Colorado Water
Dazed and confused coverage of water issues in Colorado









































































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Friday, December 22, 2006
 

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The Colorado Water Conservation Board is gearing up for 2007, according to the Montrose Daily Press. From the article, "The prospect of pumping water to the Front Range from Blue Mesa Reservoir is one of a host of transbasin diversion projects proposed for study by a state agency in the upcoming year. When the Colorado Water Conservation Board makes its budget request to the state Legislature in January it is expected to ask for $500,000 to study six projects designated by a committee of the Statewide Water Supply Initiative. The idea of diverting water out of the Gunnison Basin has long been opposed by local officials, but Rick Brown, the board's section chief for Intrastate Water Management and Development, said the projects are being looked at to meet what the statewide study predicts will be a 20 percent shortfall across the state by 2030. The other projects looked at by the study would also include agricultural water transfers in the Arkansas and South Platte basins, a pipeline from Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Wyoming, and the Colorado River Reconnaissance Study - also known as the Big Straw. Pumpbacks from the Green Mountain Reservoir and the Yampa River would also be examined...

"Steve Glazier, water director for the Crested Butte-based High Country Citizens' Alliance served on the technical gap committee. Glazier said there are unresolved issues in the basin - such as the court case for the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park's water right and securing in-stream flows for endangered species - that make moving ahead with a study impractical. He believes the Gunnison Basin roundtable, which was set up along with eight other roundtables by the Legislature in 2005, should have been consulted by Brown and the CWCB. 'If he wants to maintain the trust and respect of this basin, he should have taken this to the roundtable before he took it to his own board.' Brown said the technical gap committee, which identified the proposals, felt it was important to go ahead with the study despite the uncertainties."

Category: Colorado Water


6:20:27 AM    

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According to the Colorado Springs Gazette the Springs' City Council is moving to keep councilman Tom Gallagher off the negotiations around the Southern Delivery System. From the article, "The Colorado Springs City Council is poised to order an independent investigation today if Tom Gallagher doesn't admit to a conflict of interest and recuse himself from a city water project. Gallagher welcomes the inquiry, saying he hopes it delves into issues he's raised about the Southern Delivery System, a $1 billion, 43-mile water pipeline from Pueblo Reservoir, and its alternatives. 'I would dearly love for the investigation to encompass the questions I've been raising since 2003,' he said, 'because that's the basis for the belief that I have a conflict.' The standoff will be today at a meeting of the Utility Board, which comprises the council...

"Gallagher was listed as the director of project development of H2O Providers in an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for water rights upstream of Pueblo Reservoir. Gallagher isn't paid by H2O and doesn't work for H2O, but the firm's owner, Mark Morley, is the brother of Jim Morley, who, with his wife, Robin, owns Engineering & Surveying, which employs Gallagher. Mark Morley wants to secure a water right that would power a wholesale hydroelectric plant at Brush Hollow Reservoir. Morley said the plant wouldn't compete for Colorado Springs Utilities customers. The city proposes a pipeline from Pueblo Reservoir to Colorado Springs. But the city also has filed for water rights upstream from the Pueblo Reservoir, just like H2O, because that point of diversion is among options under consideration by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The city officially opposes H20's water rights submittal. Rivera contends that because the applications compete for the same water rights, Gallagher shouldn't participate in council sessions that deal with the pipeline project."

Category: Colorado Water


6:08:26 AM    

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The snowstorm this week helped with snowpack (Colorado's primary fresh water reservoir), according to the Rocky Mountain News. From the article, "When the flakes started flying early Wednesday, Colorado's statewide snowpack was about 3 percent below average. By Thursday afternoon, the tally had jumped to 20 percent above average...

"Colorado snowpack expressed as a percent of average: Gunnison, 132; Colorado, 119; South Platte, 131; Yampa, 100; Arkansas, 111; Rio Grande, 117; San Juan, 128."

Category: Colorado Water


5:59:11 AM    


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