Coyote Gulch

 



















































































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  Sunday, June 15, 2008


New water quality standards for the Eagle River
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Here's a look new water quality rules for the Eagle River, from The Vail Daily. From the article:

The Water Quality Control Commission has adopted new limits on how much toxic metal is allowed to flow through the Eagle River, which for decades has been tainted by zinc, copper and cadmium spilling out of the now defunct Eagle Mine south of Minturn...

The new standards, overall, could lead to healthier schools of brown trout in the river, said John Woodling, a biologist and consultant for water advocacy group Eagle Mine Limited. In a section of the river farther away from the mine -- between south Minturn and Gore Creek -- the new standards could help rainbow trout, which are more sensitive to metal and have long been absent from the river. In another section of the river -- between the Tigiwon Road area and south Minturn -- a standard that could help rainbow trout will be relaxed January through April, when there's less water running through the river to dilute the metal...

The Watershed Council is after the cleanest river possible, considering how much of the valley's economy is based on water recreation. Its members want to see the river just as pristine as it was before the mine pollution, which would give hope to the sculpin -- that small, ugly, less resilient fish that's the most sensitive to zinc. Arlene Quenon, president of the council, said she had hoped for more stringent standards, especially considering how much progress had already been made, but at least this will lead to more metal being cleaned up. "I feel that it's a step in the right direction -- we'll continue to monitor, and continue to remove zinc," Quenon said. Woodling also wasn't satisfied with the decision. He wanted to see the commission adopt the Colorado "Table Standards," which are the basic levels that are applied to all streams with fish across the state, especially in that section of the river between south Minturn and Gore Creek.

More Coyote Gulch coverage here.

"colorado water"
10:46:03 AM     


Gross Reservoir expansion?
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Enlarging existing reservoirs is one way to gain some water storage without many of the permitting headaches and increased damage to the riparian environment. As it happens Denver Water is looking to enlarge Gross Reservoir, according to The Boulder Daily Camera. From the article:

Local environmental groups are grappling with a proposal to more than double the size of Gross Reservoir southwest of Boulder, a $140 million project that could happen in the next two or three years. Today, the reservoir holds 41,000 acre-feet of water. Denver Water, the agency that owns the reservoir, has started applying for permits from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Army Corps of Engineers to increase its capacity to 114,000 acre-feet to cope with projected shortfalls to its Denver-area customers within the next eight years. The project would draw water away from the Fraser River and its tributaries on the Western Slope and move it through the Moffat Tunnel, a move that dismays water-quality experts who say those rivers are in bad enough shape as it is...

Travis Bray, project manager for Denver Water's Moffat Collection System Project, said expanding Gross Reservoir is meant to make progress on three goals: "We need more supply, we need more reliability, and we need to address vulnerability," he said. Expanding the reservoir would increase supply. Increasing capacity on the northern end of Denver Water's system would also make the system less vulnerable to a fire or other disaster near one of its other reservoirs, he said...

Bray said officials aren't counting on increased water development to address all of the water shortfall, which projections say could begin in 2016 because of population growth in the Denver metro area. "Almost half of our shortfall will be made up with conservation," he said. Bray said the Army Corps of Engineers is studying the proposal and should release a draft of its findings this summer. Members of the public at that point will have a chance to comment on the plan, he said. "They are going to go out and tell us what the impacts are," he said, and Denver Water will propose ways to offset those impacts. Federal officials will have to sign off on mitigation procedures before the project goes forward, Bray said...

[Drew Peternell - Colorado Trout Unlimited] said his group hasn't taken a formal position on whether to oppose the project. "Our biggest concern with this whole project is the additional depletions in streamflows that it will cause on the Western Slope," he said. "The rivers and streams in Grand County have really been hit hard by diversions to the Front Range."[...]

While it's still early in the process, there are some signs that environmental groups -- including Peternell's -- may focus more on trying to reduce the project's impacts rather than opposing it entirely. A 2005 report assembled by Western Resource Advocates included a description of expanding Gross Reservoir in a list of projects that could deserve support -- so long as Denver Water encourages conservation and agrees to "avoid or offset environmental impacts (including those arising from flow reductions) ... especially in the Fraser River and its tributaries." Larry MacDonnell, a Boulder lawyer who's spent years working on water issues, said the news that Denver Water will be further reducing streamflows on the Western Slope isn't good. But he said he's hoping the agency will agree to use a portion of the new reservoir's increased storage capacity to increase wintertime flows in South Boulder Creek.

"colorado water"
10:37:32 AM     


Reverse osmosis: Zero liquid discharge?
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Last week the Arkansas Valley Roundtable heard about a joint project hoping to achieve, "zero liquid discharge," from reverse osmosis wastewater treatment plants. The project involves the state Water Quality Control Commission and the cities of La Junta and Brighton, according to The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

Membrane filtration, on the scale used by cities in reverse osmosis operations, results in a briny solution that represents an increasing headache for water providers. If released to streams, the brine can reduce water quality and regulations are tightening. If evaporated, a large area of land must be sacrificed for the task. If heated, the water can be recaptured, but at great expense. Or, it could be injected into deep wells, potentially risky. To help cities cope with those dilemmas, the state Water Quality Control Commission is embarking on an $1.1 million pilot study, involving La Junta and Brighton, to achieve "zero liquid discharge" from municipal reverse-osmosis operations...

The roundtable approved a funding structure that would provide $800,000 from the Statewide Water Supply Reserve fund to help with the project. Other roundtables are cooperating and the Colorado Water Conservation Board will make the final decision. At best, the plants use 85 percent of the water coming into them, leaving behind the brine, Akers said.

La Junta, which gets its water from wells, releases the brine back into the Arkansas River, degrading water quality. La Junta is one of the cities in Colorado that will face tougher regulation in the future. Joe Kelley, La Junta water superintendent, said the current most economical methods of brine disposal available to La Junta, evaporation or deep-well injection, would reduce the amount of water available to downstream users by about 500 acre-feet a year...

"The goal of the program will be to take water and completely take the solids out," said Karla Kinser, of MWH Engineering, who has been working with the state task force assigned to the problem since 2005. She said the study will look at a variety of methods to remove all of the water and analyze things like energy consumption, water quality and the cost of disposing of solids. Brighton and La Junta face different challenges. Total dissolved solids and their impact on downstream users are the major issue in Brighton on the South Platte River, while selenium, which poisons fish and birds in relatively low concentrations, is a big concern at La Junta...

East Cherry Creek Village is doing a similar study, on a smaller scale, she added.

More Coyote Gulch coverage here.

"colorado water"
10:15:37 AM     


Bob Rawlings: Their arrogance and disregard for our part of the state is infuriating
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Here's some background on Bob Rawlings, the publisher of The Pueblo Chieftain. Under his direction the Chieftain has excelled in driving, first education, then advocacy for Arkansas Valley water issues. Here are some excerpts from the article:

The cities of Colorado Springs and Aurora have encountered a huge obstacle in their efforts to gobble up water from the Arkansas River to feed the uncontrolled growth in their communities. That obstacle isn't a government body or an advisory group or a special district. Most such entities have been pushovers for the power and influence wielded by Colorado Springs and Aurora. The obstacle doesn't appear that formidable. The obstacle is one man, an 83-year-old who wields no official power. But his influence over Pueblo, Southern Colorado and many parts of Colorado is formidable.

He is Robert H. Rawlings, Bob Rawlings to most, and he is the publisher/editor of The Pueblo Chieftain, Colorado's second-oldest newspaper and part of a dying breed of family-owned newspapers in America. Puebloans, of course, know all about Rawlings and his newspaper. He has used the editorial pages to endorse candidates, support community projects and criticize government when it slips in its duties...

His uncle, the late Frank S. Hoag Jr., also recognized the importance of water, and the need to dam the Arkansas River to guarantee water for agriculture and communities in the Lower Arkansas Valley. He was one of the key figures behind the federal government's construction of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, of which Lake Pueblo is part. Through the years, the federal government, through the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, has allowed Aurora to use the project to store and transfer water that it purchases in the Lower Arkansas Valley. Rawlings has argued for years and is continuing to argue that Aurora has no business in the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project. He has defied Aurora's and also Colorado Springs' moves to buy water rights along the river, especially in the Lower Arkansas Valley, and encouraged leaders throughout Southern Colorado to support that position. "They take the pristine water way up the river, not the water they bought at the ditch headgates in Crowley County and Rocky Ford. In the case of Aurora, our water is gone forever to feed growth in the metro area. In the case of Colorado Springs, they pump it up to their feeder system, then we get the dirty, polluted water sent back to us down Fountain Creek," Rawlings said. "Their arrogance and disregard for our part of the state is infuriating."[...]

Recently, he purchased water shares on Fountain Creek and partnered with several others who own Arkansas River water rights. Then he formed Arkansas Valley Native LLC, to represent water rights' owners to keep Arkansas River water in the Arkansas Valley. Arkansas Valley Native includes three other participants dedicated to protecting Arkansas River water: Wally Stealey, who farms and ranches in Pueblo and Fremont County, and who is a former president of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District; Bob Shoemaker, a Fremont County rancher and former state legislator; and Frederick Esgar, chairman of the board at the Legacy Bank of Wiley. Arkansas Valley Native made itself known at a Congressional field hearing in June 2007 on the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project. Attorney Michael D. "Sandy" White, senior partner at the Denver water law firm of White & Jankowski, spoke on behalf of Rawlings and his partners on the improper use of the Fry-Ark Project by Aurora to move water out of the Arkansas Valley.

"colorado water"
10:02:36 AM     


Rick Brown: I don't believe we should ever concede our Colorado River allocation
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The Arkansas Basin Roundtable also heard from the mover behind the Statewide Water Supply Initiative this week, according to The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

The state knows the big picture for water, but the details are sort of fuzzy. The facts are that the Front Range is growing, that the state can yet develop water on the West Slope and that there are project concepts to develop the water, said Rick Brown, who this month left his position at the Colorado Water Conservation Board to pursue other opportunities. "If you can't talk about that, what is there to talk about?" Brown asked the Arkansas Basin Roundtable last week. "This will be a call to action for the roundtables to move forward." Brown is the chief architect, so far, of the Statewide Water Supply Initiative, a five-year, $4 million effort to quantify state water needs and possible solutions for the next 30 years...

The nearly completed second phase - a conclusion remains to be written - evaluates the types of projects that could meet needs identified in 2004. "We examined all aspects of Colorado Water (Conservation Board) use over the next 30 years," Brown said. The final phase, to develop strategies and build consensus, is now the task of the roundtables, he said...

One problem with meeting state water needs is that they appear to be a moving target - the Arkansas Basin essentially doubled its forecasted gap for water needs at the same meeting. Brown said there are really only three ways for the booming Front Range to meet its water needs: conserve water, import water or dry up farms. Conservation, including reuse of return flows where possible, has benefits for sustaining or improving water supplies for existing populations, but is a poor tool for growth, Brown said. "We need to be prepared for drought," he said...

Public awareness also has led to less per-capita water use, even in places like Pueblo, where water is relatively plentiful. Some cities, like Colorado Springs, have seen revenue problems from reduced water sales. Agricultural efficiency could provide a huge savings of water as well, if it were not used simply to plant more acreage. "We could save 287,000 to 459,000 acre-feet of savings in water. Problem solved, right?" Brown said. "But it can't all be moved." More likely than one single block of savings from farms will be a combination of strategies: interruptible supply, rotational fallowing, water banks, alternative cropping or purchase/lease-back agreements, Brown said. Whichever method of moving water is used, it will involve drying up some farmland. "Some amount of land is going to go out of production," Brown said. "There is no magic wand. You have to reduce consumptive use."

Still, there is a need to preserve agriculture for several reasons: the cash value of crops, local economy and wildlife habitat. "Can we agree preserving agriculture is a goal?" Brown said. "In the South Platte, we have farmers who want to keep farming today, but they don't have the water to do it. It's not an aging farmer issue. It's not a world economy issue." If preserving agriculture is a goal, Brown wants the state to begin to discuss some harder questions: What is agriculture willing to do to help achieve the goal? Is new water development preferable to agriculture transfers? Should ag water use continue in all areas that are irrigated?

Brown said solutions like the Super Ditch in the Arkansas Valley begin to answer some of those questions, but said more work is needed if concepts to reduce water use on farms to meet part of the urban need are going to advance. In May, the CWCB approved funds to look at ag water sharing for the Super Ditch, and will evaluate other proposed options later this year.

The state also is studying how much water remains for use in the state under the Colorado River Compact, but Brown believes the numbers are already clear. "If you start looking at Colorado River availability, you'll never solve it," Brown said. He showed a chart indicating that the Colorado River, on average, produces more than enough water to meet compact, environmental and recreation commitments and still has water to develop. "There are somewhere between 400,000 and 1.2 million acre-feet. That water never could be called out," Brown said. Projects identified in SWSI to bring water to the Front Range include broad concepts, not specific plans, for pipelines from Blue Mesa Reservoir, Yampa River, Colorado River, Green Mountain Reservoir and Flaming Gorge Reservoir. "I don't believe we should ever concede our Colorado River allocation," Brown said.

"colorado water"
9:32:25 AM     


Template for water transfers?
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A group looking to develop a template for the impact of water transfers plans to submit their findings to the Arkansas Basin Roundtable in August, according to The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

A diverse group looking at how future agricultural to urban water transfers should be structured is getting ready to release its findings to the Arkansas Basin Roundtable. The group, made up of farmers, ranchers, urban water managers, rural officials and academic advisers, has been meeting for nearly two years, after Las Animas Mayor Lawrence Sena raised concerns about the relationship of urban growth to rural economies in 2006. After 26 meetings, the group has come up with a template, or a set of considerations that may be relevant to water transfers. Rather than hard-and-fast rules, the template looks more like a checklist that attempts to make sure identified needs are being met. In its draft form, the template provides a series of questions and suggests mitigation examples...

The effort has attracted interest outside the Arkansas River basin, with a presentation of the effort by Mary Lou Smith at a national water meeting in Arizona last month, and another planned at the summer meeting of the Colorado Water Congress in August. "With the use of dialogue instead of debate, we're trying to find a way to benefit everyone," said Dan Henrichs, superintendent of the High Line Canal Co., and a committee member...

In opening remarks accompanying the template, the committee notes that by the time a water transfer reaches water court, it may be too late for meaningful discussion about the potential impacts of the arrangement. It also talks about recognizing both that water rights are private property rights, but that their sale can have impacts on rural communities. To develop the template, the group formed a "think tank," drawing in the state's top water, parks, wildlife, science and economic officials...

The major areas covered in the template include:

Size - Identifying the affected area from which water would be moved and how moving the water would affect the local economy.

Location - Looking at how those who continue to irrigate after a sale or a lease will continue to farm.

Implementation - How soon would a transfer occur, and what could be done to help the local economy in the meantime?

Diversions - Looking at possible environmental or recreation consequences of moving the place where water is diverted or the timing of the diversion.

Means of conveyance - Includes suggestions to look at cooperation on exchanges, pipelines and storage.

Storage issues - Looking at new storage opportunities, including coordination of existing storage, cooperation on new storage and using aquifer opportunities.

Water quality - Looking at how to deal with reduced water quality and the opportunity to improve water quality.

The template also suggests separate reviews for environmental, recreation, social, economic and local government impacts.

"colorado water"
9:10:28 AM     



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