Glenwood Springs Post Independent: "By the time they reach Mexico the waters of the Colorado River are so laden with salt as to be a danger to crops. 'About 9 million tons of salt passes Lees Ferry (on the Colorado River in Arizona) every year,' said Paul Von Guerard, office chief of the U.S. Geologic Survey in Grand Junction. Since the 1970s, the seven states through which the river flows have agreed to control that burden of salt as much as possible. The USGS monitors the salinity of the river, which has its source in Colorado. Thursday, members of USGS in Grand Junction brought the Energy Advisory Board up to date on efforts to monitor salt in the Colorado reaches of the river...About 47 percent of the salt in the river comes from natural sources such as hot springs and erosion of soil and the rest is from human actions. Salt causes about $300 million in damage to crops, water pipes and hot water heaters in the lower Colorado River Basin in California and Nevada, as well as in Mexico, Von Guerard said...About 47 percent of the salt load that goes through Colorado passes the Cameo monitoring station on the west side of DeBeque Canyon just east of Grand Junction, Von Guerard said. But only 18 percent of that load comes from the river above Glenwood Springs, according to data from a station just upstream from the city. The rest of that salt comes from sources between Glenwood and Grand Junction, he said. The USGS needs to monitor that load with at least one new monitoring station between Glenwood and Grand Junction, at a cost of $25,000. Because of flattened funding in the last few years, USGS is seeking to find financial support from local towns and cities in that reach of the river to install a station, Von Guerard said."
Here's the press release from Mayor Hickenlooper's office about the appointment of Harris Sherman to Denver Water [via The Cherry Creek News].
Here's an article from the Colorado Springs Gazette.com with details about the Sierra Club's lawsuit against Colorado Springs over sewage spills in Fountain Creek. From the article, "The Sierra Club on Tuesday filed suit in U.S. District Court alleging Colorado Springs Utilities violated federal law by spilling raw sewage into Fountain Creek. The suit is similar to one filed last month by a district attorney in Pueblo. The suits seek a judge's order requiring the city-owned utility to stop the discharges and speed up work to upgrade the city's sewage system. The Sierra Club expects its lawsuit to be joined with the Pueblo district attorney's action. The Sierra Club alleged the utility has sent 73 million gallons of raw sewage down Fountain Creek in the past seven years, creating dangerous bacterial levels. Despite that, the environmental organization alleged, the city continues to allow new development to connect to its sewage system and has struck a deal with the state that doesn't require completion of necessary upgrades until 2012...Utility officials have said they[base ']re committed to preventing spills into Fountain Creek. But they've made no secret their belief that the Sierra Club and Pueblo County have used this summer's accidental spills to advance a different agenda - stopping the utility[base ']s proposed Southern Delivery Water System. The project would take water the city owns in Pueblo Reservoir and pipe it to the east side of the city. A byproduct of the project would be increased flows of treated wastewater in Fountain Creek."
The Army Corps of Engineers are not convinced that Parker needs to expand the size of Rueter-Hess Reservoir, according to the Rocky Mountain News [December 7, 2005, "Corps wants proof reservoir expansion is needed"]. From the article, "Rodney Schwartz of the Corps told the gathering of about 50 people that while there are no good alternative sites in the county at which to store more water, an enlarged Rueter-Hess may not be the best plan either. 'There may be some alternatives that let them get by with a smaller reservoir,' Schwartz said. But [Frank] Jaeger said with 400,000 residents projected to flood into the county over the next two to three decades, 'it makes no sense to not build it all the way out.' He said less than half an acre of wetlands would be affected by the expansion and that the reservoir could be vital to preserving the county's underground water supply. The Rueter-Hess, which would strictly be a storage facility, would have to have all its water pumped into it from other sources, including Cherry Creek, aquifers, irrigation return flows, and imported water. Jaeger said a nearby sanitation station would treat effluent to water-quality levels higher than what flows through Cherry Creek."
Coyote Gulch asks that the Corps get in touch with Dr. Bob Raynolds if they still have doubts.
Category: Colorado Water
6:16:57 AM 
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