Coyote Gulch

Sunday, July 20, 2008

South Platte River management

Here's a look at the management of the South Platte River, from The Denver Post. From the article:

...when Dave Bennett and Jeff Spohn get their heads together, the subject never can be in doubt. Water manager and fisheries biologist, the men are joined in a continuing exchange over the fate of the South Platte, Colorado's most important fishing river. Bennett is the resource planner who directs the myriad flow adjustments and diversions in the spider's web network of Denver Water. Spohn is the Colorado Division of Wildlife biologist who seeks to maximize fish production in a system that long ago lost most of its touch with nature. How these two men -- one dedicated to providing water for millions, the other to recreation for anglers -- have arrived at common ground amid seeming conflict stands as one of the most encouraging developments in Colorado's ever-changing outdoor landscape...

the water agency's performance often goes far beyond mere legal mandate. "From what I'm seeing, they're going above and beyond what's required of them," Spohn said. Part of that direction stems from the fact that Bennett, who makes many of the hands-on decision, is himself an enthusiastic angler. "He's well rounded," Spohn continued. "He has commitments to water delivery, but he's doing what he can to help the resource at the same time." Bennett in turn volleyed much of the credit to his boss, Chips Barry, who launched a change of corporate culture when he became chief executive of Denver Water in 1991. "Chips has a positive attitude about the resource and our responsibility to it," Bennett said of an outlook that perhaps dates back to Barry's earlier post as executive director of Colorado's Department of Natural Resources. Among Barry's early moves was to create the position of recreation director, a kind of ombudsman who gives a variety of water sports a seat at council. Other user-friendly initiatives flowed from there. Much of the recent interagency cooperation has centered around remedies for the aftermath of the 2002 Hayman fire. Ash and loose soil from the largest Colorado fire in history buried many of the river's best runs and stifled reproduction of rainbow and brown trout. Anticipating a banner runoff, Bennett for 10 days in late April released a 900-cubic-feet-per-second flushing flow from Cheesman, largest clean-water discharge since the fire. Prior to this, he briefly trimmed the volume to allow Spohn time to gauge sediment deposits as a benchmark for post-runoff measurements. Spohn will perform his formal tests in September, but an eyeball survey already tells a story of re-emerging bottom boulders and more prolific insect hatches.
"colorado water"
8:28:18 AM

Harris Sherman: Colorado is transitioning from an era of developing an undeveloped resource to one where we are managing a fully developed resource

Here's a short update on the basin roundtable process, from The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

Earlier this year, state Department of Natural Resources Chairman Harris Sherman asked the Interbasin Compact Committee to come up with a vision for Colorado water resources in 50 years. While it has sparked lively debate at the last two IBCC meetings, there's no vision yet. Not that Sherman expects one soon. He expects the process to take months, and for the state to continue to evaluate strategies through the Colorado Water Conservation Board, even as a vision evolves. "Colorado is transitioning from an era of developing an undeveloped resource to one where we are managing a fully developed resource," Sherman said in the most recent newsletter to roundtables. "It is my hope that this visioning process and the strategies that come out of it will provide a road map for Colorado to follow as we move into these unchartered waters."

The strategies that the CWCB will evaluate look at demand, supply and regional coordination. Municipal and agricultural conservation will be looked at, as well as density of urban development and the energy use of new projects. On the supply side, water reuse and ag efficiency will be looked at. Optimizing existing storage and groundwater supplies, new storage within basins and developing the Colorado River Compact allocation also will be studied. Agricultural transfers, such as the Lower Arkansas Valley Superditch, will be examined. Regional coordination strategies will be evaluated for opportunities, challenges and risks...

Last November, the Arkansas, Metro and South Platte roundtables agreed to ask the four Western Slope roundtables to support an evaluation of transmountain diversion concepts outlined in the Statewide Water Supply Initiative. The Western Slope roundtables - Gunnison, Colorado, Yampa and Southwest - suggested three members from each roundtable meet to discuss the idea. In the end, that seemed to everyone to be more of a duplication of the IBCC, so the idea will run its course through the established process, said Eric Hecox, roundtable coordinator. On its own, the Gunnison Basin Roundtable has contacted most of the other roundtables for "get-to-know-you" meetings, like the one with the Arkansas Basin Roundtable.

More Coyote Gulch coverage here.

Planning for the future is the subject of this article from The Pueblo Chieftain. They write:

"We should be doing strategic planning for 50 and 100 years out for our water reserves," said Rick Brown, who is leaving the Colorado Water Conservation Board after shepherding SWSI for the past five years. Brown believes the state will grow and equates the current lack of water projects to the state's earlier failure of building sufficient highways to handle increased traffic as its urban areas sprawled. SWSI was an effort by the CWCB to identify both the needs of a growing state and possible strategies for meeting those needs. In 2004, a gap of about 120,000 acre-feet statewide was identified and Brown, with the help of water users from all over the state, began working on the strategies. Part of the gap could be met by transfers of agricultural water to cities, while more transmountain diversions could avoid drying up more farmland, Brown said. In 2005, the Colorado Legislature created the Interbasin Compact Committee, a group that coordinates the efforts of nine basin roundtables. Using a grass-roots approach advocated by former Department of Natural Resources Director Russ George, the state was taking a new direction from what many perceived as SWSI's top-down planning...

The most difficult issue for the state to confront is using efficiency in agricultural operations on the Western Slope to gain more water to use on the Front Range. Eastern Plains ag efficiency will not yield more water for growth, since both the South Platte and Arkansas basins already are overappropriated. Likewise, urban conservation is needed to provide a cushion for drought, but it cannot be used to feed growth, Brown said. Aurora's Prairie Waters project has been lauded for recycling return flows, but is an expensive project necessitated by a slowdown of the acquisition of new water rights, Brown said. "The conservation ethic is something we can all get behind, but it's not something we want to build growth on," Brown said. "If (cities) are going to be prepared in drought, we have to develop partnerships with agriculture. About 85 percent of the water is still used by agriculture, and 80 percent of the water is on the Western Slope." SWSI identified a savings of between 287,000 and 459,000 acre-feet of water that could be achieved through efficiency, but not how that water could be moved to the people who will need it, Brown said. On the other hand, there are somewhere between 400,000 and 2 million acre-feet available for Colorado to develop on the Western Slope, under the seven-state Colorado River Compact, and Brown does not think the new study by the CWCB will change the numbers...

Meanwhile, as the state continues to search for a water vision, the potential gap is increasing. Projects up and down the Front Range, the Northern Integrated Supply Project, Windy Gap, Preferred Storage Options Plan and Southern Delivery System all were identified as projects in progress to meet needs. As they stall, the gap could get bigger, Brown said. "If we lose projects, the gap only gets larger," Brown said. Rather than tying up huge volumes of water in recreational in-channel diversions, the state should be looking at more storage projects to capture flows during wet years for use in dry years, Brown added. He advocated more multipurpose reservoirs - those that combine flood control, recreation and storage needs - that satisfy the needs of many communities.
"colorado water"
8:13:59 AM

DOW scores water for Nee Noshe and John Martin Reservoirs from Colorado Springs and Aurora

The Department of Wildlife, Aurora and Colorado Springs are working together to provide water for several southeastern Colorado reservoirs, according to DOW. From the article:

Two important fisheries in southeast Colorado have more water this year as a result of agreements reached between the state and the cities of Aurora and Colorado Springs. Excess run-off from near record winter snowfall made it possible for the Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) to buy water for Nee Noshe Reservoir. The DOW and the city of Aurora reached agreement for 10,000 acre-feet of water for Nee Noshe Reservoir in Kiowa County near Eads, Colo. Earlier this year, the DOW and Colorado State Parks split the cost to purchase 3,800 acre-feet for John Martin from Colorado Springs Utilities. The two agencies went together to buy water from the Pueblo Board of Water Works last year. Both John Martin and Nee Noshe have been steadily shrinking the past several years. This is the second year in-a-row the DOW has been able to get additional water for John Martin, but the first time water was added to Nee Noshe. DOW biologists were contemplating salvage operations to prevent fish from going to waste, but the infusion of new water will give them new life...

John Martin almost went dry in the fall of 2006. At that time, the DOW and DPOR were able to reach agreements with local irrigation companies to keep it from dying. In the spring of 2007 water was purchased from both the Pueblo Board of Water Works and Colorado Springs Utilities. When full, John Martin can hold over 600,000 acre-feet of water [^] giving it the potential to be the largest reservoir in the state...

The DOW acknowledged the help and cooperation that both the Fort Lyon Canal Company and the Amity Mutual Irrigation Company provided in delivering water to Nee Noshe. Both companies were key players in making sure the water got to Nee Noshe.
"colorado water"
8:06:53 AM

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