Friday, December 8, 2006

House approves Udall's water reclamation bill YourHub.com: "The U.S. House of Representatives today passed a bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mark Udall (D-Eldorado Springs) calling for research and development of ways that water from oil and gas production could be used for agricultural purposes and to alleviate drought conditions. H.R. 5110, The More Water and More Energy Act, passed the House unanimously and is backed by officials from the oil and gas industry and the Bush administration." Category: Colorado Water 6:17:48 AM     Grand Junction raises water rates Grand Junction residents will see a hike in water rates next year, according to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. From the article, "Water customers who use 3,000 gallons or less a month will not see a change in the minimum rate of $7.50. The rate for users of 3,000 to 10,000 gallons a month will decrease 10 cents per 1,000 gallons. Residents who use more than 10,000 gallons a month will see their bills increase 10 cents per 1,000 gallons, while the largest-scale users of city water - residents who use more than 20,000 gallons a month - will see a rate increase of 30 cents per 1,000 gallons. The rate increase is expected to generate an additional $200,000, which will be used to pay for an increase in waterline replacements." Category: Colorado Water 6:13:12 AM     Southern Delivery System The proposed Southern Delivery System is stirring up some good old fashioned politics. According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, "Mayor Lionel Rivera wants Councilman Tom Gallagher barred from decisions about a proposed water pipeline because of Gallagher's involvement with a firm competing with Colorado Springs for water rights. At least one other council member, Margaret Radford, agrees that Gallagher has a conflict of interest. 'First of all, he needs to explain how it is he can serve two masters,' Radford said. Vice Mayor Larry Small said Gallagher 'needs to answer' the mayor's questions. The allegations contained in a Rivera memo are significant because it's the first time in recent memory a council member has formally accused another of a conflict of interest... "Gallagher is employed by H2O LLC, which is vying for water rights for a 48-inch pipeline upstream of Pueblo Reservoir in Fremont County that would pump water to Colorado Springs along Colorado Highway 115. If granted, it would prevent the city from installing a water line in the same location, Rivera said. In addition, two entities controlled by H2O are seeking permission for a hydropower project to which the city has officially objected in water court. The city has filed for the right to siphon water from the river at the same place, which Rivera said makes the city and H2O 'competing applications.'" More Coyote Gulch coverage here. Category: Colorado Water 6:08:17 AM     Almost everything that could be plugged with concrete long since has been Here's a review of a new book, Deep Water: The Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment from AlterNet. They write, "We forget now that the American environmental movement was born not in reaction to smog or to dirty water, but to dams. That John Muir, the great conservationist of the first half of the twentieth century, founded the Sierra Club to fight the dam at Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy, and that David Brower, Muir's successor, built the club into the prototype of modern activism in the struggles over dams at Dinosaur National Monument, Glen Canyon, and the Grand Canyon. We forget because our big-dam days are over -- almost everything that could be plugged with concrete long since has been. But the rest of the world is still deep in these fights. In fact, in many places they still define both environmentalism and development, as journalist Jacques Leslie's superb account." Category: Colorado Water 6:02:28 AM     Kempthorne signs Platte River Cooperative Agreement - Whooping Cranes are dancing in the streets Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has signed off on the Platte River Cooperative Agreement, according to the Rocky Mountain News. They write, "Kempthorne's approval sets in motion a program 'to pool resources and expertise' across the river basin to restore wildlife habitat while preserving the water needs of farmers, according to Mark Limbaugh, the Interior Department's assistant secretary for water and science. 'This agreement has been several years in the making, and represents a tremendous amount of collaboration by many who are concerned about the future of the species and the future of water projects,' Limbaugh said. The stretch of the Platte River in central Nebraska, near Kearney, is home to a vast array of wildlife, including migrating whooping cranes. Threatened and endangered species, such as the piping plover, least tern and pallid sturgeon, also depend on the region's complex river ecosystem. Flows in that stretch of the river have fallen sharply over the past several decades, in part because of heavy urban and agricultural use in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming. Spring flows that once poured through the area are now trapped in high-elevation Colorado reservoirs. Thus, rare species of wildlife have come under the protection of federal law, which requires the states to take steps to improve habitat." Category: Colorado Water 5:54:48 AM

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