Sunday, July 13, 2008

Colorado Watershed Assembly annual conference Don't forget to sign up for the Colorado Watershed Assembly's annual conference. Here's the link to the agenda. They write: 2008 Sustaining Colorado Watersheds: Striking a Balance for the Future Please join us for the 3rd annual Sustaining Colorado Watersheds Conference in Vail from October 1 - October 3rd, 2008. This year's conference features presentations on balancing science & policy, growth & natural resource and environment & human needs. "colorado water" 10:07:00 AM

Taos: Acequias Asequias and community cooperation was once the primary irrigation technique in parts of the New Mexico and the San Luis Valley. Here's an article about the return of acequias to the Taos area from The GOAT. Read the whole thing. Here are a couple of excerpts: Indo-Hispanos have lived side-by-side with Taos Pueblo Indians since the early 1600s. Following the great Pueblo Revolt of 1680, they've mostly gotten along. Water, of course, cares nothing for jurisdictional boundaries or cultural differences. It follows its own course, flowing from headwaters on Pueblo land into Hispano villages across the valley. And so, over the years, Indians and Hispanos were sometimes members of the same acequia, or ditch association. That's how it was, anyway, until legal adjudication of water rights came to town. The Abeyta adjudication, as it is officially termed, was filed in 1969 by the state of New Mexico to determine how much water exists in Taos Valley and who owns it. Water adjudications are mind-bogglingly technical, bureaucratic exercises in legally dividing up water rights - a precious resource in this naturally arid agricultural community. In the age of complex regional plumbing, over-appropriated river systems and thirsty, growing populations, adjudications have become necessary to manage the tangled mess of water rights. In the Abeyta case, the state needed to establish a baseline of legal water ownership before it could administer "imported" water from the other side of the continental divide by way of the San Juan-Chama diversion project. More Coyote Gulch coverage here. "colorado water" 10:02:32 AM

Colorado River District 2008 water seminar: September 19th Here's the link for information on the Colorado River District's 2008 annual water seminar. They write: 2008 "What Would an Intra-State Colorado River Compact Look Like and How Would It Work?" The seminar will explore if it's possible to allocate the remaining developable in-state water in the Colorado River. Speakers will also address Denver Water's newest techniques to encourage conservation and the Front Range Water Council's vision for a water supply solution. Friday, Sept. 19, 2008, 9:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., Two Rivers Convention Center, Grand Junction, Colorado For more information contact Jim Pokrandt at the Colorado River District (970) 945-8522 x 236 "colorado water" 9:46:27 AM

Energy policy: Nuclear The town of Windsor is holding off on taking a position on Powertech's proposed uranium in-situ leeching project in Weld County, according to The Windsor Beacon. From the article: Windsor officials said they have been contacted by residents about the issue after a company proposed developing a uranium mine in Nunn...Town board member Jon Slater firmly believed the board should take a stance. "Municipalities all around us have come out firmly in opposition, and I think it's better to be proactive than reactive," Slater said. Mayor Pro-Tem Richard Drake, however, believed it wasn't necessary to hold a work session on the subject and board members Matthew O'Neill and Robert Bishop-Cotner agreed. Board member Nancy Weber said she'd be happy to have a work session on the issue, but said she'd be willing to wait also. Mayor John Vazquez agreed to wait. "I think a lot of other communities may have had knee-jerk reactions to the word uranium," he said. "The method used in the project will make a difference to me, and I don't see a method finalized yet." The issue will not come before Windsor for comment, but it will come before Weld County. At that time, Windsor will be able to comment as a member of the county. More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here. "colorado water" 9:17:38 AM

Tarryall Creek Ranch: Conservation easement From The Fairplay Flume: "The Great Outdoors Colorado Board recently awarded lottery funds totaling $500,000 to Colorado Open Lands in partnership with Park County for the purchase of a conservation easement on Tarryall Creek Ranch in Park County. The easement will cover 2,800 acres of Tarryall Creek Ranch, which covers 4,400 acres in South Park." "colorado water" 9:10:24 AM

Declining water supply effecting food prices and availability From The Environmental News Network: "A long list of factors have been blamed for the global food crisis which along with the energy crisis has hit developing countries, and the poor in particular, hardest. Prices of staple foods have risen by up to 100 per cent. A growing population, changes in trade patterns, urbanisation, dietary changes, biofuel production, climate change and regional droughts are all responsible, and commentators point to a classic pattern of price increases caused by high demand and low supply. But few mention the declining supply of water that is needed to grow irrigated and rain-fed crops...Essentially, every calorie of food requires a litre of water to produce it. So those of us on Western diets use about 2,500-3,000 litres per day. The expected addition of a further 2.5 billion people to the world by 2030 will mean that we have to find over 2,000 more cubic kilometres of fresh water per year to feed them. This is not any easy task, given that current water usage for food production is 7,500 cubic kilometres per year and supplies are already scarce." "colorado water" 8:59:49 AM

Million pipeline update The Fort Collins Coloradoan caught up with Aaron Million recently to see if he's still planning to build his privately financed pipeline from Flaming Gorge Reservoir to the northern Front Range and points south. From the article: "There are huge opportunities here," [Aaron Million] said. "People keep saying it's this big, complex project and it's not. It's a pipeline project; it's a water transportation project -- nothing more, nothing less -- with a new water supply." Million hatched the pipeline idea while a graduate student at Colorado State University. The last four years he's shopped the proposal across Colorado, neighboring states and Washington, D.C., with the help of a team that includes water engineers and attorneys. Along the way he's run into obstacles, including what he calls behind-the-scenes maneuvering by the state's major water suppliers to derail the project. But he's not giving up. "No one has been able to find a fatal flaw in this project," he said. "Of all the projects out there, this is the least environmentally damaging."[...] The project would draw from Flaming Gorge Reservoir, which holds about 3.8 million acre feet of water, and ship it along a pipeline that would follow Interstate 80 across southern Wyoming. It would cut south along U.S. Highway 287 and tie into the I-25 corridor. The highway corridors already house a variety of underground utilities, he said, including gas and oil pipelines on which the water pipeline would be modeled. Construction on the pipeline could take less than two years. Building the infrastructure would cost between $2 billion and $3 billion, Million said. Financing would be done privately or in partnership with public entities, such as municipalities or water districts. So far the state's major water providers, including the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District and Denver Water, have not signed on to the project. Million said the providers are being "territorial" in not wanting to collaborate on the project. The water agencies want to protect their plans for increasing water supplies, he said, including Glade Reservoir. More Coyote Gulch coverage here. "colorado water" 8:52:34 AM

Energy policy: Oil and gas From The Glenwood Springs Post Independent: "The Colorado Division of Wildlife is getting closer to finishing sampling of fish and the insects they thrive on in Parachute Creek in the wake of four oil and gas industry spills earlier this year. It may take another three months for that data to show whether fish populations in the creek may have been affected by the spills, said Randy Hampton, a spokesman for the DOW. The agency began analyzing the current population and species distribution of the creek's fish -- which include native Colorado cutthroat trout and brook, brown and rainbow trout -- after four spills of water used in drilling operations occurred near Garden Gulch, which is northwest of Parachute. Runoff from melting snow in Garden Gulch flows into Parachute Creek. The Environmental Protection Agency and the state's Water Quality Control Division sampling of the area, which occurred about two months after the last release occurred, revealed that the spills did not cause any lingering environmental impacts and did not violate state drinking water standards." Also from The Glenwood Springs Post Independent: "A coalition of 10 environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit on Friday that seeks to set aside the government's current management plan for natural gas drilling on the Roan Plateau. The court action also seeks to block an upcoming lease sale that would open up about 55,200 acres on the Western Colorado landmark to natural gas drilling. The environmental groups -- which include Wilderness Society, Colorado Trout Unlimited, Colorado Mountain Club and the Wilderness Workshop -- argue that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated federal law for not considering the long-term environmental impacts its management plan could have on the area, which is northwest of Rifle. The groups also allege that the agency failed to consider a reasonable 'range of alternative approaches' for oil and gas development in the Roan Plateau Planning Area, according to the complaint filed late Friday." More coverage from The GOAT: "Cataloguing the wildlife and habitat on the gas-rich Roan Plateau and listing the history of public input asking that it be saved, a coalition of 10 conservation and wildlife groups filed suit [Friday] in Denver District Court to halt the Bureau of Land Management's August 14 auction of 55,000 acres on the plateau west of Rifle, Colorado. A press release announcing the suit cites the BLM's "mindless devotion to industry's demands." The groups are asking the court to set aside the Roan Plateau resource management plan and bar the BLM from leasing the area. The plaintiffs, including the Colorado Environmental Coalition, Trout Unlimited, National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, Colorado Mountain Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Center for Native Ecosystems, Wilderness Workshop and Rock the Earth." "colorado water" 8:34:04 AM

John Singletary: To me, it's a question of priority: Helping the farmers or meeting the compact obligations? Here's an article about the proposed new agricultural efficiency rules for the Arkansas River Valley, from The Pueblo Chieftain. They write: From the state's point of view, pending rules for Arkansas River basin surface irrigators who improve their systems by installing sprinklers are primarily aimed at preventing depletions to Kansas. For farmers, with long memories of more than 100 years of disputes with Kansas that led to the Arkansas River Compact and a subsequent lawsuit, the rules and their cost seem like more stumbling blocks toward improving efficiency, and therefore competitiveness, of their farms. Those viewpoints have been moving toward a compromise for the past few months, but the real work is just beginning. Last week, State Engineer Dick Wolfe convened a 32-member committee made up of irrigators, conservancy districts, conservation districts, counties and state officials to look at the dilemma. The group next meets on July 30 in La Junta as the next step on a road that could lead to rules by next spring. The rules will be aimed at making sure improvements like sprinklers, drip irrigation, pipe and ditch lining don't result in increased consumptive use. Since wells are covered by 1996 rules, only surface irrigation systems are affected. Nonstructural changes such as seed selection, crop patterns and irrigation scheduling aren't covered. Because there are problems with running drip irrigation systems from ponds, and only small areas of farm ditches are in pipe or concrete, sprinkler systems fed by ponds are the state's main concern. About 60 have been put in since 1999, the last date Kansas and Colorado squared accounts of Arkansas Valley water use... "To me, it's a question of priority: Helping the farmers or meeting the compact obligations?" [John Singletary] said. During [Assistant Attorney General Eve McDonald's] presentation Wednesday, the emphasis was clearly on meeting the compact obligations. She outlined a list of concerns from a series of meetings this spring between a state legal and engineering team and numerous groups. The meetings were sparked by the announcement late last year that the state was considering rules and subsequent controversy... Throughout the meeting, Wolfe emphasized that the state supports using efficiency measures to improve water quality or reduce labor costs, but will not bend on the need to meet obligations to Kansas. In the last round before the U.S. Supreme Court, Kansas prevailed on the issue of well-pumping, resulting in the loss of nearly 20,000 acres of farmland and payments of $34 million to Kansas. A proactive approach is needed to prevent similar cases in the future. More Coyote Gulch coverage here. "colorado water" 8:29:50 AM

Firestone: LifeBridge required to purchase C-BT shares The state legislature passed HB 08-1141 in the last session. Basically the law requires that developers have a 50 year supply of water for any development over 50 homes. Most municipalities and counties along the Front Range have had similar rules on the books for a while now. Here's a story about Firestone's rules and and a new development there, from The Longmont Times. From the article: Since 1976, Firestone has required developers to obtain and then dedicate to the town enough raw water to meet the demands of proposed development, [Town Engineer Dave Lindsay] said. Firestone then serves as the water provider for the new residents. The town owns shares of Colorado-Big Thompson Project water, which is stored in Carter Lake and treated at a Central Weld County Water District plant. 4C, LifeBridge Christian Church's business arm, would be required to purchase water shares and dedicate them to Firestone if the annexation is allowed to stand. Developers have been working with Firestone staff to find the best way to provide water to the project, said Martin Dickey, 4C's chief operating officer. Precise details on how much water will be needed for the Union development will have to be provided to Firestone staff during the preliminary plat design and preliminary development process, Lindsay said. 4C would have to provide one Colorado-Big Thompson share for each single-family residential unit, half a share for each multi-family unit, and two and a half shares per acre of irrigated landscaping. Commercial water needs are based on past water bills of similar businesses. "colorado water" 8:16:10 AM

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