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Monday, March 24, 2008
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DARCA: "A meeting and participatory workshop, Ditch Hazards Awareness & Safety, will be held Monday, April 14 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Ramada Inn, 752 Horizon Drive in Grand Junction, Colo. One of the largest ditch companies in Colorado, the Grand Valley Irrigation Company (GVIC) of Grand Junction, will hold this free, public educational workshop focused on safety issues and drowning prevention along and in the service areas of the ditch. The evening workshop includes the history and workings of GVIC, a session on the legal aspects of safety, and a participatory workshop to create proactive steps to prevent mishaps and drowning. Officials from GVIC, the Ditch and Reservoir Company Alliance, the City of Grand Junction and Mesa County will be present to work with people to create plans. Representatives from other ditch and reservoir companies from all over Colorado are encouraged to attend so that they will be able to adopt similar educational workshops for their respective ditch companies. All residents concerned about ditch safety issues are invited to attend this free workshop. Please contact the Grand Valley Irrigation Company at (970) 242-2762 or DARCA at (970) 412-1960 for more details."
Category: Colorado Water
6:37:31 AM 
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From The Boulder Daily Camera: "With the town's spring election just over a week away, a newly formed group opposed to putting fluoride in Erie's drinking water is planning a mass-mail campaign. The Committee for Clean Water in Erie, formed in the past couple of weeks, is planning to mail out literature addressing the dangers of fluoridated water. Susan Augustoni, a three-year resident of Erie and a member of the nascent group, said it's not only a health issue but a matter of preserving choice for the town's 16,000 residents."
Category: Colorado Water
5:58:04 AM
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Here's Part II of The Pueblo Chieftain's series on Colorado Springs' proposed Southern Delivery System. From the article:
Pueblo County is touched by all alternatives in the Southern Delivery System, either through impact during construction or return flows down Fountain Creek. While the issues on Fountain Creek have spurred lawsuits, improvements by Colorado Springs, collaborative vision groups, a federal study and a water quality study, there is one area of the county that looks favorably on the possibility that the Southern Delivery System would come out of Pueblo Dam...
Pueblo West signed on to the SDS project last year, but only if the pipeline comes from the dam. Pueblo West would tap into the SDS pipeline and would gain the capacity to draw an additional 18 million gallons per day from Lake Pueblo. The community, which eventually will double in population, has the capacity to pump 12 million gallons per day now, and has permits for a river intake consisting of a coffer dam and pumping plant. Tapping into SDS gives Pueblo West the ability to move the additional water it needs at less cost, said Don Saling, manager of the Pueblo West Metro District...
Even with SDS, the river intake would be built, although to a smaller scale. For Pueblo West, SDS is more cost-efficient because the community will pay an incremental cost of $1 million to tap into the pipeline. The river intake is expected to cost about $4 million. None of the other alternatives have either a positive or negative effect for Pueblo West, Saling said. The Fremont County options would reduce Arkansas River flows, but are not expected to reduce the quality of water coming from Lake Pueblo. Taking water from any point below the dam would not disrupt Pueblo West's supply. The benefits of drawing water from SDS outweigh disruption from construction of the project's pipeline, Saling said. "It's going in along a corridor that already has power lines and the Fountain Valley Conduit," Saling said. "There will be a minor inconvenience to residents, but it shouldn't take new property." None of the pumping stations along the route are expected to be on property in Pueblo West.
County commissioners have taken a different tack on the project by adopting a land-use policy in late 2005 that would regulate many of the effects of the water project. Authorized under 1974's HB1041, the regulations could cover a range of effects from the size of the pumping plant at the dam, the impact of a pipeline under the Arkansas River, crossing numerous county roads, impacts on property owners and the effect of return flows on Fountain Creek. So far, Colorado Springs has not applied for a 1041 permit, but instead has been fighting it in court. Shortly after Pueblo County adopted its regulations, Colorado Springs filed a lawsuit in El Paso County District Court saying Pueblo County had no authority to regulate SDS. Pueblo County insisted on moving the matter to Pueblo District Court and prevailed in a venue case that reached the state Supreme Court. Last year, Pueblo Chief District Judge Dennis Maes ruled in favor of the county. In January, Colorado Springs appealed that decision and the case again appears to be climbing the ladder that leads to the Supreme Court. Colorado Springs is attempting, through the appeal, to limit Pueblo County's authority to the construction of the project itself, and not the associated increase in return flows. It is not known how long the lawsuit could delay SDS.
One of the points raised by Pueblo County in the suit is that Colorado Springs agreed, in a March 2004 Intergovernmental Agreement with Pueblo City Council and Pueblo Board of Water Works, that it would be subject to Pueblo County land-use regulations. That IGA is reinforced in the May 2004 six-party IGA. In its appeal, Colorado Springs argued the county had no authority to enforce the IGA, however...
The Bureau of Reclamation plans to host six open houses on the Southern Delivery System in the next two weeks. All will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Officials will be available to answer questions and the public will have the opportunity to comment on SDS.
April 1: Buena Vista Community Center, 715 E. Main St., Buena Vista.
April 2: Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center, 210 N. Santa Fe Ave., Pueblo.
April 3: Koshare Indian Museum, 115 W. 18th St., La Junta.
April 8: Fountain-Fort Carson High School, 900 Jimmy Camp Road, Fountain.
April 9: Leon Young Service Center, 1521 Hancock Expressway, Colorado Springs.
April 10: Quality Inn, 3075 E. U.S. 50, Canon City.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
Category: Colorado Water
5:52:53 AM
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From The Aspen Times (free registration required): "Pitkin County is calling in a ringer to help solve the beaver problem along Brush Creek near the town of Snowmass Village. Beavers are cutting off water flowing to a historic agricultural ditch running through some 232 acres of county open space along Brush Creek. For years, and still in many parts of the state, the solution to beaver problems was violent: either killing off beavers or destroying their dams.
More from the article:
Enter Skip Lisle, owner of Beaver Deceivers International based in Grafton, Vt. Lisle, who has a masters in wildlife management, has been "deceiving beavers" for years and recently was featured on "Animal Planet" for his non-lethal strategies for human/beaver coexistence. For a fee of about $1,000, county officials have contracted with Lisle for two presentations March 25, first to a joint meeting of the Pitkin Board of County Commissioners and the Open Space and Trails board at 11 a.m., then in the evening for a public event sponsored by the Roaring Fork Conservancy at 7 p.m. at the Eagle County Community building in El Jebel. Lisle will present a slide show about beaver habitat and hold a discussion alongside Sherri Tippie from Denver-based Wildlife 2000. "Beavers are trying to restore these sites to their natural condition," Lisle said by phone from his Vermont home Friday. "Losing beavers is damaging to ecosystems."[...]
Beavers are "hard-wired" to react and dam up any flowing water, whether in a narrow culvert or an open field, Lisle said. He installs what he called a "flow device," which essentially sneaks water around beaver dams. In narrow culverts, a common spot for human/beaver confrontation, Lisle installs a fencing system that keeps beavers away from the flowing water. In open fields, such as the area along Brush Creek, Lisle installs a pipe system that draws water from far upstream of a beaver dam and releases the water below, essentially fooling the beavers and limiting their dam building...
Beavers are programmed to look for leaks at the dam site only, Lisle said, and never think to look for the pipe upstream. That's why the system works, and why beavers are so easily deceived, Lisle said. Lisle said the expense of any flow device varies with every site, but Lisle said costs range from $1,000 to $5,000 for a basic flow device. Once installed, the pipe and filter would require little maintenance and lasts for decades, Lisle said. Gary Tennenbaum, land steward for Pitkin County Open Space and Trails, said it was the Brush Creek beaver battle that has raised the issue, but that Lisle could help with other areas in a valley as well. "If we could find a solution that works, it could be precedent-setting," Tennenbaum said. "We're just trying to find a way for [neighboring ranchers] to get their water and to allow the beavers to live."
Category: Colorado Water
5:44:07 AM
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© Copyright
2008
John Orr.
Last update:
4/1/08; 8:16:25 AM.
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