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Wednesday, February 6, 2008
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As it turns out we didn't have to go Mona Shaw on Comcast after all. Yesterday's reconfiguration of our network went seamlessly. After the Comcast technician arrived at Gulch Manor Mrs. Gulch phoned us and we flew home from work early to offer assistance and learn about the new gear they were installing.
The tech was finished with his part when we arrived but we made him stick around while we reconfigured our router, entering the shiny new static IP number and other stuff we really don't understand. We then tested on the home network. Everything passed.
It was now time to test access from the Internet. We reconfigured the iPhone to use the Edge network and we were able to hit Coyote Gulch by IP number. The last test was to hit the Radio server from the web so that we can post when we're on the road. That passed also.
The tech was kind enough to leave his cell phone number on our paperwork. "Call me if you're not satisfied with tech support again," he said. As it turns out he was part of the old guard from the days of Mile High Cable. He knew about my static IP but claimed it was never static but was called "persistent" by AT&T. When we showed him our notes from January 25th, 2004, when a Comcast tech left me voicemail with my two static IPs he left the subject alone. 4 techs and 3 different stories as to why we had a static IP on the 24 network for four years. It really doesn't matter now. Performance seems to be fine.
Everyone from Comcast, since we called the sales rep last Friday, was helpful and seemed to want to solve the problem. The rep even called us the same day, only a couple of hours after we left voicemail, and it was Super Bowl weekend. We especially want to thank the dude that called Saturday with young children you could overhear in the background. That was above and beyond. We're also happy with the credit they've allowed us. It'll pay for the first 20 months of charges for our static IP.
A couple of hours later our DNS hosting service had changed our record and http://coyotegulch.net was resolving. Tonight will be one week since the outage.
We're still going to test Qwest DSL and look into the Dish network. Things are not as urgent now however. 
5:57:49 PM 
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State legislators can't help themselves when it comes to trying to work around prior-appropriation and other issues if they see a benefit to constituents. Here's a report on this week's activities from The Sterling Journal Advocate. They write:
The House on Monday debated two bills sponsored by Rep. Mary Hodge, D-Brighton, in her attempt to get some relief to mostly hay and vegetable growers in Weld, Adams and Morgan counties whose wells have been shut down for lack of augmentation plans. One bill passed; the other didn't. Opponents had the same arguments on both -- they upset Colorado's 130-year-old doctrine of prior appropriation. The forbidden practice of "water speculation" even was mentioned a couple of times.
Hodge's [HB 08-1030, Concerning the Exemption of Depletions from Pumping that Occurred Prior to 1974 (pdf)], which forgives irrigators of depletions made before 1974 when the augmentation rules were put into place, won preliminary approval on a stand-up vote with more than the 33 votes required for final passage. Her HB [08-]1044, however, was declared lost in another stand-up vote, called a division. It would have allowed ditch companies and others to loan excess augmentation credits to other users on the same stream and in the same year without going to water court.
"The second one was harder to explain so it could not be as easily understood," Hodge said. "The first was an issue of fairness. There was no requirement for augmentation prior to 1974, and it only takes away about 700 acre feet of water per year." Hodge said both measures grew out of last summer's South Platte River task force, which Gov. Bill Ritter appointed after about 400 wells were curtailed. Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, supported both bills, but Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, was among those who split their votes on the two bills. "The first one was a small minnow in the pond and was consistent with what we have done when we exempted the gravel pits," Sonnenberg said. "But with the other bill, I worry about the transparency of what people are doing with their water," he explained. "If we can trade those (excess augmentation credits), the people don't know if they have been damaged until the damage is already done." Boulder Democratic Reps. Alice Madden and Jack Pommer, and Rep. Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, led the charge against both measures. Sterling, Boulder and Highlands Ranch were among the objectors in allowing the wells to continue pumping. "Every ounce of water in the South Platte ought to be accounted for," McNulty said. "Depletions that are caused by pumping ought to be augmented so that senior rights are not hurt."
Similar arguments are expected on pending Senate bills from District 1 Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, and Sen. Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont.
Brophy's [SB 08-053, Concerning Expansion of the Definition of Designated Ground Water, and, in Connection Therewith, Defining Designated Ground Water to Include Ground Water the Depletion of Which Takes More Than One Hundred Years to Affect the Neares Surface Water (pdf)], scheduled for its first committee hearing on Thursday, would change the definition of "designated ground water," which does not require augmentation, to include water that takes more than 100 years for depletions to affect the nearest surface water.
Shaffer's [SB 08-136, Concerning Authorization of Delayed Replacement of Well Depletions Pursuant to a Plan of Augmentation During
the Nonirrigation Season (pdf)], which has yet to be scheduled for a hearing, would give the state engineer's office the ability to allow well users to pump out of priority during the non-irrigation season without required augmentation, if they could prove the water would be available to downstream users when needed.
Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, also has introduced a bill [SB 08-119, Concerning a Limited Exemption for Water Collected From Residential Rooftops (pdf)], that would allow the use of cisterns or other catchment systems to collect and store rainwater from residential homes of up to 3,000 square feet of roof space. The captured water then could be used for household purposes, fire protection, watering livestock and irrigating up to one acre of lawns and gardens. "This is my first water bill, so wish me luck," Romer said. "Many in the rural community already are doing it, but need to do it legally. This is a good bill that will be friendly to the environment, and in the long term create appropriate water storage without building a lot of new projects."
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
Category: Colorado Water
6:48:40 AM
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Here's an update on Colorado's snowpack from The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:
It's surprising to professional weather observers, whose forecast for area winter moisture was bleak in November. A La Nina condition, cooling temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, continues and usually means drier, hotter weather for the Southwestern United States. The National Atmospheric and Oceanographic Administration still says March, April and May will bring above average heat and below average moisture to Colorado...
Statewide, snowpack is at 134 percent of average, and in Southern Colorado, it is above 150 percent of average. Snowpack is the greatest determinant for spring runoff, which is expected to be 130 percent of average or greater for the Arkansas River Basin this year, and equally high in the Roaring Fork Basin, which supplies the water which is imported to the valley each year...
December moisture in the Arkansas River and Rio Grande valleys turned out to be 300 percent above average, and January brought another round of storms. February also has started with a big, wet system moving across the state and leaving piles of snow behind. Cold temperatures have helped the snow to linger in the high country. While it has compacted, the snowpack has not evaporated from warm temperatures or been subject to sublimation by winds. In the southwest corner of the state, accumulations at lower elevations remain at 6-8 feet, with more than 10 feet at the highest measured sites. Along the Continental Divide, snow is piled 2-4 feet deep at lower sites, with 4-6 feet at most higher elevations. The snow is also loaded with moisture, with a foot or more of moisture, called snow water equivalent, at most area Snotel sites, and a whopping 23.4 inches - from more than 7 feet of snow - at South Colony near Westcliffe. At Leadville, the headwaters of the Arkansas River, observers say there are about 3-4 feet of snow even on flat, open stretches near town, said Pete Juba, water resources manager for the Pueblo Board of Water Works. "Even at Clear Creek Reservoir (in northern Chaffee County) we measured 36 inches, after it's compacted," Juba said. "There's a lot of snow up there."
More snowpack news from The Fort Collins Coloradoan. They write: "Statewide, the snowpack was 134 percent of average on Monday, ranging from a low of 100 per-cent of the 30-year average in the South Platte Basin to a high of 178 percent in the Rio Grande Basin. The North Platte Basin was at 103 percent, the Yampa and White River 110 percent, Colorado River 127 percent, Gunnison 152 percent, Arkansas 165 percent and San Miguel, Dolores, Animas and San Juan 167 percent."
Here's an update on Southwestern Colorado from The Cortez Journal. From the article:
In terms of liquid precipitation, or what the snow amounts to once it's turned into liquid, Cortez is at 179 percent of normal year to date, [Jim Andrus] said. Temperatures are also about 10 degrees below average, Andrus said. Normal daytime highs are in the 40s with lows in the 20s for this time of year. "The jet stream has carved out a persistent trough over the western United States, and so that's brought a lot of cold, wet air into the Southwest," Andrus said. "And so that pattern of having this persistent low pressure trough in the upper atmosphere of the southwestern U.S. - that's made for a cold, wet winter for us."According to Snotel data from Scotch Creek, Lizard Head, El Diente, and Lone Cone stations, the snowpack as of Monday is 168 percent of average, said Mike Preston, general manager of the Dolores Water Conservancy District...Preston said he is positive that McPhee reservoir will fill this year and meet all its calls for water."
Category: Colorado Water
6:17:00 AM
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© Copyright
2008
John Orr.
Last update:
3/1/08; 10:16:27 AM.
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