Friday, October 20, 2006

Monsoon brings a bit of relief from the drought This year's Southwest Monsoon helped out southwestern Colorado, according to the Durango Herald. From the article, "The wetter-than-average season, several sources say, is taking the area further from the heart of a drought. 'The rains have helped us replenish the reservoirs as we go into the winter,' said Pat Page, chief of the water management group at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation office in Durango. As of Oct. 1, after plentiful rainfall throughout the summer and early fall, all the nearby reservoirs showed increased levels and capacities. Since the monsoons began, Vallecito Reservoir has added 20,000 acre-feet, causing the reservoir's elevation to rise more than 12 feet. Navajo Reservoir received an additional 53,000 acre-feet, rising 4 feet. Lemon Reservoir pulled in 8,000 acre-feet and rose 17 feet... "Durango's average rainfall through September is 14.12 inches, but it had received 16.46 inches through this September, said Dan Cuevas, a technician with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction. October's average rainfall is 1.87 inches in Durango, but as of Wednesday, Durango already had received 3.76 inches of rain this month." Category: Colorado Water 6:42:12 AM     Recent rains help Lake Powell According to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the water level in Lake Powell is up 5 feet in October. From the article, "All of the recent rain in Colorado and Utah has dumped 800,000 acre-feet of water into the lake, which has risen five feet this month, though it remains only half-full. 'In the 12 years I've been here, this is the first time I've seen Lake Powell go up in October,' said Gourley, deputy facilities manager of Glen Canyon Dam." Category: Colorado Water 6:23:50 AM     Fry-Ark water and Aurora The Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy Board is hoping to build more stringent conditions into the environmental study for Aurora's 40 year contract for Fryingpan-Arkansas water with the Bureau of Reclamation, according to the Pueblo Chieftain. From the article, "The Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District board wants to see assurances that protect Fryingpan-Arkansas Project water in an environmental study of Aurora's proposed contract for 40 years of storage and exchanges. The Bureau of Reclamation is accepting comments on its draft environmental assessment of Aurora's request to store 10,000 acre-feet annually in Lake Pueblo and an exchange contract that would allow the city to make a paper trade with Reclamation to move the water to Twin Lakes... "[Attorney Lee Miller] said the actions that affect the Southeastern district include: Protection of flows against exchanges at the Avondale gauge; Maintaining the relation of Aurora to the voluntary Upper Arkansas flow protection program; Maintaining minimum flows for sewer discharges at wastewater treatment plants in Salida and Fremont County; Maintaining minimum flows for Pueblo's recreational in-channel diversion; Affirming the provisions of exchange decrees in three separate Division 2 water court cases." Category: Colorado Water 6:14:39 AM     Roaring Fork health The Roaring Fork Conservancy has released their 2006 report on the health of the basin, according to the Aspen Times. From the article, "While the overall quality of the Roaring Fork River remains high, several of its tributaries don't meet state standards for drinking water and aquatic habitat, according to the Roaring Fork Conservancy's 2006 report on the health of the rivershed. The report, released this week, offers the latest data from an ongoing sampling program initiated in 1997 by the conservancy, in partnership with the Colorado Division of Wildlife's River Watch program, the state Department of Public Health and Environment and other agencies... "Water samples are collected at 24 points along 70-plus-mile Roaring Fork, from its headwaters on Independence Pass to its confluence with the Colorado River in Glenwood Springs, as well as on its tributaries. Water samples, collected with the help of valley middle and high school students, are tested for various pollutants, including heavy metals and nutrients. The 2006 report identifies four 'impacted streams' in the Roaring Fork watershed that will be the focus of closer scrutiny - Brush Creek, the Crystal River, Cattle Creek and Fourmile Creek. The impacted designation means certain stretches of the streams have pollution levels that exceed state standards; the streams also garnered only 'good' or 'fair' ratings for biological health." Category: Colorado Water 6:00:54 AM     Greenland: Ice losses and ice gains Environment News Service: "Ice losses now far surpass ice gains in the shrinking Greenland ice sheet, NASA scientists reported Thursday. The researchers estimate the annual net loss from the ice sheet equals six years of water flow from the Colorado River, but found the ice sheet may not be melting quite as quickly as other studies have found. The research team reported that Greenland's low coastal regions lost 155 gigatons - 41 cubic miles - of ice per year between 2003 and 2005 from excess melting and icebergs. During the same period the high-elevation interior gained 54 gigatons, or 14 cubic miles, annually from excess snowfall. 'With this new analysis we observe dramatic ice mass losses concentrated in the low-elevation coastal regions, with nearly half of the loss coming from southeast Greenland,' said lead author Scott Luthcke of NASA Goddard's Planetary Geodynamics Laboratory. 'In the 1990s the ice was very close to balance with gains at about the same level as losses. That situation has now changed significantly.' Continued monitoring in the future is needed to determine whether this ice loss is a long-term trend, the research team said. The study was published Thursday in 'Science Express', the advance edition of the journal 'Science.' The study details a dramatic acceleration in the rate of ice mass loss since the late 1990s that is nearly identical to reports earlier this year based on radar measurements of glacier acceleration." Category: 2008 Presidential Election 5:46:06 AM

© Copyright 2006 John Orr. Last update: 12/29/06; 12:21:50 PM.