Monday, June 2, 2008

Central Colorado water news This month's article is up at Colorado Central Magazine. Here's the link to the table of contents. Here's the Coyote Gulch links we used for the article. It looks like we missed posting the link to our May article. Here's the link to the May table of contents. Here are the Coyote Gulch links we used for the article. Category: Colorado Water 6:26:58 PM     Pioneer/Laird surface water litigation According to The Rocky Mountain News the hearing with the Colorado Ground Water Commission in the Pioneer/Laird surface water litigation has been postponed for a week while the litigants pursue a settlement. More Coyote Gulch coverage here. Category: Colorado Water 6:25:22 PM     Runoff From The Summit Daily News: "Denver Water announced Thursday that it's dropping outflow to the Lower Blue from 800 to 500 cubic feet per second. The main reason for the change is that the runoff from the South Platte drainage has been considerably less than projected. A late snow-melt season is the main factor, said Denver Water resource engineer Bob Steger. "This means we may have to bring more water through the Roberts Tunnel in June than we previously thought in order to fill our South Platte reservoirs," Steger said." Category: Colorado Water 6:22:30 PM     Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act grist: "The Senate just held a cloture vote on whether to proceed with debate on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. It needed 60 votes to proceed. And the Senate says ..." "Agreed to move forward, 74-14! "Climate change will now be open for debate on the Senate floor." Category: Climate Change News 6:05:22 PM     Lake Pueblo: Sedimentation Here's a short article about sedimentation in Lake Pueblo, from The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article: At the time Pueblo Dam was completed, experts expected the reservoir behind it to begin collecting sediment - a lot of it - as it drained an area of more than 4,500 square miles upstream. The initial prediction, based on a 29-year record at John Martin Reservoir at the time, was that 100,000 acre-feet of sediment would collect in Lake Pueblo over the next century. That would have diminished the storage capacity by one-third... ...a follow-up study in the 1990s found the real rate of sedimentation at Lake Pueblo is far less, about 41 percent of the expected loss of space. In 1993, a study by Reclamation found about 8,200 acre-feet of sediment - enough to displace 2.6 billion gallons of water - had accumulated during the first 19 years of operation at Lake Pueblo. That left a revised storage capacity of 349,940 acre-feet, of which 93,000 acre-feet are reserved for flood control. The loss amounted to about 400 acre-feet annually, rather than 1,000, and is not now considered a major problem. At that rate, it would take 250 years for 100,000 acre-feet of sediment to collect in the lake... There are two reasons why scientists think the sediments aren't piling up in Lake Pueblo. The first is that the Arkansas River flows through rocky canyons above Pueblo, with a few muddy tributaries along the way. Below Pueblo, the tributaries - the Fountain, Huerfano, Apishapa and Purgatoire - are larger and muddier. Second, the sediments in the reservoir appear to follow the same lines as the Arkansas River channel, escaping through any of the five outlets from the dam. After a flood, it's not unusual to see the water change color as the water comes out of the dam after muddy water entered the top of the reservoir 11 miles upstream. "The municipalities see it because turbidity will spike at the treatment plants," Vaughan said. Some of the sediments are staying in the lake, however. The Bessemer Ditch suffered from "clear water" immediately after the dam was built as its ditch through Pueblo began eroding. With federal help, the ditch through town was lined in the 1980s. Category: Colorado Water 6:33:31 AM     Runoff From 9News.com: "Fast-flowing floodwaters are rising quickly along several rivers in Colorado. Flood warnings are in effect for the Yampa River at Deerlodge Park and the Elk River near Milner in northwestern Colorado. As the rivers rise, some homes near the confluence of the Elk and Yampa Rivers will be threatened with flooding. Flood watches are in effect for the East River at Almont in Gunnison County and for the Arkansas River at Canon City...A few miles away, Elk Creek is flowing at more than 5,000 cubic feet per second, an all time high, overloading irrigation drains, flooding low lying ranch land, and some roads." In addition to the Elk River the USGS Water Watch website, this morning, shows several streams near flood stage including the Williams Fork, the Arkansas River near Leadville, Hunter Creek near Aspen, Cimmaron River and the Uncompahgre River. More runoff news from The Cañon City Daily Record. From the article: "River waters have slowly continued to rise and are expected to peak at minor flood stages on the Arkansas River by midday Monday. "There is no reason to panic," said Larry Walrod, lead forecaster and hydrology program manager with the National Weather Service in Pueblo. 'This is pretty typical during peak runoff. We should get to bank full levels with the river starting to come out of its banks a little bit.'" Category: Colorado Water 6:23:28 AM

© Copyright 2008 John Orr. Last update: 7/1/08; 7:54:55 AM.