Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Coyote Gulch Outage? The reboot worked. You have to love OSX (and UNIX). 7:43:41 AM     Coyote Gulch Outage? We're experiencing problems with our news aggregator. We're going to attempt a remote reboot of the server back in Denver. Hopefully we'll be back online soon. 7:04:34 AM     Damming of rivers contributing to ecological homogenization Here's an article about the ecological effects of dam building on river systems from YubaCity.net. They write, "Tens of thousands of dams on U.S. rivers are having a detrimental effect on the biodiversity of aquatic and riparian ecosystems across the nation, according to a Colorado State University report published this week in the journal, 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.' Understanding the cumulative effects of dams in modifying regionally distinct ecosystems is critical to conservation on a national scale, said LeRoy Poff, associate professor in biology and the graduate degree program in ecology at Colorado State. Poff and his research team examined years of U.S. Geological Survey stream-flow records for periods before and after the damming of 186 medium-sized rivers. The sample included 16 hydrologically-distinctive regions across the country over the course of the project, and used stream-flow records of undammed rivers as a control. They found that dams have caused historically-distinct regions to become much more similar, creating more homogeneous habitat conditions across the country... "Dams can modify the timing of ecologically critical periods of high-and low-river flows, Poff said. Native aquatic and plant species have adapted to these long-standing patterns of natural variation of high-and low-flow; eliminating them creates conditions that puts native species at a disadvantage and favors the spread of invasive species. The study found one dam about every 30 miles on rivers that were part of the research data." Category: Colorado Water 5:59:31 AM     Will-O-Wisp 1041 hearing postponed From the Fairplay Flume, "Park County released a public notice around noon on March 5 that the Will-O-Wisp Metropolitan District's water special use 1041 permit hearing had been postponed again at the request of the district. The hearing had been scheduled for March 6 at the Park County Board of County Commissioners hearing room in Fairplay. The 1041 permit hearing has been postponed twice since it began on December 6, when the metro district presented the permit application The Dec. 6 hearing could not be finished that day, was initially continued to Jan. 24, and then it was later continued to to March 6. The district's water system proposal has raised interest in the community partly because it would include the diversion of water from Elk Creek. The water permit is needed before Will-O-Wisp Metro District can begin expansion of its water supply to serve the Tanglewood Reserve Planned Unit Development just west of Pine Junction." 5:48:58 AM     Tr-State shares of Amity Canal water Here's an article about Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association's plans for the water they've purchased on the Amity Canal, from the Pueblo Chieftain. From the article, "An electrical power supplier plans to file for a change of use on shares of Amity Canal water it is purchasing in July, but only after working out an agreement with the ditch company on how it will operate within the ditch. The Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association owns or has contracts for 46 percent of the shares on the Amity Canal, or enough to nearly meet its goal of acquiring 20,000 acre-feet of water in the Arkansas Valley. Tri-State plans to build two coal-fired power plants near Holly within the next 12-15 years, and the water it has acquired should yield more than sufficient water. Tri-State would build a terminal storage reservoir and possibly use well-field storage to keep at least a year's supply at hand to operate the power plant. The association supplies electric power to 44 cooperatives in four states and plans to phase in power plants in Eastern Colorado as they are needed, Tri-State engineer Terry Nelson told Amity shareholders Monday at their annual meeting... "In the next few months, Tri-State has pledged to have more meetings with the board and individual groups of shareholders to hammer out details of an agreement by June. After that, Tri-State plans to file an application in Division 2 water court to change the use of its Amity shares to industrial. Agricultural, augmentation and storage uses will be included in the decree as well, but there are no plans to add municipal use, Nelson said. Tri-State could benefit the Amity by making physical improvements to the system, using storage more efficiently and providing some excess water for irrigation, Nelson said. Amity plans to take its water in rotation and will remove only the consumptive use of the water, leaving the canal and the river whole, he said." Category: Colorado Water 5:39:46 AM

© Copyright 2007 John Orr. Last update: 4/1/07; 9:40:54 AM.