Beginning May 1st the Department of Interior will begin crafting a plan for the 7 Colorado River Compact states to share water in times of drought, according to the Rocky Mountain News [April 27, 2005, "Feds to map river plan"]. The states failed to reach a deal on their own. That's a surprise...well maybe not. Here in Colorado we needed legislation to get the people from each river basin to sit down together and talk about sharing and drought.
From the article, "The headwaters of the Colorado River occur high in the Never Summer Mountains in Rocky Mountain National Park and supply about half the water used on Colorado's Front Range."
The head of Colorado's Water Quality Control Division submitted his resignation yesterday, according to the Denver Post [April 27, 2005, "State water-quality chief quits"]. From the article, "In December, The Denver Post documented the widespread use of waivers for polluters under Pifher and other state leaders. Since then, the agency has begun revising some of its regulations. In recent weeks, debates about the philosophy and direction of the agency have been hot topics in work-group and committee meetings, state employees have said. Pifher is a former private lawyer who won acclaim representing Colorado Springs and industries that have permits to discharge pollution into public waters."
Here's some good water news for a change from the Cortez Journal. They write, "For people who have lived in southwest Colorado during the last three to four years of drought, a glance at McPhee Reservoir today may look more like an ocean. McPhee has already surpassed 2004's peak capacity of 309,749 acre-feet, which was reached last June. The present amount in the reservoir is 334,203 acre-feet. (An acre-foot of water is equivalent to 325,829 gallons of water, which is enough to fill an entire football field at the depth of one foot.)"
Howling AT A Waning Moon: "American Rivers' river policy update."
Category: Colorado Water
5:22:56 AM 
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