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Friday, May 9, 2008
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From The Rocky Mountain News: "President Bush gave final approval for a Platte River recovery plan on Thursday when he signed a massive natural resources bill into law [S. 2739: Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008]. The recovery plan, backed by Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar, of Colorado, and their counterparts from Nebraska, is meant to protect endangered or threatened species while allowing continued water use and development along the river. It sets aside $157 mdillion as the federal share of implementing the agreement, first signed by the governors of Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming with the Interior Department in 2006."
More coverage from The Grand Island Independent. From the article:
Following a decade old struggle to address Platte River problems with endangered and threatened species, President Bush on Thursday signed into law legislation to implement the federal share of the Platte River recovery implementation plan. The plan is part of the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008, which was sponsored by Nebraska U.S. Sens. Ben Nelson and Chuck Hagel...
The bill authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to proceed with the program and includes $157 million to carry it out. The cost will be shared 50/50 by the states and federal government. Through the program the states will provide benefits for the endangered and threatened species as well as land, water, and scientific monitoring and research to evaluate benefits of the program. Now that the bill has been signed into law, Ron Bishop, manager of the Central Platte Natural Resources District, said the next step is to "start building projects...That will open them up to start acquiring the land and water that they need," Bishop said. Two of the big goals of the recovery plan are to increase flows in the Platte River and create new habitat to benefit the four endangered and threatened species the program is designed to protect. The species are the endangered interior least tern, whooping crane, pallid sturgeon and the threatened piping plover...
The plan proposes to acquire 10,000 acres of new habitat. The proposed area is between Lexington and Chapman, which is within the Central Platte NRD. Bishop said once that land is acquired, the project will still pay property taxes on the land to lessen the impact on local governments and school districts. The plan also proposes to acquire between 130,000 to 150,000 acre feet of water. Bishop said they have already lined up 80,000 acre feet of water, which will be needed to accomplish the goal of increasing river flows to benefit the threatened and endangered species.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"colorado water"
6:01:00 AM 
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From The Boulder Daily Camera: "Federal legislation [s. 1116] to explore putting groundwater pumped out during oil and gas production to use was signed into law Thursday. The bill signed by President Bush directs the Interior Department to assess the feasibility of recovering and cleaning up the millions of gallons of water that are reinjected into the ground or disposed of during oil and gas development. The water's fate has become contentious as natural gas development has increased in the Rockies. Large volumes of water are pumped out during coal-bed methane production. Pumping groundwater relieves the pressure that traps the gas in the coal seams. 'Every day, 2 million gallons of produced water are wasted in this nation, unfit for any use,' said Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Denver, one of the bill's sponsors. New Mexico Sens. Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat, and Pete Domenici, a Republican, and Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., were the other sponsors."
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"colorado water"
5:57:06 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 2:24:25 PM.
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