Coyote Gulch

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Wastewater news

From The Durango Herald: "The Bayfield Town Board approved payment of a $130,000 cost overrun on construction of the town's new, $7.1 million sewage-treatment plant at its meeting Tuesday. The 6-0 vote came just one month after the town gave the contractor the green light to proceed. Town Manager Justin Clifton told town trustees Tuesday that the site-access road, which runs off E. East Street, was currently impassable because of a few large, swampy areas. The project is at a standstill until the road can be stabilized to support delivery trucks and other vehicles, he said. Clifton said the additional funds will be used to dig two large, 5-foot-deep holes - one 200 feet in length and the other 300 feet in length - and to excavate another 2 feet from the rest of the road. He also warned the board that at a future meeting he will ask for approval to pay another cost overrun of as much as $50,000 to help cover costs for backfilling the holes."
"colorado water"
5:53:32 PM

Water policy

Here's a report about this week's World Water Week shindig in Stockholm, from The Environmental News Network. From the article:

We are in the midst of World Water Week. The 2008 theme is "Progress and Prospects on Water: For a Clean and Healthy World with Special Focus on Sanitation."[caron] World Water Week is a international conference focused on collaboration and the promotion of work that advances environmental and humanitarian development. The United Nations proclaimed 2008 the International Year of Sanitation. With a focus on the Millennium Development Goals, the theme for World Water Week was chosen to draw attention to sanitation needs and the effect of poor sanitation worldwide.
"cc"
5:36:39 PM

McCain: Renegotiate the Colorado River Compact

We're trying to run down a copy of John McCain's mea culpa letter to Senator Allard. According to The AP via The Denver Post McCain now says, "'Let me clear that I do not advocate renegotiation of the compact,' the letter said. McCain aides said the letter was e-mailed across the West after even fellow Republicans derided McCain for suggesting the water agreement may need to be retooled."

We were on hand for an Obama campaign conference call with Senator Salazar and Governor Ritter today. If their answers to reporter's questions are any indication the Obama campaign is not going to give Senator McCain a ride on this one.

Kudos to The Pueblo Chieftain for breaking the story last week.

More from The Denver Post:

Gov. Mitt Romney says presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain has "no interest" in reopening negotiations over the water-sharing agreement Colorado has with California, Arizona and other states...

Romney's comments via satellite from Boston were in response to a viewer question for a taped segment on 9News' "Your Show" set to air Sunday. "Sen. McCain has no interest in reopening the compact," Romney said. "Sen. McCain believes as I do that a compact that's been worked out between the governors and between the states is the right way to go."

From Fort Collins Now: "Given how rapidly and how robustly Democrats lashed out at the comments, it stands to reason that this could become a political football this fall. Colorado farmers, ranchers, municipalities and businesses wrangle over water more than anything else, and any talk about letting, say, Arizona have more of it is sure to provoke a nasty fight.

"McCain was clear that he wasn't aiming to hurt Colorado. But if you're a Weld County farmer or anyone else who survives on water credits from the Colorado-Big Thompson Project -- which annually takes water from the Western Slope to the Eastern Plains, and would be affected by any changes to the Colorado River Compact -- it's an eyebrow-raiser, at the very least. And in a purple state like Colorado, Republicans can't afford those."

More Coyote Gulch coverage here
"colorado water"
5:12:49 PM

Energy policy: Oil and gas

From The Glenwood Springs Post Independent: "Members of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) endorsed a new rule on Tuesday that would require oil and gas companies to maintain records of chemicals used in the drilling and completion process at a well site. Those records may be accessed by the state. Commissioners also endorsed a rule that would limit the building of certain oil and gas facilities within 300 feet and for a distance of five miles upstream of a public water supply."

More from the article:

Seven rules commissioners provisionally approved on Tuesday -- which mostly focused on public health and environmental issues and took up most of their time during the hearing -- largely followed recommendations that COGCC staff released earlier this month. Commissioners made several revisions and edits to those recommendations. The commission is expected to conduct final votes on the new regulations in mid-September. Some area groups, which have supported strong regulations for oil and gas companies, have said the agency's staff rule recommendations and clarifications have been "watered down," from draft regulations released in March...

Commissioners -- including Garfield County Commissioner Trési Houpt, who is a member of the commission -- immediately began making their mark on the new rules as Tuesday's hearing kicked off. Houpt offered a motion to edit COGCC staff language over the purpose of the new rules to say they were instituted to protect the state's public health, environment and wildlife. Her motion passed on a unanimous vote. The commissioners then waded through a long debate about a rule that would require oil and gas companies to main an inventory of chemicals used in their drilling and completion operations at a well site -- one of the more controversial rules the commission will consider. Oil and gas companies consider the chemicals they use to be trade secrets. Commissioner Kimberlee Miskell Gerhardt, a consulting geologist from La Plata County, said that the state should just start with a rule that requires companies to maintain an inventory of chemicals in excess of 500 pounds on a well site and see how it goes. She said there wasn't any "demonstrated need" to go below that weight threshold...

The commissioners also debated a rule that would prohibit energy companies from constructing new oil and gas facilities within 300 feet and for a distance of five miles upstream of a public water supply. Pipelines, roads and gathering lines are excluded from that regulation. The state can grant variances to the 300-foot regulation, according to the rules. The language governing variances was massaged by the commissioners during Tuesday's hearing. Commissioner Joshua Epel -- who provides legal counsel to DCP Midstream, an oil and gas company -- said he had too many concerns about the stipulations surrounding the 300-foot regulation, and said they had "too many flaws" as written. Houpt wondered why pipelines, roads and gathering facilities were excluded. Dave Neslin, acting director of the COGCC, said they were excluded because those facilities are covered by other proposed rules. She argued that the 300-foot zone where no new facilities should be built be raised to 500 feet, which the COGCC initially recommended in March. That request was defeated. "So many local jurisdictions support a 500-foot or more buffer," she said after the hearing.
"cc"
6:35:30 AM

Reclamation: Dam security

Reclamation is slowly increasing security at the reservoirs they operate, according to The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

A national report Tuesday said better security is needed at federal dams, but the Bureau of Reclamation said it is already addressing many of the concerns and heeding other advice in the report. The National Research Council, an arm of the National Academies of Science, acknowledged that Reclamation has significantly beefed up security at the 479 dams it manages in 17 states since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Reclamation's dams are among the largest of the nation's 80,000 dams and many of them would threaten human life and property if they fail for any reason. The panel that evaluated federal security was chaired by John Christian, a consulting engineer from Waban, Mass., and 13 engineering and security experts. The study was requested and sponsored by Reclamation.

However, it said Reclamation's response relies heavily on local law enforcement and only a few dams have trained first responders on-site. The study also said Reclamation has an uneven commitment to developing an effective security program. "The decentralized operations of Reclamation mean that the first responders to a security incident are local law enforcement, although Hoover Dam has an on-site police department and Grand Coulee Dam has a security force trained as first responders," the NRC said in a news release. "The chain of command during a security-related incident is unclear." The committee recommended increasing resources for security in a way that does not compromise the primary missions of providing water and power.

Reclamation has invested $84 million in fortification of dams since 9/11 and plans to spend another $50 million this year on guards and fortification, said Peter Soeth, Reclamation spokesman...

During a safety of dams program at Lake Pueblo in the 1990s, Reclamation determined that a catastrophic failure of the dam could put the lives of up to 12,000 people in danger. The federal agency spent $17.5 million to physically reinforce the dam as a result. The dam has numerous monitors to register any geologic shift. No major shifts have been recorded. Security measures at the dam were put in place immediately following the 9/11 attacks, but the details have never been released. Dams and water supplies have been considered high-priority potential targets of terrorists.

Like other major utilities, the Pueblo Board of Water Works also upgraded its security - spending more than $1 million - after 9/11 to protect drinking water supply and quality. Those measures are also not discussed in public.

More coverage from The Rocky Mountain News. From the article:

Federal dams across the West are struggling to meet security challenges in the post- 9/11 world, according to a newly released analysis by the National Academies of Science. The academies' National Research Council gave the dams' operator, the Bureau of Reclamation, a grade of B-minus or C, the chair of a study committee said in an interview this week. The bureau is hamstrung by internal communication problems and tight budgets, according to the analysis. The bureau operates more than 479 dams in 17 Western states, including 37 in Colorado. Among its high-profile facilities are Hoover Dam, outside Las Vegas, and Glen Canyon Dam, on Lake Powell.
"colorado water"
6:28:38 AM

Elkhead Reservoir: Mandatory boat inspections

Here's a recap of boating restrictions on Elkhead Reservoir, from The Craig Daily Press. From the article:

To those hoping to take a watercraft out on Elkhead Reservoir before winter comes, be prepared to wait for a zebra mussel inspection. Ron Dellacroce, Yampa River State Park manager, said the threat from zebra and quagga mussels is so severe, no craft will be allowed on the water without an inspection...

Boaters need to be aware that it does not take a mussel to fail an inspection, Dellacroce said. A craft with any standing water or water kept in ballast and bilge tanks, live wells for bait or water used as engine coolant will fail inspection...

If zebra mussels got into the municipal water system, the expense in continuous repairs and cleaning could be tremendous, Dellacroce said. It has proved impossible for authorities across the country to remove zebra and quagga mussels from any body of water despite various chemical and biological treatments. The only way that has been proven effective to kill them is to wash a mussel with water heated to 140 degrees and a special chemical solution, then let them dry out, Dellacroce said. "You basically have to bake and dry them," he said. "Once they're under a water's surface, forget about it."

More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"colorado water"
6:21:45 AM

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