Wednesday, June 7, 2006

Ritter or Beauprez for governor? Apparently Bill Ritter's campaign reads Coyote Gulch (or the Montrose Daily News). We reported yesterday that Bob Beauprez was snuggling up to rainy side voters by coming out against transmountain diversions. The Ritter camp called Beauprez on it since he supported Referendum A in 2002. From the article, "Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter attacked Bob Beauprez on Tuesday as a hypocrite, saying his Republican rival flipped his position on water. The Beauprez camp called the charge a 'pretty transparent' political attack. The salvo came after Beauprez was quoted Monday in the Montrose Daily Press as saying, 'Nobody has convinced me we need transmountain diversions.' That was a change in position from 2003, when Beauprez backed Referendum A, which would have built reservoirs and transferred water to the Front Range, Ritter said... "Beauprez's campaign manager, John Marshall, said, 'Referendum A had absolutely nothing to do with' transmountain diversions. 'For a Denver lawyer to jump in and make those kind of allegations makes it clear that he doesn't understand Colorado water,' Marshall said." Ouch. Marshall is correct. Referendum A was an attempt to set aside $2 billion for "unnamed" water projects." State voters didn't go for the "trust us" message from state officials. Category: Denver November 2006 Election 6:59:18 AM     Snowpack Snowpack in the San Juans is at 6% and falling quickly, according to the Durango Herald. From the article, "A warm and dry May further diminished snowpack in the San Juan, Dolores and Animas river basins, bringing measurements to a feeble 6 percent of average yearly volume. The warm month and dry spring brought on the season's peak flow in the Animas, measured in Durango at 3,610 cubic feet per second on May 25. Early peak flow in the Animas mirrors trends across the state. According to a report from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, most streams and rivers have or will reach their annual peak flow volumes early... "Officials in La Plata County share concern over the impacts of the early peak - particularly on agriculture. Although farmers east and southeast of Durango are using water from the Vallecito and Lemon reservoirs now, they shouldn't expect a continuous supply... "Pat Greer, a rancher between Red Mesa and Marvel, says he has not been able to water his 40 acres of feed crops all spring. Farmers and ranchers in Red Mesa southwest of Durango rely on the Mormon Reservoir, which is almost empty. In addition, ditches feeding from the La Plata River - which runs west of Red Mesa - have run dry all spring, said Greer. 'I've lived here all my life, 70-some years, and this is the driest I've seen it,' he said. 'There's just nothing out here.'" Category: Colorado Water 6:31:02 AM     Farm disaster on the South Platte Here's a short article from the Brighton Standard Blade profiling what some of the farmers in the South Platte are doing to cope with their wells being shut down. From the article, "So far enough ditch water and a little rain has kept crops green, but late summer harvests are likely doomed. Category: Colorado Water 6:18:24 AM     First Cloudsat images Scientists are stoked over the the first images from Cloudsat satellite, according to the NASA. From the article, "Mission managers tested the flight and ground system performance of the satellite's Cloud-Profiling Radar in late May, and found it to be working perfectly. The satellite's first images may be viewed at: http://www.nasa.gov/cloudsat ... "Just 30 seconds after radar activation, CloudSat obtained its first image - a slice of the atmosphere from top to bottom showing a warm storm front over the North Sea in the North Atlantic approaching Greenland. Unlike other satellite observations, the CloudSat radar image shows the storm's clouds and precipitation simultaneously. The front's warm air can be seen rising over colder air, with precipitation below. The remaining orbits of the test recorded unique observations of other weather types on a scale never seen before. The radar obtained first-time observations of clouds and snow storms over the Antarctic. Until now, clouds have been hard to observe in polar regions using satellite remote sensing, particularly during the polar night season. The CloudSat observations also provided new views of sloping, frontal clouds and thunderstorms over Africa, both as individual storms and as part of larger tropical storm systems... "The first-ever millimeter wavelength radar, CloudSat's Cloud-Profiling Radar is more than 1,000 times more sensitive than typical weather radar. It can observe clouds and precipitation in a way never before possible, distinguishing between cloud particles and precipitation. Its measurements are expected to offer new insights into how fresh water is created from water vapor and how much of this water falls to the surface as rain and snow. " More Coyote Gulch coverage here. Category: Colorado Water 6:11:03 AM

© Copyright 2006 John Orr. Last update: 12/29/06; 11:45:25 AM.