Coyote Gulch

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Aspinall Unit update
From email from Reclamation (Dan Crabtree): "Reclamation will be hosting the August Aspinall Operations Meeting on Thursday August 28th at the National Park Service Elk Creek Visitors Center located near Blue Mesa Reservoir. The meeting will start at 1:00 p.m. We will be discussing the past season's operation and gathering input regarding the fall and winter operation. In addition, Mike Gillespie from the NRCS will be giving a brief presentation on "What Happened to the Runoff". The public is welcome."
"colorado water"
8:11:11 PM

Lake Powell water level at 63%

From KTAR.com: "The wettest winter in a decade has led to the highest water level on Lake Powell in six years. Hydrologists say it could be a sign the Colorado River is recovering from one of the worst dry spells ever. The lake on the Arizona-Utah border is 45 feet higher than it was in March. Drought conditions hit Lake Powell near the end of 1999. By 2005, the reservoir sharnk to one-third of capacity, the lowest point since it began to fill in 1963. With runoff this year near 110 percent of the long-term average, Powell is now 63 percent full, still 67 feet below the full mark."
"colorado water"
7:01:14 AM

Hillrose moving dirt for new water system

From The Brush News-Tribune: "Good spirits and good humor were abundant last Tuesday in Hillrose as the town commemorated the start of construction of a new water source. The new water system will link up to that of the Morgan County Quality Water District. The Town of Hillrose Water Project has, as Mayor Jamie Riedl stated, been long awaited."

More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"colorado water"
6:55:59 AM

Energy policy: Nuclear

The Department of Energy has decided to use rail cars to move the Moab tailings pile away from the Colorado River to a dump site north of Moab, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. From the article:

Moab-area residents applauded the U.S. Energy Department's decision Tuesday to have rail cars - rather than trucks - haul away the massive Atlas tailings pile. But the news also dashed hopes that cleaning up the tailings will be done earlier than the 2028 completion date that the Energy Department projects. Moab Mayor Dave Sakrison said the announcement cheered the community nonetheless. Now the uranium-processing waste will begin moving as soon as next spring from the edge of the Colorado River to a new disposal site 30 miles north at Crescent Junction...

The agency already has extracted 487,000 pounds of ammonia and 2,100 pounds of uranium from the 130-acre pile, which many people worry might be washed into the Colorado, a source of drinking water for 50 million people. The estimated cleanup cost is $723 million to $951 million...

The Energy Department had spent months looking at the safety, timing and cost of trucking the waste from Moab to Crescent Junction on two-lane U.S. 191. But the cost of upgrading the highway to handle the trucks was pegged at $100 million. And using trucks would have added 139 trips a day on a road heavily used by tourists visiting Moab and Arches National Park, the entrance to which is across the road from the tailings pile. By rail, there will be one shipment a day, with 17 cars carrying 68 containers for the first three years. The number of cars would double in 2012 to 136 containers a day. The tailings will be dried, packed into hard-topped containers and delivered to the mesa top north of Potash Road. There, they will be picked up at an old rail spur. U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson said he has lost confidence in the Energy Department to meet the congressional mandate to move the tailings by 2019. He said he hopes a new administration in January will be more responsive.

More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"colorado water"
6:51:55 AM

Northern Integrated Supply Project

From The Rocky Mountain News: "Colorado will delay for several months any ruling on whether the proposed Glade Reservoir in northern Colorado would harm water quality in the Cache la Poudre River. The state's water-quality ruling is one of several approvals the project will need before it can be built...Steve Gunderson, director of Colorado's water-quality control division, said there wasn't enough information in the initial application to determine the project's impact on water quality."

More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"colorado water"
6:42:16 AM

Independence Pass Transmountain Diversion System/Fryingpan-Arkansas diversions update

Here's an update on trans-basin diversions, from The Aspen Times. From the article:

About 60,000 acre feet of water was diverted through July by the Independence Pass Transmountain Diversion System. The annual average is about 39,000 acre feet, according to Allen Ringle, manager for the Twin Lakes Reservoir and Canal Co. "This [year] is probably in our top three so far since we've been in existence," Ringle said. The company has tapped the upper Roaring Fork River and diverted water east since 1935. This year's water haul represents a 54 percent increase over the annual average. Diversion will continue this month, and possibly beyond.

Farther north on the upper Fryingpan River drainage, the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project has diverted 87,000 acre feet through July, according to U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman Kara Lamb. That is about 67 percent more than the 52,000 acre foot annual average for the system...

Lamb said there has already been more water diverted so far this season than the total amount for May, June and July for any year back to 1991. Records prior to that weren't immediately available. Water has been diverted through the system since 1972. The near-record water diversions are a product of a beefy snowpack. After a dry November, the snowpack was between 50 and 100 percent above average from December into April. Rivers and streams ran high into July once runoff season started...

The Independence Pass Transmountain System taps the Lost Man, Lincoln, Brooklyn, Tabor, New York and Grizzly creeks along with the upper Roaring Fork River, all east of Aspen. Water is shipped via the Twin Lake Tunnel to North Fork Lake Creek, on the other side of the Divide. The water flows into the Arkansas River Basin for distribution to Colorado Springs, Aurora, Pueblo and water users in the Arkansas River Valley. The Fryingpan-Arkansas Project uses 17 diversion structures and 27 miles of tunnels to collect water from the upper Fryingpan and Roaring Fork drainages. Its north collection system taps the Mormon, Carter, Ivanhoe, Granite, Lily Pad and Cunningham creeks while the south system plumbs the No Name, Midway, Hunter, Sawyer and Chapman Gulch creeks along with the south and main branches of the Fryingpan River. Most of the water is diverted east through the 5.4-mile Boustead Tunnel and emptied into Turquoise Lake west of Leadville. That system benefits the same users as the Independence Pass system...

A record amount of water was diverted during the month of June by the Independence Pass system, Ringle said. About 30,785 acre feet was diverted that month. July's diversion amount of 16,650 acre feet was probably in the top five for the month, according to Ringle. To put that in perspective, the system diverted 20,574 acre feet during the entire spring and summer in the drought year of 2002. The Twin Lakes Reservoir and Canal Co., based in Ordway, Colo., is limited to diverting no more than 68,000 acre feet in a year, according to its water decree.
"colorado water"
6:36:54 AM

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