Friday, October 27, 2006

Great early winter snowstorm El Niño is to blame for the great snowstorm in Colorado yesterday, according to the Rocky Mountain News. From the article, "The storm that dropped up to 20 inches of snow on Colorado's mountains Thursday is typical of the warm, wet autumn snowfalls that hit the state during El Niño years, a University of Colorado climatologist said Thursday. If history is a guide, the north-central mountains could see more such storms through November, before a drying trend sets in, Klaus Wolter said at the 17th annual South Platte Forum... "For years, the conventional wisdom among climatologists was that most El Niño- stoked storms miss Colorado, Wolter said. But Wolter analyzed 10 El Niño events between 1950 and 1999. He found that El Niño's effects were felt in different parts of the state during different seasons. Southeastern Colorado's Arkansas River Valley benefits from El Niño moisture year-round, Wolter said. The San Juans, like the north-central mountains, tend to be wet in the fall and dry in the winter during El Niño years. Along the Front Range, bet on wet during March, April and May. In nine out of the past 10 El Niños, spring was soggy along the Colorado Front Range, Wolter said. Since 1950, five of the 10 biggest snowstorms in Fort Collins and Boulder occurred during El Niño years. In Denver, it was six out of 10." Category: Colorado Water 7:18:57 AM     Early snowpack Here's a report on statewide snowpack from TheDenverChannel.com. They write, "Here are figures as of Oct. 26, with percentages of the 30-year average: Statewide - 207 percent; Gunnison Basin - 200 percent; Upper Rio Grande Basin - 159 percent; San Miguel-Dolores-Animas-San Juan Basin - 130 percent; Arkansas Basin - 210 percent; Colorado Basin - 227 percent; North Platte Basin - 206 percent; South Platte Basin - 273 percent; Yampa-White River Basin - 235 percent." Category: Colorado Water 6:44:18 AM     Fry-Ark water for Aurora? Here's an article about Aurora's potential costs to move water from the Arkansas River Basin from the Pueblo Chieftain. They write, "The price tag for Aurora to take water from the Arkansas Valley continues to rise, with the latest hit being a potentially expensive long-term contract to use Bureau of Reclamation reservoirs in the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project. The apparent cost of Aurora[base ']s proposed 40-year contract to store 10,000 acre-feet and exchange (a paper trade) up to 10,000 acre-feet would result in total payments between $24 million and $73 million over the life of the contract. The range represents the cumulative sum of either lowest offer made by Aurora or the highest by Reclamation at a negotiation session Wednesday. The two sides ended closer together, somewhere between $34 million and $65 million, by the end of the session. Both sides are studying those numbers, and the final amount of the contract depends on a number of variables. The cost per acre-foot of storage, size of discount for spills, the cost to exchange water, frequency of exchanges and operation and maintenance costs all will play into the eventual number. "The money would be used to pay down the amount of money owed to Reclamation by the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, about $86 million. Because of the growth of the district's tax base, particularly in El Paso County, the debt is scheduled to be paid off before 2024, eight years ahead of schedule. After the Southeastern debt is paid off, money paid to the Bureau of Reclamation would go toward the nonreimbursable parts of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project and continue to pay operating and maintenance, explained Tom Musgrove, Reclamation's Pueblo office manager. The total cost for constructing the Fry-Ark Project so far - the Arkansas Valley Conduit is not complete - is $585 million. The Southeastern district is paying back $134.7 million, or 23 percent; Fountain Valley Conduit, $64.8 million, or 11 percent; and Mount Elbert Power Plant, $147.5 million or 25 percent. The rest of the cost is assigned to flood control, fish and wildlife, recreation, conservation and other uses, Musgrove said... "The portion of the 2003 IGA with the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District requires Aurora to provide a small amount of water toward a replacement pool that would fend off calls by senior water rights holders against water users in that district. The Upper Ark IGA also holds Aurora to an aggressive water reuse plan. Aurora, a city of 300,000 east of Denver, is developing a $700 million reuse program on the South Platte River, which means physically capturing return flows from reusable water, rather than just exchanging them." Category: Colorado Water 6:31:46 AM     Deal for Arkansas River pollution? Denver Post: "State prosecutors have reached a deal with a federal agency to compensate Colorado for some of the mining industry's worst acid-water pollution in mountains near Leadville that produced billions of dollars of minerals. The agreement filed Thursday in U.S. District Court would have the Bureau of Reclamation, owners of the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel, pay $300,000 to Colorado in return for a promise not to seek more compensation for environmental destruction. Coloradans have 30 days to comment. A federal judge must approve the deal for it to take effect... "The $300,000 for damages so severe - dark toxic torrents once left the Arkansas River devoid of fish, with surrounding birdless meadows barren and waters discolored 60 miles downstream - is far less than the $65 million state prosecutors are seeking from private mining companies responsible for the bulk of the pollution in the area around Leadville. But this is the closest state attorneys have come to collecting compensation for damages under federal law. State lawsuits against private mining companies, filed under the federal Superfund law in 1983, still haven't been settled. One of the major polluters, Asarco, has declared bankruptcy. Mining companies that made millions in the 1950s and 1960s spewed thousands of gallons of acid-water waste laced with cadmium, zinc and other hazardous metals directly into the East Fork of the Arkansas River. The tunnel, built during the Korean War, carried waste away from mines so that mining could continue. Colorado prosecutors have been wrangling for three years with attorneys for the Bureau of Reclamation, which bought the drainage tunnel from mining companies in 1959 because federal water developers thought it would be useful for massive water projects. That left the federal developers responsible for pollution. A Sierra Club lawsuit forced them to build a wastewater- treatment plant in 1992... "Colorado officials plan to use the $300,000, if the deal is approved, to purchase land along the upper Arkansas River from the city of Aurora and set it aside for recreational activities, Baughman said. 'It's a good step forward.'" Category: Colorado Water 6:23:25 AM

© Copyright 2006 John Orr. Last update: 12/29/06; 12:22:34 PM.