Sunday, July 2, 2006

Signifcant nexus instruction from supremes Here's an opinion piece about House Resolution 1356, the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act from the Denver Post. From the article, "...it follows that anything dumped into a water source - including pollutants - will eventually wend its way downstream through wetlands, tributaries, streams, rivers, ponds and lakes. For this reason, Congress passed the 1972 Clean Water Act to set a national standard protecting all the nation's waters. For more than three decades, the agencies charged with enforcing those safeguards have viewed the aquatic system as a whole. The benefits to the nation from this far-sighted legislation have been incalculable. On June 19, the U.S. Supreme Court threw it all into confusion. In a contentiously split decision (including five opinions totaling more than 100 pages), the court mandated that, for the present at least, questions of Clean Water Act jurisdiction over wetlands will have to be thrashed out on a case-by-case basis in the lower courts... "Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., an architect of the 1972 Clean Water Act, recognized the threat when he said the court decision displays a 'disdain for Congress' and its clear intent that the law be a national standard protecting all the nation's waters. The matter is vital. The confusion should be set aside. Congress and the president should act to clearly restate the principle that the Clean Water Act applies to all the nation's waters, both the great and the small." Category: Colorado Water 9:19:28 AM     Ruedi will not fill this year Ruedi reservoir will not fill this year, according to the Aspen Times. From the article, "Hot, dry weather this spring and summer will prevent Ruedi Reservoir from filling to capacity, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. 'We're not going to fill up Ruedi this year. We're going to get really close,' bureau spokeswoman Kara Lamb said. She downplayed the significance of the shortage. She said the reservoir will fill to between 97,000 and 99,000 acre feet rather than the 101,000-acre-foot capacity. There is plenty of water for recreation and for the bureau to meet its obligations to entities that have purchased water, Lamb said... "Ruedi participated in a coordinated release of water in May with other reservoirs in the state to benefit endangered fish on the Colorado River in Grand Junction. For about one week the reservoir released its highest level of water in 11 years. The agency's water managers were also concerned about creating enough storage space in Ruedi to make room for what had been a higher-than-average snowpack in the upper Fryingpan Valley for most of the winter... "In addition to releases, bureau water managers have to contend with diversions. About 56,000 acre feet has been diverted from the Fryingpan's headwaters to east of the Continental Divide so far this year, according to bureau data." Category: Colorado Water 8:06:51 AM

© Copyright 2006 John Orr. Last update: 12/29/06; 11:54:11 AM.