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Tuesday, May 20, 2008
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Runoff
The Dolores River is over 90% of flood stage, according to the USGS Water Watch website.
There was a lot of snow down there this year. Coyote Gulch lost the carport at the retirement site in Dolores to snow.
"colorado water"
6:54:27 PM 
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Environmental policy
grist "There's definitely a survivalist streak building in the environmental movement. Mainstream newspapers are starting to run stories about survivalism."
"cc"
6:13:37 PM
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? for President?
Political Wire: "The latest Gallup tracking poll finds a surge in Democratic voters' support for Sen. Barack Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton in recent days. 'Certain groups that were already highly supportive of Obama for the nomination -- men, 18- to 29-year-olds, postgrads, and upper-income Democrats -- are now overwhelmingly in his camp. Obama is currently favored among these groups by a 2-to-1 margin, or better, over Clinton.' 'At the same time, support for Clinton among some of her traditionally stalwart support groups -- women, Easterners, whites, adults with no college education, and Hispanics -- has fallen below 50%.'"
Andrew Sullivan: "Obama Now Beats Clinton Among Hispanics: That's Gallup's latest. Maybe all those Clinton pitches to "hard-working" "white" Americans had an effect."
Daily Kos: "Are there any hard-working white people in Oregon? Can't possibly be the case, considering he's about to win the primary there today.
"Ranked by per-capita income, Oregon is ranked 23rd in the nation, two slots behind Ohio, and a single slot ahead of Pennsylvania. And since Ohio and Pennsylvania are apparently the gold standard of white working class-ness in this election, Oregon is little different than those two on the economic front.
"Oregon is also a white state. According to 2005 census projections, Oregon is 9.38 percent Hispanic, 2.38 percent black, 2.44 percent pacific islander, 0.5 percent Native American, and 4.25 percent Asian. That's about 81 percent Anglo."
"2008 pres"
6:03:15 PM
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War on terror
Juan Cole: "The Moroccan government broke up a terror cell in Fez that was allegedly planning an attack in Belgium. If this story is as advertised, it underlines that radical Muslim extremism is best fought by establishing warm relations with Muslim allies such as Morocco, the security forces of which are far more able to break up such cells than is the US Pentagon. That is, diplomacy is more important to counter-terrorism than sheer military might."
"2008 pres"
6:02:29 PM
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Cell phone survey news
Pollster.com "'Numbers Guy' Carl Bialik has a nice round-up of the latest developments in the 'steady displacement of landline usage by cellphones' that is pushing some pollsters to 'try to reach Americans on their cell phones.' Carl noticed something I had overlooked, namely that the most recent CBS/New York Times poll included a supplemental sample of cell phone numbers. Unlike Gallup, they do not yet see an impact on the results from the greater sample coverage: Kathy Frankovic, director of surveys for CBS News, told me that 'I haven't seen any great difference in results, but it is still early.'"
"2008 pres"
5:58:50 PM
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Reclamation: Blue River 'will be going up'
From email from Reclamation (Kara Lamb): "As we prepare for run off this week, we are moving more water out of Green Mountain Reservoir to the Lower Blue. Today, we bumped up releases to 900 cfs and anticipate we will get to 1000 cfs, and probably above, over Memorial Day weekend. If you will be spending time on the Lower Blue, please be aware river flow will be going up."
"colorado river"
5:56:09 PM
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? for President?
The Moderate Voice: "The latest Gallup Daily tracking poll shows the Democratic Illinois Senator widening his lead even more of Democratic party nomination rival Senator Hillary Clinton [~] from 11 percent to 16 percent. The poll was taken during the time of the bro-ha-ha in which Bush made the controversial suggestion about Obama, GOP presumptive nominee Senator John McCain said Bush had it right, and Obama responded in a speech that slammed both of them and rhetorically sewed Bush to McCain."
"2008 pres"
6:31:09 AM
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Energy policy: Nuclear
From Fort Collins Now: "Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction is hosting a town hall meeting in Eaton on Monday night to discuss the proposed uranium mining in northern Colorado. The meeting will be from 7-9 p.m. Monday in the Eaton High School auditorium, 114 Park Ave. According to a news release from the organization, a petition that supports tighter regulation of uranium mining in Colorado will be available at the meeting. More than 9,000 signatures have been collected. The town hall meeting is open to the public. For more information, go to www.nunnglow.com or call (970) 372-0029 and leave a message."
More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here.
"2008 pres"
6:26:03 AM
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Runoff
The Elk River was out of its banks Sunday, according to The Steamboat Pilot & Today. From the article:
The high-flying Elk River backed off during the day Monday, but the National Weather Service predicted the river would crest above flood stage again Monday night, posing a threat to buildings in the vicinity of U.S. Highway 40 and Routt County Road 44, about 7 miles west of Steamboat Springs. The Elk peaked just over its 7-foot flood stage about 1:30 a.m. Monday, but by late morning had retreated to 6.73 feet. Routt County Emergency Ma nagement Director Chuck Vale said the overnight event did not pose any human impacts, but he remained cautious about what might happen later this week...
The Elk and other rivers in Northwest Colorado and Utah are under a flood warning imposed by the National Weather Service in Grand Junction. The warning also applies to the Yampa River at Deer Lodge Park in western Moffat County, where there are no homes, and the Green River near Jensen, Utah. The combination of an unusual amount of water stored in the snowpack for this late date, and the sudden arrival of summer-like temperatures is contributing to the danger...
Complicating the situation is a snowpack that still was increasing less than two weeks ago, and in many sites around the Yampa and White river drainages, the snowpack is well above average for the date. A case in point is the Natural Resources Conservation Service snow-measuring site on the Elk River above Clark. Remote sensing equipment maintained by the Conservation Service shows that at 8,700 feet elevation, the terrain surrounding the site still contains 12.6 inches of water. That's not a lot of water compared to the amount stored elsewhere. For example, the west summit of Rabbit Ears Pass still holds 31.1 inches at 9,400 feet, and the Tower site on the summit of Buffalo Pass holds 50.2 inches. However, the Tower site is right on par for May 19, and the Rabbit Ears site is 135 percent of average. But the Elk River site is a notable 229 percent of average...
The Yampa River where it runs through Steamboat remained several feet below flood stage even as the Elk was pushing its limits. Vale said Oak Creek still is under control, and Steamboat Springs Assistant Fire Chief Bob Struble reported that Butcherknife Creek was within its banks in Old Town Steamboat Springs, but there were some sandbags on the streambank in Stehley Park.
More runoff news from The Aspen Times. They write: "The Fryingpan is experiencing its own version of spring runoff -- it continued to run at 325 cubic feet per second (cfs) Monday -- considerably higher than its typical late-summer flows. The Bureau of Reclamation is drawing down Ruedi Reservoir to make room for the coming snowmelt, hence the higher flows below the dam, but the dam-fed river is somewhat immune to the runoff phenomenon that has turned the Roaring Fork and Colorado rivers into muddy torrents.
Here's an update from The Denver Post. From the article:
Monday morning, the National Weather Service issued a flood watch for the East River near Almont, the Green River in Uintah County and the Yampa River in Moffat County. Isolated flooding was reported on the Rio San Antonio near Manassa, and a creeping landslide along Archuleta County's East Fork of the San Juan River was threatening a gas line. The Elk River north of Steamboat Springs is expected to reach flood stage this week. And a record snowfall above Aspen is raising flood concerns along the Roaring Fork River, which has yet to begin surging with any whitewater...
The Gunnison River basin's snowpack, for example, climbed from 128 percent of average on April 1 to 141 percent of average in mid-May, a time when snowpacks typically begin to dry out. The East River, which feeds the Gunnison River and runs through Crested Butte, saw its snowpack climb from a barely manageable 147 percent of average in early March to 205 percent of average in early May. Gunnison County's emergency-management team on Friday sent out reverse-911 calls to all residents along the East River, warning them to watch for a surge that could slip the banks.
More coveage from KJCT8.com. They write: "On Monday the Colorado River measured 8.3 feet. The Gunnison river measured over 9 feet. A couple more feet and we'll see some flooding. Residents in the Riverside area and neighborhoods along the water are concerned the rivers could crest. For the past couple days, the river has been rising about a foot a day. In the next couple days we'll see it rise a lot more."
Here's the link to the USGS Water Watch website for Colorado.
"colorado water"
6:06:08 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/14/09; 10:18:58 PM.
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