Thursday, January 8, 2009

Energy Policy -- Oil and gas: San Miguel County Commissioners tell USFS that potential sale is 'appalling' and 'ridiculous' From the Telluride Daily Planet: "On maps, the lands that will be available for lease to oil and gas developers patchwork over the county, laying tiny quilts over its quiet west reaches and pinpricking the tops of river canyons, seeping out. If the county has its way, perhaps all but one of the 30-plus tracts will be removed from the sale. In a meeting with United States Forest Service officials midweek, San Miguel County commissioners routinely used words like "appalling" and "ridiculous" to describe the acres that will be available for oil and gas exploration in a February sale. The board met with USFS representatives to discuss the roughly 48,400 acres of San Miguel County that will be for sale in the Bureau of Land Management lease sale, which makes subsurface rights available to oil and gas developers." More Coyote Gulch coverage here. "cc" 6:28:47 PM     Snowpack: Record early season numbers Here's an update on the Colorado snowpack, from The Mountain Mail. From the article: Latest snow surveys, conducted by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, show state snowpack at 120 percent of average. With 2009 totals topping last year's Jan. 1 readings, the current snowpack is the highest since 1997. In addition, this year's snowpack marks the third time above average January totals were measured across the state in the 12 years since 1997, Allen Green, national resources state conservationist, said. In the Arkansas River basin the snowpack by Tuesday was 142 percent of average. The number may be skewed because of extremely high averages in the southern part of the basin. At Fremont Pass in the northern part of the Arkansas River basin, snowpack measured 116 percent of average. Near Independence Pass it was 147 percent of average. The lowest measurement in the basin was taken at Porphyry Creek near Monarch Pass with 107 percent of average. Measurements taken at the Apishapa site in the southern Sangre de Cristo range show 227 percent of average. At Whiskey Creek, near Stonewall, it's 191 percent. At South Colony Creek on the east side of the Sangre de Cristo Range near Westcliffe, it's 134 percent of average... A series of heavy storms delivered abundant snowfall to the Rio Grande, Arkansas and San Juan River basins in December...Snowpack readings in those basins range from 135 to 140 percent of average, and are nearly identical to statistics a year ago, Green said. The 140 percent of average in the Rio Grande basin is the highest January total since 1985, bringing the best news to water users in that basin in decades. Meanwhile, snowpack totals across northern Colorado remain near average to slightly below average for this time of year. With December storm patterns favoring southern Colorado, northern basins received smaller totals, ranging from 86 to 99 percent of average in the Yampa, White, and North and South Platte basins. Although those basins remain slightly below average, only the North Platte is short of exceeding last year's totals for this date. More snowpack news from the Aspen Daily News: In the Roaring Fork River basin, the snowpack was 144 percent of average as of Jan. 1, according to data from the Natural Resources Conservation Service snow survey office in Lakewood. Throughout the Colorado River basin, snowpack is 127 percent of average as of the first of the year, so both basins are doing better than the state as a whole, whose snowpack is 120 percent of average... A measuring site at Independence Pass is measuring a snow depth of 40 inches. The snowpack in the Roaring Fork basin is actually better than last year's at this time, which was 125 percent of average. Last winter was a record snow season. Meanwhile, here's a link to the National Resources Conservation Service's History of NRCS' Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting Program. More news from the Steamboat Pilot & Today: In the Roaring Fork River basin, which includes the Fryingpan and Crystal River valleys, the snowpack is 40 percent above average and among the highest levels recorded in the state. The Natural Resources Con servation Service has seven automated snowpack measuring stations in the basin. One east of Aspen showed the snowpack 42 percent above average Tuesday afternoon. The snowpack has exceeded 50 percent of average in parts of the Fryingpan and Crystal valleys. It is 53 percent above average at the North Lost Trail site near Marble. Elsewhere in the Crystal, it is 33 percent above average at McClure Pass and 37 percent above average at Schofield Pass. In the Fryingpan Valley above Basalt, the snowpack is 58 percent above average at the Ivanhoe site and 35 percent at the Nast site, but only 19 percent above average at the Kiln site, the conservation service's data said. "colorado water" 5:34:26 PM     Energy Policy -- Oil shale: Bush administration to lift rule prohibiting exploration in Wyoming and Utah From the Wyoming Business Report (MJ Clark): "The Interior Department will publish a rule this week that would lift a 79-year old executive order prohibiting oil shale development in Wyoming and Utah. The order was lifted from Colorado in 2001... The rule, opening 6 million acres in Wyoming and 1.7 million acres in Utah to oil shale development, was approved late last year, giving a coalition of twelve environmental groups time to send letters of protest to the Interior Department and the Bureau of Land Management. Yesterday the coalition formally notified the Bush administration of their intent to file federal lawsuits under the Endangered Species Act over the rush to create a commercial oil shale industry in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming... "In Wyoming, the oil-shale leasing decision threatens Adobe Town, the state's most spectacular wilderness. In fact, the state of Wyoming designated this area as 'Very Rare or Uncommon' to shield it from oil-shale extraction and other types of mining," said Erik Molvar, wildlife biologist with Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. "Pair this with the potential destruction of key sage grouse strongholds and it becomes clear that oil-shale development would be a disaster for Wyoming." More Coyote Gulch coverage here. "cc" 5:19:15 PM     Energy Policy -- Oil shale: Colorado River District seeks to influence terms of approval for Shell's filing on Yampa River Here's another look at Shell's application for a conditional water right for a 375cfs diversion from the Yampa River, from Tom Ross writing for the Steamboat Pilot & Today. From the article: Shell Oil's filing Dec. 30 for significant water rights in the Yampa River raises the possibility that a man-made lake larger than Stagecoach Reservoir someday could be built in the sagebrush and juniper country of Moffat County... The withdrawal from the Yampa would take place far downstream from Steamboat Springs, but the 375 cubic feet per second being sought is comparable to a typical flow one might expect to find passing beneath the Fifth Street Bridge in early to mid-July. Water would be taken out of the river at one or two pumping stations about 75 miles west of Steamboat Spr ings. It would be stored in a reservoir capable of holding 45,000 acre-feet of water in Cedar Springs Draw, off the main stem of the Yampa. That reservoir's potential size compares to the 33,275 acre-feet of storage in Stagecoach Reservoir near Oak Creek and 25,450 acre-feet in the newly expanded Elkhead Reservoir near Craig. Jim Pokrandt, of the Colo rado River Water Conservation District, said his agency likely would register its opposition to the application -- not necessarily to block it but for an opportunity to influence the terms of an approval. A decision about building the reservoir probably would not come for another 10 years, Boyd said, with permitting and development of the reservoir adding more years to the timetable for completion. "The decision to build the reservoir and take the water would be contingent on the ability to begin commercial production" of petroleum products from oil shale, Boyd said. "That would probably not come until the middle of the next decade or a little later." [...] Erin Light, Division 6 water engineer for the Colorado Dep artment of Natural Resources, said Shell's application for surface water and water storage rights, if granted, would represent a conditional right or placeholder. Its new water rights would ensure the company a rank in the state's water priority system, pending the day when it might actually put the water to use. More coverage from Jerd Smith writing for the Rocky Mountain News: Shell Oil Co. has staked a new claim on the scenic waterway, seeking millions of gallons of H20 to support future plans for oil shale, said spokesman Tracy Boyd. "This would be one of the more substantial water rights we're accumulating," Boyd said. The company has a wide array of water rights in the Colorado Basin, which includes the Yampa and White rivers. The Yampa has come under close scrutiny in recent years not only because it lies close to West Slope oil shale deposits but also because it's viewed as an important source of new water for Colorado's Front Range... Though people are scarce in the Yampa Valley, water isn't. The Yampa generates about as much water as the South Platte River, which supplies millions of people who live in metro Denver and the northern Front Range.[ed. With a boost from several existing transmountain diversions.][...] Tucked into the wild, northwestern corner of the state, the Yampa has long been isolated from the growth and development pressures that dog other parts of the state. Two years ago, the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District suggested building a $4 billion pipeline to deliver water from a point near Maybell hundreds of miles east to the Front Range. But Northern didn't stake a claim to the river, saying it would wait to see if others in the state were interested in pursuing the project. Northern spokesman Brian Werner said Shell's stake in the river would not preclude Front Range entities from tapping its resources as well... Tom Sharp, longtime water attorney who represents the Upper Yampa River Water Conservation District, wants to make sure the river's supplies are protected for the people of the valley. "One single 45,000 acre-foot reservoir we can probably work with," Sharp said. "But if there was also a Front Range diversion, it magnifies the pressure, and it will make it riskier for us." Update: Here's an editorial from the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel: Shell Oil's unexpected announcement this week that it has filed for an industrial water right on the Yampa River is not evidence that a commercial oil-shale industry is nearly ready for takeoff in Western Colorado. Shell officials still say their decision on whether to proceed with a commercial operation may be as much as a decade away. But the announcement is an indication that Shell is proceeding cautiously and meticulously in its efforts to reach that decision. Shell is to be applauded for seeking to protect other water rights -- especially agricultural ones -- and for working with other Western Slope water groups as it tries to secure water to meet its potential oil-shale needs. More Coyote Gulch coverage here, here and here. "colorado water" 5:56:00 AM

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