Monday, October 16, 2006

San Juan water for Navajo-Gallup project? Durango Herald: "If sharing Colorado River water isn't a contentious enough issue now, Southwest Colorado water interests say a recent New Mexico proposal could lead to them being left high and dry because of the need to protect endangered fish. According to calculations by New Mexico and the federal Bureau of Reclamation, there's an extra 220,000 acre-feet of water available annually to Upper Colorado River basin states because less water is evaporating from its reservoirs than previously thought. (That's enough water to fill nearly two reservoirs the size of Lake Nighthorse - the Animas-La Plata Project reservoir under construction just west of Bodo Industrial Park.)... "All future users of water in Southwest Colorado, even a rancher who wants to create a stock pond, could be affected, Harris said. The situation is critical, Harris said, because thirsty New Mexico is using all the water available to it in the Laws of the Colorado River, which allocates Western water among seven states. New Mexico currently receives about 675,000 acre-feet of water from several sources - a tunnel that transfers Colorado water from the upper San Juan River through the Continental Divide to the Rio Grande River, Navajo Reservoir and the San Juan, Animas and La Plata rivers. Under the water-sharing formula, New Mexico stands to gain 25,000 acre-feet of the 220,000 acre-foot windfall. Officials there want to use the additional water to help meet future needs of the yet-unauthorized Navajo-Gallup Project and allow full development of the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project, a slowly developing project to irrigate up to 110,000 acres south of Farmington. Under the separate and yet-unfinished Animas-La Plata Project, the Navajo Nation is scheduled to receive some 4,680 acre-feet of water annually for the Shiprock area. But overriding all other considerations is a federal Fish & Wildlife Service requirement that each new use of water in the San Juan Basin be evaluated as to its impact on restoring populations of two endangered fish species in the San Juan River. There is no set amount of water reserved for the fish, but the federal agency can nix any consumptive use of water in the basin, Harris said. Therein lies the reason for concern in Southwest Colorado. Water interests there don't know how much of the 2 million acre-feet of water in the San Juan River is needed to protect the fish, Harris said." Category: Colorado Water 6:33:06 AM     Denver out of drought? Here's a report about Denver Water's storage, from the Rocky Mountain News. They write, "Denver Water's reservoirs are fuller now than they've been in any October since 1999. As far as the utility's water-storage system is concerned, 'The drought is essentially over,' a company resource engineer said Friday. Denver Water reservoirs are at 90 percent capacity, three percentage points higher than the long-term average for this time of year, 87 percent. That difference may not sound like much, but it amounts to roughly 20,000 acre-feet of water, enough to supply about 40,000 households for a year, resource engineer Bob Steger said. In October 2002, during the depths of the multiyear drought, water levels in Denver Water reservoirs dropped to 51 percent of capacity. The Oct. 1 levels rebounded to 79 percent in 2003, 76 percent in 2004 and 88 percent last year... "Greg Fisher, chief planner for Denver Water, attributed the increased storage to: a healthy April 1 snowpack; reduced demand from the utility's 1.2 million customers during the six-month outdoor watering season; and well-placed summer and fall rains that fed the reservoirs. Water use among Denver Water customers during the 2006 outdoor watering season, which ended Sept. 30, was 11 percent below predrought levels... "While Denver Water reservoirs have thrived, some parts of Colorado are still plagued by drought. Early October's cool, wet weather in western Colorado brought an end to abnormal dryness there, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor report, released Thursday. But much of northeastern Colorado continues to suffer moderate to extreme drought conditions, according to the multiagency federal report. In Denver, recent rains make it appear less likely - though still possible - that 2006 will be the driest year in the city's history. The current holder of that title is 2002, when just 7.48 inches were recorded at Denver International Airport. That's less than half the normal year-end total of 15.81 inches. As of Friday afternoon, the National Weather Service had recorded 6.24 inches of precipitation at the airport this year - 7.33 inches below normal. In the last three months of the year, Denver normally receives 2.60 inches. If the rest of the year is anywhere near normal, the 2002 dryness record will stand." Category: Colorado Water 6:23:37 AM     Glen Canyon Dam == Boondoggle? Deseret News: "Fifty years after the first explosive blast signaled the beginning of construction on Glen Canyon Dam and its mission to store and manage millions of gallons of water from the Colorado River, critics of the massive federal project are calling for its demise while other experts say it's vital to the West's water-storage system. 'Glen Canyon Dam is a boondoggle,' said Richard Ingebretsen, president of the Glen Canyon Institute in Salt Lake City. 'It has wreaked havoc on the ecosystem of a beautiful river. Of all the dams that are useless, this place, Glen Canyon Dam, is the worst.' On Thursday, the Bureau of Reclamation will host a 50th anniversary celebration of the Colorado River Storage Act of 1956 at Glen Canyon Dam. The act also authorized the construction of Flaming Gorge Dam. Mark Limbaugh, assistant secretary of water and science for the Department of the Interior, is scheduled to speak at the invitation-only event. Dennis Strong, director of the Utah Department of Water Resources, said Glen Canyon Dam is fulfilling its purpose, not only as a critical piece of the West's vast water storage program but in its role as a hydroelectric power plant producing electricity for nearly 6 million customers." Category: Colorado Water 6:10:47 AM     We don't want Denver to have our water The Eagle River Water and Sanitation District is in court hoping to prove that Denver Water is not developing their water rights on the Eagle River and should be therefore required to give them up, according to the Rocky Mountain News. From the article, "In the 1960s, the city and county of Denver bought a bunch of water rights on the Western Slope, including hundreds of thousands of acre- feet of water in the Vail Valley. At the time, Denver got 'conditional water rights,' meaning it had to do something with them - use them or prepare to use them - to keep them. Every six years, Denver has to return to water court and prove it's being diligent about using the water in some way. It's also anybody else's chance to say Denver isn't using the water and doesn't deserve to keep it. The water and sanitation district seized that opportunity, suing Denver Water earlier this year and claiming it hasn't done anything with the water rights. Though there have been negotiations between the water and sanitation district and Denver Water in the past, nothing came of them, said Glenn Porzak, the district's water attorney. Winning this case would secure the future of water in the Eagle River, Porzak said... "The Eagle River Water and Sanitation District provides water from East Vail to Dowd Junction and Red Sky Ranch in Wolcott. It treats wastewater for the entire district. Minturn provides its own water, while the Upper Eagle Regional Water Authority provides water to Avon, Arrowhead, Beaver Creek, Berry Creek, Eagle-Vail, Edwards, Bachelor Gulch and Cordillera. The 183,000 acre-feet of water rights from Vail to Wolcott are part of Denver's long-term water plan beginning after 2030, said Dave Little, Denver Water's manager of water resources and general planning. And while Denver Water hasn't been digging in the river, Little said hundreds of thousands of dollars have been invested in surveys and studies on a potential Wolcott reservoir and interests on the Piney River, north of Vail. Porzak said a Wolcott reservoir could be one-and- a-half times the size of Dillon Reservoir. 'It would strip out the majority of the water in the Eagle River and take that over the (Continental) Divide,' he said. Planning decades in advance is what large cities need to do to ensure a water supply for their residents, Little said, referencing a Denver Water right purchased in 1902 and developed in the 1980s... "Porzak added Denver has enough water for its own growth and may be hoarding water rights to sell to nearby cities. If the water and sanitation district wins, it could claim the water. 'It's our water,' Johnson said. 'We don't want Denver to have our water. There's growth here, too. If there's water in the stream, we want an opportunity to use that water and put it to beneficial use.' But Little says the Vail Valley has more than enough water for growth. It's recreation that may be impacted. 'There are people who like to river raft and kayak in the summer, and that's the time that other people like to divert water,' he said. If Colorado, and especially the Denver area, continues to see a population boom, the state may have to decide if rafting in the high country is more important than providing drinking water to cities, Little said. A water judge is slated to hear the case in June." Category: Colorado Water 6:03:18 AM     Million project pipeline Aaron Million's pipeline project is moving ahead, according to the Fort Collins Coloradoan. From the article, "An ambitious plan to build a 400-mile long pipeline through Wyoming to pump water from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir for up to 900,000 families across the Front Range is moving forward. Businessman Aaron Million has been quietly shopping the idea around for two years and plans to file for permits by year's end to start the approval process, the Coloradoan reported in its Sunday online edition... "Drawing water from the Flaming Gorge, which can hold up to 3.8 million acre feet of water, and the Green River impacts few irrigators or other water users, Fassett said. 'You don't decimate the Green by taking out what Aaron's taking out,' [Jeff] Fassett said." More Coyote Gulch coverage here. Category: Colorado Water 5:52:48 AM

© Copyright 2006 John Orr. Last update: 12/29/06; 12:20:46 PM.