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Wednesday, January 30, 2008
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La Plata county certainly knows about development and water supplies, along with treatment problems from unbridled growth. Here's a look at HB 08-1141 from The Durango Herald. From the article:
Forty years ago, the vast suburbs south of Denver were still rural pasturelands. Today, Douglas County is home to 175,000 people, and when many of them turn on their faucets, they pump groundwater out of the aquifer. That aquifer is drying up a little more each year, and now regional water authorities are looking to the Western Slope for "sustainable" water supplies. And in the next 30 years, another 3 million people are expected to move to Colorado, mostly to the Front Range, according to the state demographer's office. Now, a Western Slope lawmaker wants the developers building homes for the newcomers to prove they have a long-term water supply before counties can approve new subdivisions. But the bill is causing opposition among familiar east-west lines.
Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, wants to require developers to submit a report from a professional engineer to county commissioners certifying they have a sustainable water supply. The state water engineer also would have to provide a letter. House Bill 1141 would apply to developments of 50 homes or more. Curry's goal is to provide more information to local governments, she said. "I guess someone gets stuck holding the bag at some point when the water's not there," Curry said. At a Colorado Water Congress meeting last week, Curry admitted her bill faces a tough time. The extra work by the state engineer's office will cost money, she said. "So what's my choice? Do nothing, and we continue to overcommit? Or find a way to work through the cost issue? I'm not giving up yet," Curry said.
A lawmaker from Denver's southern suburbs opposes Curry. "I think the bill comes at a poor time, when we're trying to work through statewide water issues. We can't continue to divide the state," said Rep. Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch...However, state laws have no definition of a "sustainable" water supply, McNulty said. "Defining what is a sustainable water supply in a headwaters state like Colorado is increasingly difficult," he said.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
Category: Colorado Water
6:22:22 AM 
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Here's an update on legislation involving State Senator Greg Brophy from The Sterling Journal Advocate. From the article:
The potential drainage of eastern Colorado's Bonny Reservoir and livestock identification requirements are getting the attention of state lawmakers under the watchful eye of the government agencies involved. "We have to keep this bill moving so there will continue to be a focus in the Legislature on the problem we've got out there (on the eastern plains)," Brophy said of his Senate Bill 28 [SB 08-28, Concerning Reduction of Evaporative Losses at Bonny Reservoir, and, in Connection Therewith, Directing the Division of Wildlife and the Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation to Assign to the Colorado Water Conservation Board all Appropriative and Contractual Rights for Water Stored at Bonny Reservoir for Release for Instream Flow Purposes (pdf)], which would convert state-held storage rights in Bonny Reservoir to in-stream flow rights. Brophy told the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee that up to 5,000 acre feet of water are being lost every year from evaporation and seepage at Bonny, yet farmers on the High Plains (Ogallala) Aquifer face having their wells shut down so that Colorado can meet its obligations under the Republican River Compact with Nebraska and Kansas. The committee's chairman, Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, presided over a three-hour hearing on Brophy's bill last week, but tabled the measure without a vote to give the Department of Natural Resources more time to respond. Isgar announced, however, that the Colorado Water Conservation Board has recommended legislative approval of a $60 million loan to the Republican River Conservation District to purchase water and build a 12-mile pipeline to be used for compact compliance.
On Monday, DNR deputy director Mike King said the closure of Bonny Reservoir could result in a breach of contract with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which would cost Colorado millions of dollars. "In general, we are at a place where we support what Sen. Brophy is trying to do, but it's a complicated issue that involves four separate divisions in our department," King said. "We have to work through some of these legal issues before we can go down this path." King promised, however, that no wells in the Republican River Basin would be curtailed in the near future. "It will take 200 days to release the water, so we think we have a little time to work on these issues," King said. "There are no circumstances where any wells will be cut off before 2009." Approximately 4,000 wells irrigate about 500,000 acres in the triangular area between Interstates 70 and 76 and east of Akron to the state line. About 30,000 acres already have been dried up as part of the compliance effort.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
Category: Colorado Water
6:13:12 AM
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In many ways the Eagle River cleanup is a success story. Now new, more, water quality rules are being proposed that would allow native species to survive according to The Vail Daily (free registration required). From the article:
You could start seeing more trout in the polluted Eagle River if the state adopts new, more stringent caps on how much toxic metal can flow through the water. For more than 100 years, metals from the now defunct Eagle Mine, located just south of Minturn, spilled into the Eagle River, killing fish, tainting drinking water and eventually staining the river orange until cleanup by media conglomerate Viacom began in 1988. While the cleanup significantly improved water quality, metals like zinc, copper and cadmium still pollute the river. Certain species of trout, like rainbow and cutthroat, and a sensitive fish called sculpin, can't survive in the metals-laden stream and have disappeared from the most polluted areas of the river. A set of new standards, being proposed by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, would require a stretch of the Eagle River to be clean enough for sculpin, that now rare fish that's very sensitive to zinc. In more heavily polluted sections of the river closer to the mine, researchers predict it wouldn't be reasonable to clean up the water enough to protect the sculpin. They will instead push for standards that will protect rainbow trout and cutthroat trout, which are tougher than sculpin but still missing from the zinc-filled river...
Since the cleanup, there's been a continual debate as to how tough water quality standards should be and how much more cleanup is actually possible in those polluted stretches of the Eagle River. Healy said he'd hope to see tougher water quality standards that don't give up on sculpin. The goal of the standards should be to protect everything that's supposed to be living and growing in the river, he said. "The bottom line is we're looking for water quality that will support native species," Healy said. But to the proposed standards, it wouldn't be feasible to clean up the river to protect sculpin in most stretches of the river. If that's truly the case, and he sees the science to back that up, Healy said he'd be willing to support whatever will work. David Fulton, director of the Eagle River Watershed Council, said the group wasn't ready yet to comment on the proposed standards. This proposal will go before the Water Quality Control Commission in June, and it's possible that other proposals from different groups will also be presented.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"colorado rule"
5:54:30 AM
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The 2008 Colorado Farm Show opened yesterday in Greeley with a CSU researched urging farmers to to think about using water as a source of income, according to The Greeley Tribune (free registration required). From the article:
It might be possible to use water as a crop to add to farm income. That was the word from James Pritchett, an associate professor and agribusiness specialist with Colorado State University Extension, who discussed cropping alternatives available to farmers with limited water resources. Pritchett's presentation Tuesday afternoon was part of the opening day of the 2008 Colorado Farm Show which continues through Thursday at Island Grove Regional Park in Greeley.
With the onset of a drought, which hit Colorado hard beginning in 2000, and the shutdown of thousands of irrigation wells as a result, Pritchett and others have started research to find alternative crops or techniques farmers can use when they are faced with limited irrigation supplies. One of those methods involves growing alfalfa instead of corn or other crops, but instead of irrigating that crop in a traditional way -- during and after each cutting -- just putting water on it once or twice during a season. Early results have revealed that by irrigating once in the spring, then irrigating again after a second cutting, the overall quality of the crop may improve. "Anytime you pull water away from a crop, some of the quality may go away, but there may be a way to adjust that to maintain quality," Pritchett said. Alfalfa, he added, seems to be drought-tolerant to a certain extent. Limiting irrigation on alfalfa may free up some water that a farmer can then lease to another farmer or a municipality, thereby using water as a crop and seeing more income as a result than if were all used for irrigation purposes.
More coverage from The Greeley Tribune (free registration required). They write:
Often reflecting the optimistic mood of the night, Gov. Bill Ritter addressed about 100 people from the corn industry Tuesday night at the annual meeting of the Colorado Corn Growers Association at Island Grove Regional Park, 501 N. 14th Ave. in Greeley. At the banquet, the governor gave a 10-minute speech highlighting the advances in ethanol while addressing water concerns that many growers said are vital to their crops. "This is a really important part of our agricultural economy, and the whole idea of growing the corn/ethanol economy is something that helps with respect to our entire sort of economic situation," Ritter said. "So we're very focused on agriculture and making sure we keep that a stable part of our economy."[...]
Along with a speech stressing financial responsibility on the part of the state by Mark Hillman, former Colorado senate majority leader and treasurer, the topic of where farmers will get water in the future was also heavily discussed. "Really, we can help ourselves a great deal with conservation, with re-use, with shared use between municipalities and agricultural land," said Ritter after his speech. "And then we have to decide at what level we embark upon greater water storage." Yet, while some were grateful for his work on thus far, Glen Murray, a corn farmer from Brighton, was slightly miffed that the governor had nothing new to say about the issues concerning water use in the state. "He didn't really give us a lot of direction," Murray said. "I mean conservation is not new -- we've been talking about that for a long time. Storage is not new -- we've been talking about that for a long time."
Category: Colorado Water
5:34:22 AM
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Here's a report from Davos and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon about the looming water crisis worldwide reported by USA Water News. From the article:
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world recently to put the looming crisis over water shortages at the top of the global agenda this year and take action to prevent conflicts over scarce supplies. He reminded business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum that the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan was touched off by drought -- and he said shortages of water contribute to poverty and social hardship in Somalia, Chad, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Colombia and Kazakhstan. "Too often, where we need water we find guns instead," Ban said. "Population growth will make the problem worse. So will climate change. As the global economy grows, so will its thirst. Many more conflicts lie just over the horizon."
He said a recent report identified 46 countries with 2.7 billion people where climate change and water-related crises create "a high risk of violent conflict" and a further 56 countries, with 1.2 billion people "are at high risk of violent conflict." The report was by International Alert, an independent peacebuilding organization based in London. Ban told the VIP audience that he spent 2007 "banging my drum on climate change," an issue the Forum also had as one of its main themes last year. He welcomed the focus on water this year saying the session should be named: "Water is running out...We need to adapt to this reality, just as we do to climate change," he said. "There is still enough water for all of us -- but only so long as we can keep it clean, use it more wisely, and share it fairly." Ban said he will invite world leaders to "a critical high-level meeting" in September to focus on meeting U.N. development goals -- including cutting by half the number of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015 -- particularly in Africa. "We must mobilize world opinion and focus political will," he said. "What we did for climate change last year, we want to do for water and development in 2008."[...]
E. Neville Isdell, chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Co., said "this is an issue which ranks next to climate change. ... However, water has got lost as part of the climate change debate...The solutions are there," he said. "The awareness globally and the commitment globally is not there yet." Isdell urged the world to "raise the issue of water to the level that we have managed to raise the issue of climate change." He also issued "a clarion cry for engagement," especially with the agricultural sector which uses 70 percent of water resources, compared with 23 percent by industry and 7 percent by "humanity in general." Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman and CEO of Nestle SA, the world's biggest food and drink company, said "time is still on our side but time is running out, just like water is running out." He said the demand for biofuels is misguided because 9,000 liters of water are needed to produce one liter of biodiesel. "This can only work because water has no price," Brabeck said. "If we are going to use 1,950 cubic kilometers of water for biofuels when at the same time our ... water reservoirs are already depleted now, you can see that this strategy that we have today -- and which is backed by all major governments -- is not the right strategy...If you would allow market forces to define how to define the value of the water, we could make a big step forward," Brabeck said.
Category: Colorado Water
5:27:26 AM
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More storage is need in the Arkansas and South Platte River basinss. Here's a report about Lake Pueblo heading into spring from The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:
...the Bureau of Reclamation has a record number of contracts this year for excess-capacity storage in Lake Pueblo. Contracts for one-year excess capacity storage in Lake Pueblo total 39,745 acre-feet this year, along with 16,000 acre-feet covered under long-term contracts. All told, the 55,475 acre-feet is a 7.2 percent increase over last year, and potentially the most water ever stored from outside the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project. If all the accounts were filled - they usually aren't - more than one-fifth of the water in Lake Pueblo would be generated from outside the Fry-Ark Project.
What's understood by all those who store in the reservoir is that the temporary accounts, also called "if-and-when" because the storage is available only if and when space is available, may spill. Aurora, which last year signed a 40-year contract with Reclamation, would see its account spill first if the reservoir fills. On the other hand, the Pueblo Board of Water Works 25-year lease would be the last if-and-when account to spill. "We're still projecting a 4,000-5,000 acre-foot cushion," said Roy Vaughan, head of Pueblo's Reclamation office. "But if we get in a pinch, we might have to move more project water into the reservoir."
The storage rent for 2008 has already been paid, but a discount for the possibility of a spill is built into the cost of storage, accounting for the one year in six when the reservoir has filled. "We like to have the check in hand by the first of the year," Vaughan said. Last year, contracts generated $1.4 million, but Reclamation has not calculated this year's receipts yet. Users outside the boundaries of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District pay more. Users within the district, with the exception of Pueblo West, would have the opportunity to buy project water to replace spills. Outside users would lose the water or try to make a deal with other water users to recover the water. "That isn't our concern," Vaughan said. "The project comes first." Vaughan said it would be up to water users to determine how to deal with the potential of a spill.
Throughout the year, more water will be released from Lake Pueblo as well. After March 15, winter water storage will end, boosting flows in the Arkansas River below Pueblo. In addition, about 25,000 acre-feet of winter water stored in 2007 has to be evacuated from the reservoir by May 1. Accounts also are not kept full throughout the year, but can periodically be filled and emptied. Finally, there is the uncertainty of the weather over the next few months.
Right now, Lake Pueblo is at about 85 percent of its usable capacity of 256,949 acre-feet, and continues to store both winter water and water being moved from Turquoise and Twin Lakes to make space for Fry-Ark diversions...
Snowpack in both basins remains high and temperatures low, despite a statewide forecast for a dry, warm winter. As of Tuesday, snowpack was 140 percent of average in the Fry-Ark collection area and 150 percent for the Arkansas Basin. The real test comes in March and April, however, traditionally the months of greatest accumulation.
Category: Colorado Water
5:17:31 AM
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© Copyright
2008
John Orr.
Last update:
1/31/08; 9:26:23 AM.
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