Monday, March 26, 2007

Better whitewater feature for Frisco Here's an update on the Frisco Whitewater park from the Summit Daily News (free registration required). They write, "Construction is expected to begin in the fall to create a whitewater feature for kayakers in Ten Mile Creek near the trailhead parking lot. The ideal dates for use, because of the water run-off, will be from May through July and the goal is for it to be ready next spring, said Jocelyn Mills, senior planner with the Town of Frisco. To create the whitewater feature, rocks will be reconfigured and bank improvements are planned. Basically, it involves making a 'more fun feature for kayakers ... more of a challenge,' Mills said, adding that it will likely improve fishing as well. The project will not change the level or appearance of the creek, but it involves restructuring a fish habitat that was built there in the early 90s, she said... "Bidding is expected to take place this summer for this first phase, and Frisco Town Council has allocated $100,000 in the budget for the Ten Mile Creek Kayak Park." Category: Colorado Water 7:41:43 AM     Kiowa County to join Lower Ark District? Kiowa County is considering joining the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District according to the Pueblo Chieftain. From the article, "Kiowa County still is not certain joining the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District would add one drop of water to its lakes, but it may be willing to take the chance. County Commissioners Rod Brown and Donald Oswald, as well as Eads Councilman Cardon Berry, a former commissioner, met with the Lower Ark board last week to discuss possible inclusion in the district... "Pueblo County Director Loretta Kennedy said the first step for Kiowa County is to get consensus, possibly at a town-hall type meeting where benefits and problems of joining the district would be explained. Berry said there needs to be a clear benefit for the county to join the Lower Ark, and board members agreed. They still asked Kiowa County officials to determine if the county really wants to join. 'It fits our mission, but it's not fair to compromise our commitments to the five counties who formed the district,' [Lower Ark Chairman John Singletary] said. The district was formed at the height of the 2002 drought by Pueblo, Crowley, Otero, Bent and Prowers counties to protect water in the Arkansas Valley." Category: Colorado Water 7:36:47 AM     HB 1012 Governor Ritter has signed HB 07-1012 [pdf], Concerning the Protection of Water Rights Loaned to the Colorado Water Conservation Board for Instream Flow Purposes, and, in Connection Therewith, Modifying the Standards Applied in Change of Water Rights and Abandonment Proceedings, according to the Glenwood Springs Post Independent (free registration required). From the article, "The Roaring Fork River is finally in a better position to survive a drought like the one that reduced it to a trickle through Aspen in summer 2002. A bill signed this month by Gov. Bill Ritter makes it easier for water rights owners to 'loan' water to boost flows in rivers and streams. Under the new law, an owner won't be penalized for abandoning water rights when a loan is made, said Linda Bassi of the stream and lake protection section of the Colorado Water Conservation Board. Under the old law, loans were allowed but the water rights owners weren't credited with using that water. And in water law, water that isn't used is water that can be lost... "A broad coalition of water managers and conservation groups sought changes to the law. The Nature Conservancy helped build consensus on the desired changes and Colorado Water Conservation Board helped write the bill and testified in support of it. The new bill was sponsored by Rep. Frank McNulty in the state house and Snowmass Village Democrat Gail Schwartz in the senate. The heartbreaking saga of the Roaring Fork River in 2002 spurred the changes that ultimately made the water loans possible. Diversions and drought that summer reduced the river to a series of puddles connected by a trickle of water. The Salvation Ditch Co. was willing to bypass diversions so that water would remain in the river for the benefit of fish and wildlife. However, there was no mechanism to make it happen under state law. A law was passed the following year to make loans possible. The legislation said loans could be made for up to 120 days if the governor declared a drought. State Rep. Kathleen Curry, who represents the Roaring Fork Valley, sponsored a bill in 2005 to amend the law to eliminate the need for the governor to declare an emergency. The bill, which passed, allowed loans in any three out of 10 years. However, the law was still flawed because it didn't address the penalty that water donors could suffer for not technically using the water. That penalty was severe enough that it rendered the law useless. 'No one was taking advantage of it,' Curry said. This year's House Bill 1012 changes the status of loaned water.'[Lenders] won't get credit for it and they won't get a zero for it,' Bassi said." Category: Colorado Water 7:22:22 AM     Global warming? Here's an opinion piece refuting some of the conclusions that have been drawn from the IPCC report released earlier this year, from the Cato Institute. Read the whole column -- money quote, "Want my candid opinion about the summary? Ho-hum. Despite breathless news reports, there's very little in it that's new to anyone involved in global warming science. Instead, there have been dozens of stories about how scientists now believe there is a definite human influence on mean global surface temperature, and that, in recent decades, much of the warming can be attributed to the effect of increasing amounts of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere. Scientifically, this is tantamount to concluding that because Las Vegas is awash in poker chips and prophylactics, we now have high confidence that much of the recent decades' increase in economic growth has something to do with the prevalence of gambling and hanky-panky. In the case of the atmosphere, the evidence is even more suggestive. For longer than any active climate scientist has been alive, it has been known that increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide should result in a preferential warming of winter (versus summer) temperatures, a warming of the coldest nights of the winter more than the hottest days of summer, and a general cooling of the global stratosphere. All three have been observed for well over a decade. So much for the big 'news' in the summary. "Nor should this surprise: The biggest story in the summary was largely missed by the environmental media. The IPCC now projects, in its mid-range scenario for carbon dioxide emissions, that the maximum rise in global sea level in this century will be around 17 inches. That's a reduction of 30 percent from what was in the Third Scientific Assessment, published just six years ago. That's huge news, or it should be. But instead of listening to what the IPCC is saying, people are opting for the science fiction of Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth,' whose central disaster scenario is that Greenland sheds the majority of its ice this century, raising sea level as much as 20 feet. Much of Florida disappears, and the Mall in Washington goes under water. The U.N.'s sea-level projections 'include a contribution due to increased ice flow from Greenland and Antarctica, but these flow rates could increase or decrease in the future.'" More Coyote Gulch coverage of the IPCC report here. Category: 2008 Presidential Election 7:07:04 AM     Snowpack: Runoff, 'Probably about a month ahead of average' Here's a report about the early runoff over towards Aspen from the Aspen Daily News. From the article, "The Roaring Fork is roaring, Hunter Creek is a torrent, the Crystal is kissing its high waterline, the Colorado is running fat and the North Fork of the Gunnison is a roil of red mud. Thanks to the recent spate of warm temperatures and a lack of significant new snow, spring melt-off is swelling rivers well ahead of schedule this year, officials say, which could lead to trouble with water availability and higher fire danger later this summer if warm, dry weather continues. 'As far as the (stream) flows that are going now, we're probably about a month ahead of average. The type of flows we're seeing now we usually see at the end of April,' said Joe Sullivan, who serves as data chief and hydrologic technician for the United States Geological Survey's Grand Junction office of the Colorado Water Science Center. "The USGS tracks streamflows from sites scattered on waterways across the state. Real-time data from the USGS Web site has shown many area rivers and creeks -- including the Crystal, the Roaring Fork, the Colorado, Hunter Creek, and the North Fork of the Gunnison -- pushing or breaking record flows for this time in March over the last couple weeks of relatively high temperatures... "Since March 12, when the Upper Colorado River Basin peaked at 95 percent of the 30-year average, the basin snowpack dropped to 83 percent of average as of Friday -- then enjoyed a little bump with the weekend moisture -- according to the NRCS Web page. Snowpack in all river basins, including those that were riding high on surplus from a series of blizzards that clobbered the Front Range in early winter, have now dropped below average (some significantly), Gillespie said. Statewide the snowpack has dropped from 89 percent of average at its peak on March 12 to about 77 percent of average on March 23." More snowpack news from the Pueblo Chieftain. They write, "As of Saturday, the state[base ']s snowpack was 77 percent of the 30-year average. Many streams and rivers are already high due to the early snowmelt." Category: Colorado Water 6:58:28 AM     Collbran infrastructure leaking Collbran's infrastructure is leaking treated water at the rate of a million gallons per month, according to a report from the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. Losses from aging water infrastructure is not very well measured but repairs and replacement certainly has great potential for water savings across the nation. From the article, "Frank Jones, the town's mayor, said the recent deluge in energy-industry traffic rumbling over the community's aging water pipes has led to the town's waterworks bleeding out roughly a million gallons of water every month... "Collbran Public Works Supervisor Mark Sullivant said the city lost 14.5 million gallons of the 45 million gallons produced last year. That loss, he said, works out to a loss of about $70,000 in water fees. 'You could say that about a quarter of the year, the plant was running just to produce the water that was being leaked,' Sullivant said. He said a more detailed analysis of the town's pipe problems will emerge this week, when engineers finish their study of the town's infrastructural needs. This study, he said, will help the town of about 300 residents apply for a Colorado Department of Local Affairs energy-impact grant to pay for new piping and repairs. Jones said that while energy industry traffic has quickened the deterioration of the city's infrastructure, which dates back to the 1970s in some places, he was not upset about them driving through town." Category: Colorado Water 6:44:20 AM

© Copyright 2007 John Orr. Last update: 4/1/07; 9:52:10 AM.