Monday, February 13, 2006

Durango whitewater park? Here's an article from the Durango Herald with details about the proposed whitewater park. From the article, "Durango officials are set to enter the controversial statewide recreational-water debate Monday when they host the first of three meetings concerning the construction of a boating park on the Animas River. "Two locations for controlled flow are being considered for a white-water course: Smelter Rapid near Santa Rita Park, where kayakers have competed for years; and at Schneider Park, near the Ninth Street Bridge... "The boating park, designed to handle all water craft, requires a man-made structure in order to petition a water court for a Recreational In-Stream Diversion, an authorized flow of water. As the popularity of white-water recreation has surged, requests for court-granted flows have caused run-ins statewide between boating interests and traditional water users. The issue has reached the state Supreme Court... "City officials have been discussing a water park for a year, Metz said. Wherever the course is installed, a permit from the federal Army Corps of Engineers is required. The city also has discussed the boat park with the Colorado Division of Wildlife, the Animas-La Plata Water Conservancy District and the Southwestern Water Conservation District."Category: Colorado Water 6:24:02 AM     Overallocation of the Colorado River Here's the second part of New West's series on overallocation of western water. From the article, "The world of water has changed of late and it is about time. For almost 20 years, a gradual shift has been ongoing: water that was historically used for agriculture and ranching is increasingly going to western cities. Called reallocation, this process has become common throughout the West. It is so pervasive that the real question is no longer whether water will be transferred from rural to urban use. The debate concerns the terms of the transfer, how rural communities that cede water will derive fair and valuable benefits from it... "In February 2006, the river states agreed to reshape the way the river is managed, with all seven states signing on. This step, which is based around drought management, has created administrative rules that put all the river states on the same side of the table. This is unprecedented, an extremely valuable step forward. But it alone is not enough. "Let's scrap the existing Colorado River Compact and write a new one for the 21st Century. A new law of the river could take into account environmental legislation, the shift of population and income to cities, fluctuation in water quantity, water quality, and countless other contingencies that didn't exist 80 years ago. It could create a Colorado River for the needs of today and tomorrow, not one beholden to a flawed and long gone past." Category: Colorado Water 6:15:54 AM

© Copyright 2006 John Orr. Last update: 12/29/06; 11:08:26 AM.