Coyote Gulch

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Coyote Gulch outage

Coyote Gulch is upgrading the server tonight. If all goes well we'll be back in the morning.

7:33:52 PM

Rio Grande Water Conservation District board meeting

Here's a recap of Tuesday's meeting of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District board meeting, from The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

The district's staff is working on a database that would chart the number of farm units, how existing water is used, and the amount of surface water available to subdistricts that can be used to compensate senior surface water users who've been injured by groundwater pumping. [To be used in the upcoming court proceedings around the groundwater subdistrict 1.]

Last year the district's board and the state engineer signed off on plans for the first proposed subdistrict, before it was passed on to district court. Subdistrict No. 1 would pay farmers to fallow up to 40,000 acres through a combination of local assessments and funds from a federal conservation program with the aim of protecting the rights of senior surface water users. Tuesday the district's board gave its staff direction to continue working on the database. District Manager Steve Vandiver said the district has spent $325,000 over the last three-and-a-half years on the plan for subdistricts, which could see at least five more come down the pike should the court approve the first one. In the meantime, however, the district is working on estimates for the surface water acquisitions that will be based, in part, on a groundwater model currently under review. District Engineer Allen Davey estimated that up to $260,000 more would be needed for the task...

State Engineer Dick Wolfe said he had been in discussions with objectors to the state's approval of the plan and would continue talks over the next few months with the hope of avoiding a trial. He said his office is also moving forward with regulations for groundwater wells. If the court does not approve the subdistrict plan, the rules would apply to all. If the subdistricts are approved, the engineer's rules would apply to all valley groundwater irrigators who are not in a subdistrict.

More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"colorado water"
7:01:46 PM

Fountain Creek management

From The Pueblo Chieftain: "The Colorado Water Quality Control Commission voted 7-2 Tuesday to continue stepped-up oversight of Fountain Creek. The ruling, which was not to designate the creek a 'use-protected' stream, essentially upholds a commission decision a year ago to impose stricter management of the creek. 'The significance of that is if it's a 'reviewable' segment, then if there are new or increased water quality impacts, or new or expanded wastewater treatment plants, they have to go through a review process to analyze alternatives before they are allowed,' said Paul Frohardt, commission administrator...

Pace said the municipalities argued that the creek was 'irrevocably' damaged, so there was no point in increasing state oversight. The designation is the middle of three the commission uses to determine how a waterway is treated. The designations range from 'use-protected,' 'reviewable' and 'outstanding water,' which is the most stringent and applies primarily to high alpine streams."
"colorado water"
6:43:07 PM

Platte River Recovery Implementation Program

Here's an update on the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program from The North Platte Telegraph. From the article:

The first properties that could become part of the three-state Platte River Habitat Recovery Implementation Program are on their way to possible approval by the program's governing body. Land Committee members met Monday at program Executive Director Jerry Kenny's office in Kearney to review five properties with habitat and/or water resources that could meet program goals. The overall goal is to reduce depletions to the river and protect more habitat along the river to benefit threatened and endangered species, particularly whooping cranes, least terns and piping plovers using the river between Lexington and Chapman. The Land Committee met for the first time since President Bush signed into law in May legislation authorizing $157 million as the federal cash share for the program's first 13-year increment. Kenny said the money will be allocated in annual budgets, with $6 million available for land acquisition - purchase, easements or leases - in 2008. The total cost of the first increment is $317 million, with Colorado and Wyoming also providing cash and Nebraska's share all coming from non-cash contributions...

The process starts with contacts from landowners willing to sell or lease a property. Kenny's staff determines if it meets program criteria. It's then reviewed by the Land Committee, which recommends properties for approval by the Governance Committee. The staff handles acquisition negotiations and develops a management plan for approved properties. Kenny said the five properties discussed in open session Monday are the furthest along in the process. More land offerings in earlier stages were considered by the Land Committee in closed session. Land titles and leases will be held by the new Platte River Recovery Implementation Program Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization affiliated with the Nebraska Community Foundation. "That's all in place," Kenny said. "So we made good use of the time while we waited for federal authorization."[...]

The Land Committee voted to support using other conservation groups such as Ducks Unlimited and The Nature Conservancy to help expedite some land acquisitions. Support of the idea was sought by the Governance Committee...

John Heaston, The Nature Conservancy's Platte Program director, said his organization won't actively seek program properties. But it might help secure land that otherwise would be lost because of a deadline or a property owner's interest in estate planning or tax benefits. Participating conservation groups would sell the properties acquired to the Platte program...

Some issues discussed Monday were river access and hunting leases and the review process for habitat management plans. Tri-Basin Natural Resources District General Manager John Thorburn of Holdrege said area landowners are concerned about sediment augmentation work within the management plans. Another issue raised by Tri-Basin officials is ensuring that water credits to the river achieved when irrigation is retired from program lands are protected from sale or transfer. They also want the local NRD to get the credit, said Tri-Basin Director Larry Reynolds of Lexington. Clarifications are needed for properties in which the water, but not the land, is valued. A question discussed Monday was whether the reviews should be handled by the Land Committee or Water Committee. Heaston said there is a property issue involved whenever a groundwater right is separated from the land.

More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"colorado water"
6:33:32 AM

Quagga mussel larvae found in Lake Granby

Here's some bad news. Quagga mussel larvae have been found in Lake Granby, according to The Rocky Mountain News. From the article:

The Colorado Division of Wildlife said Tuesday that biologists have found quagga mussel larvae in Lake Granby. DNA tests performed by the DOW and the Bureau of Reclamation confirmed the invasive mussel's presence. Quagga mussels are slightly larger cousins of zebra mussels, which have spurred a rash of boat inspections around the state since their discovery last fall at Pueblo Reservoir...

The discovery at Lake Granby means quagga mussels have been detected for the first time in Colorado River headwaters. The mollusks might turn up anywhere along the river. They also could be pumped to the Front Range through the Big Thompson Watershed. Wildlife division spokesman Tyler Baskfield said the concentration of quagga larvae, known as veligers, in DNA samples taken from Lake Granby was small. Based on the DNA samples, he said, biologists have deemed the risk of quaggas spreading to be less than that of zebra mussels from Pueblo Reservoir. No decision has been made yet on whether the DOW or some other agency will start inspecting boats at Granby.
Update: Here's the coverage from The Pueblo Chieftain.

In January, zebra mussels were confirmed in Lake Pueblo. The state responded by approving $7.2 million in funds, after an emergency allocation of $1 million, to attempt to contain zebra mussels in Lake Pueblo, a state park, with inspections, education and eventually cleaning stations. The mussels most commonly are moved from one lake to another by attaching themselves to boats.

The U. S. Forest Service oversees boating at Granby, and plans to use education to prevent the mussels from spreading into other parts of the state, said spokesman John Bustos. "There are no restrictions, but we have a drain-and-dry education program in place," Bustos said. "There are no facilities for washing boats, but we are providing education at the boat landings."[...]

At Granby, a periodic sampling of larvae led to last week's discovery, said Kara Lamb, of the Bureau of Reclamation. Lake Granby, completed in 1951 near the town of Granby on the Western Slope, is the largest lake in the Colorado-Big Thompson Project that serves Northern Colorado. Like Lake Pueblo, it is managed by Reclamation. Reclamation has not found any more mussel shells in either lake, but provided divers and camera equipment to try to detect mussels at Lake Pueblo earlier this year. None were found. Still, the agency is concerned. "Public awareness and participation is the best weapon in the containment of invasive species," Lamb said. "We're closely working with our partners for public education."

More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"colorado water"
6:24:15 AM

Ritter names 5 to oversee conservation easements

Governor Ritter has named 5 people to oversee Colorado's conservation easement program, according to The Denver Post. From the article:

Named to the Conservation Easement Oversight Commission:

- Daniel Pike, president of Colorado Open Lands, a 25-year-old land trust.

- R. Jay Winner, executive director of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District in Rocky Ford.

- Martha Cochran, executive director of the Aspen Valley Land Trust.

- Mark Weston, vice president of Hunsperger & Weston, who is a certified real-estate appraiser.

- Max Vezzani, a cattle rancher in Huerfano County who has used conservation-easement tax credits.

Four more commissioners will be appointed by the board of Great Outdoors Colorado, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources and the Colorado agricultural commissioner.

The commission, created by House Bill 1353, will meet at least once a quarter to review applications for conservation-easement holder certification.

The bill calls for several other measures to thwart abuses to the conservation-easement program, including increased accountability for conservation-easement appraisals and creating a one-year holding requirement mirroring the IRS limitation on the value of a conservation contribution for property held less than a year.

Update: Here's the coverage from The Pueblo Chieftain. They write:

Two Southern Coloradans were named Tuesday to a new panel formed to oversee the state's conservation easement program. Jay Winner, executive director of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, and Huerfano County rancher Max Vezzani were among the five people Gov. Bill Ritter appointed to the nine-member panel.

The appointees will serve on the Conservation Easement Oversight Commission, created by the Legislature earlier this year to help prevent additional abuses of the state's land-preservation tax credit program...

To date, about 1.2 million acres of agriculture land have been turned into open space or wildlife habitat under the program. The new law requires future conservation easement appraisals to be reviewed by the commission, and it places additional requirements on easement holders. The law also calls on the commission to establish minimum qualifications for land trusts to hold easements, and it also imposes new fees on appraisers and conservation easement holders to pay for the 11 additional division workers who will investigate the easement applications. Those fees will be no more than $600 on appraisers for every appraisal they submit, and up to $5,810 for each time a holder applies for an easement.

More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here.
"colorado water"
6:17:58 AM

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