, draining 4,000 gallons of water per minute. Practically, however, it was a failure, draining only abandoned, collapsed mines and dumping the water, acidic and high in dissolved mineral content, into the Arkansas River." Those old mines did not go back into production, despite the new drainage tunnel. In 1959, the tunnel was transferred from the Bureau of Mines to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which wanted the water as it built the Fryingpan-Arkansas project. Reclamation was then concerned only with water quantity, not quality, but eventually, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered Reclamation to build and operate a treatment plant at the mouth of the tunnel. Note that the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel had once flowed at 4,000 gallons a minute, but in recent years flowed at only 1,200 at the treatment plant. Did anyone at Reclamation wonder why this was so? Somebody must have noticed, but let's face it -- the federal government has other priorities these days. Meanwhile, Colorado has vast tracts of dying pine trees on federal land; it's an immense conflagration just waiting for a dry July fortnight and a spark. The U.S. Forest Service budget for firefighting (i.e., the defense of trophy homes on scenic mountain estates abutting public land) is going up by $148 million, while the proposed fire-prevention budget has a 38 percent decline. So the federal government of late has offered us a toxic flood and a catastrophic conflagration. That's sure a peculiar way to provide "homeland security."

More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here.
"colorado water"
6:27:50 AM

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