Coyote Gulch's Colorado Water
The health of our waters is the principal measure of how we live on the land. -- Luna Leopold



























































































































































































































































Central Colorado Water Conservancy District

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Sunday, June 8, 2008
 

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Alamosa is making headway in locking down their water system after the salmonella outbreak earlier this spring, according to The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

City Manager Nathan Cherpeski said Wednesday the city may never know the contamination point for the salmonella outbreak that initially spread through the municipal water supply before sickening more than 400 people in March and April. The city has repaired one of its water tanks and taken a ground-level reservoir offline since the epidemic. By state order, it's also kept the chlorine level in the water system at 1.7 milligrams per liter and continued testing for both bacteria contamination and maintenance of chlorine levels. But it is now moving to shore up potential points of contamination of the city's water supply in restaurants and large food preparation sites.

City Manager Don Koskelin explained that cross-contamination can occur in instances where there is a drain hose running from an ice machine to a sink or hose running from a sink to a mop bucket. "Those are potential sources of cross connection if there's a pressure drop in the building," he said. While many of those sites have cross-connection control devices, such as a reduced pressure valve on a tap, the city will send out notices to those that don't require installation within 90 days. "It's not going to happen overnight and there are substantial costs involved both for the city and the property owners," Koskelin said. The city would have to devote much more time to inspections, while business owners would have to pay between $200 and $300 for the device in addition to annual inspection costs of $60 to $70. Currently the city does not have an ordinance that allows them to conduct such an inspection inside private property, but Koskelin said he hoped to have an ordinance before council by July.

More Coyote Gulch coverage here.

Category: Colorado Water
9:22:56 AM    


From The International Atomic Energy Agency: "Amid heightened international interest in nuclear energy, countries are paying closer attention to a finite resource that helps to make nuclear power possible: uranium. A report released today finds that new discoveries and re-evaluations of known conventional uranium resources will be adequate to supply nuclear energy needs for at least 100 years at present consumption level. Growing demand and higher prices have spurred greater investment in exploration and led to larger identified conventional uranium resources over the past two years. These are among the many findings in Uranium 2007: Resources, Production and Demand, the world´s most comprehensive publication on uranium. Colloquially known as the Red Book, it tracks present uranium supply and demand and assesses market dynamics to 2030 and beyond."

Thanks to beSpacific for the link.

Category: 2008 Presidential Election
9:02:13 AM    


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grist: "A quick post-mortem on this week's vote on the Climate Security Act, which was pulled from the Senate floor on Friday after its sponsors fell short of the 60 votes needed to proceed to final debate. I think I can safely sum it up in one word: progress. There's the obvious marker of a majority of the Senate -- 54 senators in all -- voicing support for moving forward with the bill. Forty-eight voted for cloture, and another six offered written statements of support. Only 36 voted against. But there's another important part of progress that's less obvious, what a colleague of mine calls 'clearing the underbrush' -- many in Congress don't focus on the finer details of legislation until it is set for a vote. In the past few weeks, Senate offices that never before explored the weeds of climate policy took a very deep dive."

Category: Climate Change News
8:49:44 AM    


From The Pueblo Chieftain: "A combination of snowmelt in the Rockies and Thursday's thunderstorms across the Southeastern Plains have caused the Arkansas River to rise to near flood stage here...On Friday the river was flowing at about 9.4 feet in La Junta - a little below flood stage which is 10 feet. The River Forecast Center reports that the Arkansas River in La Junta should peak at 10.1 feet today and then begin to decrease by Sunday...The river in Canon City is running at about 8.7 feet, just below the 9-foot flood stage and is predicted to stay below the flood stage through Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service."

Category: Colorado Water
8:34:41 AM    


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Here's an update on the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel and the pipeline that will be used to pump water from the LDMT to the Reclamation treatment plant at the mouth of the tunnel, from The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

Because the pond was constructed below grade in a gulch, it began intercepting water several days before the pump test, and leaks were noticed at the toe of the earthen dam, Commissioner Mike Hickman said. The pump test continued for 48 hours, even after commissioners questioned the action, and completely filled the pond. "There was contaminated water running out the bottom of it and through the overflow pipe," Hickman said. In a news release, the EPA downplayed any danger from contamination. "The water does not pose a threat to health or the environment because it is a relatively low volume, the discharge was of short duration, and the water mixed with snowmelt flowing down Evans Gulch," the news release said.

More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here.

Category: Colorado Water
8:30:05 AM    


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The 60th Annual FibArk Boat Race kicks off this week, Thursday through Sunday, according to The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

World-class whitewater and six decades of history will splash together when the FIBArk Boat Race event takes to the Arkansas River Thursday through Sunday. "The river gods are giving us quite the present for the 60th anniversary Blue Paddle FIBArk whitewater festival," said Lee Hart, a Salida promoter. The river was running above 3,000 cubic feet per second through Salida last week and high runoff promises to continue this week. The high water runoff is created by the melting of ample winter snow. FIBArk will showcase some serious whitewater thrills from the Pine Creek Boater X to the freestyle rodeo and even a homemade boating event called the Hooligan Race. For the fourth year, the Pine Creek Boater X rafting event, slated for 10 a.m. Thursday, features racers competing head to head as they zoom through the Class V Pine Creek Rapid north of Buena Vista. The race is in extremely difficult, fast water and tests both speed and agility of the paddlers. A raft rodeo, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, features boatmen buckaroos attempting to spin, high side and ride their rafts through the raging surf in the Salida Whitewater Park near the F Street Bridge. Prizes are given for "nothing but stupid stuff," according to organizers, especially those who provide the most fluid flounders. The sleeker version of a freestyle event, slated to start at noon Friday at the Salida Whitewater Park, features kayaking dare-devils performing cartwheels, blunts, shuvits and loops as part of the freestyle kayaking genre in which getting stuck in a play hole is a good thing...

The gem of the event is the 26-mile Salida to Cotopaxi downriver race slated to start at 11 a.m. June 15. The grueling downriver race is easily the longest in any boating competition and really requires a lot of paddling endurance on the part of the boaters. "Perhaps we will have a course record for the downriver race," Hart said. The current record, set in 1995 by Nelson Oldham of the Aspen/Carbondale area, is 1 hour, 47 minutes. Oldham, ironically, also has the slowest first place finish which came in 2002 at 2 hours, 49 minutes.

Category: Colorado Water
8:23:23 AM    


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Here's some background on the Yampa River and the Yampa/White Basin Roundtable, from The Steamboat Pilot & Today. From the article:

While the Yampa River is meeting Routt County's needs for now, future increases in water demand and the predicted effects of climate change may make protecting the resource an uphill battle in the future. The Yampa/White Basin Roundtable, which guides water policy in Routt, Moffat and Rio Blanco counties, is studying the Yampa River to develop data that can be used in future decision-making, agriculture representative Mary Brown said at Friday's 2008 Water Forum in Steamboat Springs. The organization does not yet have an official stance on any pending pumpback projects, as there are too many unknowns to form a "reasoned opinion," but the roundtable is looking at what claims to the river exist, how much water is in the watershed and how much might be available for other uses, Brown said...

With the Yampa River carrying more than 1 million acre-feet of water per year, and Routt County using only about 10 percent of that, it's technically a "water-rich" area, said Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District board member Tom Sharp. Many speakers at the 2008 Water Forum agreed that demand for local water will only increase, and that demands from outside the county and even the state will have to be dealt with. "The population of the West has increased by 50 percent in the last 40 years, and it's expected to increase 300 percent by 2040," U.S. Forest Service District Ranger Oscar Martinez said. "The uses that people expect are going to change." In order to protect the Yampa, existing water rights need to be protected, hard data needs to be gathered and people need to concern themselves with water projects in other parts of the state, Brown said. While proposals to pump water from the Green River to the Front Range do not directly affect the Yampa, what Colorado promises to downstream states does, and each project elsewhere brings possible changes to water-sharing arrangements, she said...

More Coyote Gulch coverage here.

Category: Colorado Water
8:14:27 AM    


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Irrigators are hoping to get Wyoming to dismiss a petition from the federal government for water from Pathfinder Reservoir for the Platte River Cooperative Agreement, according to The Casper Start Tribune. From the article:

A group of Upper North Platte Valley irrigators wants Wyoming officials to dismiss a petition from the federal government to change the use of 53,493 acre feet of water annually from Pathfinder Reservoir in part to help endangered species in Nebraska. A hearing on the group's motion to dismiss the petition is set for Monday in Casper. It's scheduled for 9 a.m. at the Agricultural Resource and Learning Center at 2011 Fairgrounds Road. Rawlins attorney John MacPherson filed the motion to dismiss the petition on May 23. He represents the Upper North Plate Valley Water Users Association and the Upper North Platte Valley Water Conservation Association, both based in Saratoga. At the same time, MacPherson filed a motion for a change of venue for a scheduled Oct. 9 Board of Control hearing on the Pathfinder issue. He said if the Board of Control doesn't dismiss the BuRec's petition, his clients want the October hearing moved to Saratoga because many landowners who filed for party status in the matter live in or near Saratoga. It's now scheduled in Casper.

MacPherson and Fritz Holleman, a Boulder, Colo., attorney hired by the two water groups, plan to be in Casper Monday morning to argue the motions. An attorney from the Wyoming attorney general's office will represent the government, according to Allan Cunningham, administrator of the Board of Control division of the state engineer's office. Cunningham said he couldn't comment on the board's position on the motion to dismiss the petition...

The motion to dismiss stems from a January filing by the BuRec seeking a change in use of 53,493 acre feet of Pathfinder's water and asking that water be assigned a senior 1904 water right. It's part of a massive water agreement among the federal government and Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska to provide habitat for several endangered species in the Platte River in Nebraska. Part of the deal is an agreement to expand the capacity of Pathfinder to provide more water for downstream uses. The federal petition seeks a dedication of 33,493 acre feet of water for fish and wildlife purposes in Nebraska and asks that the other 20,000 acre feet be changed to municipal uses that would be made available to the state of Wyoming and leased to Wyoming cities and towns. It contends the change in use "will not affect the existing authorized uses of irrigation and domestic" in place for Pathfinder's water. But, in the motion to dismiss, MacPherson says because Pathfinder was permitted for irrigation and domestic use, changing the use of some of the reservoir's water for wildlife purposes violates Wyoming law. The motion to dismiss also questions the BuRec's request that a senior 1904 priority be assigned the new water uses. The motion quotes a Wyoming Water Development Commission report that states, "Developing a new supply from in-basin sources under a current day priority would be virtually impossible." MacPherson wrote, "To its credit, (the WWDC) is candid about why it has not requested a junior priority date." But he counters that is not a basis to award the new uses a 1904 priority. "There is no precedent in Wyoming or anywhere else allowing a reservoir expansion to fill under the priority of the original senior right," the motion states. "The water users' simple and compelling position is that (the BuRec) cannot impose an additional 54,000 acre feet of senior demand in an already overappropriated basin without serious impacts to all upstream water rights. "Allowing the proposed new space to store water for new purposes of use, to be made in new places of use, while filling under a senior 1904 priority, would turn the prior appropriation doctrine that is the basis for Wyoming water law on its head."

The motion also argues Board of Control regulations prohibit the change in use of the 53,493 acre feet because the change would harm other appropriators and the change would transfer more water than has historically been used. And the motion disputes the BuRec's position that modifying Pathfinder would recapture space that's been lost to sedimentation. At least 25,000 acre feet that the government wants to revive has not been available for storage or subsequent beneficial use for at least 63 years, MacPherson wrote, citing the 1945 Supreme Court decision in Nebraska vs. Wyoming, which identified the capacity of Pathfinder then as 1,045,000 acre feet. When Pathfinder was built, it was designed to hold 1,070,000 acre feet of water.

MacPherson further argues that the petition should be dismissed because the government has failed to meet other Board of Control requirements, including providing proof of ownership or consent from all the landowners with affected water rights and a statement that the "appropriation to be changed is presently being applied to beneficial use." MacPherson's motion suggests the BuRec instead amend its petition to request a junior priority date for the 53,493 acre feet, supply the information required by state laws and Board of Control rules, "and move forward from that point. That is how water rights for expanded reservoirs have always been handled in Wyoming. That is what should be done in this instance."

More Coyote Gulch coverage here.

Category: Colorado Water
8:00:47 AM    


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The city of Fort Collins is looking hard at the proposed Glade Reservoir and the EIS for the Northern Integrated Supply Project, according to The Fort Collins Coloradoan. From the article:

Glade Reservoir's impact on the Poudre River and Fort Collins could be more significant than a $6 million environmental study indicates, according to a preliminary city analysis of the document. Reducing the river's flow through the city could cause widespread environmental harm as well as hurt the city's pocketbook through higher water-treatment costs, according to the analysis, which will be presented to the City Council during a Tuesday study session. Review by city staff members and consultants of the draft Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS, for the Northern Integrated Supply Project, which would include Glade, also found inconsistencies in the document and its supporting technical reports. The analysis is far from complete but is based on "good, hard science" and is not colored by opposition to Glade expressed by some City Council members, said Kevin Gertig, interim water resources and treatment manager for the city. "Our job is to provide the best information we can to council so they can make decisions and guide us," Gertig said. "We have to stand by our work professionally and as city staff."[...]

Issues raised by the preliminary analysis include: Water in Horsetooth Reservoir, the city's main supply of drinking water, could be degraded if water from Glade is piped to Horsetooth; Dealing with increased organic carbon levels at Horsetooth would require advanced water-treatment facilities; The EIS omits the city's Drake Water Reclamation Facility, which treats wastewater and returns it to the river, in its modeling and reporting; Reducing the Poudre's flow through town would cause a more significant loss of riparian vegetation and wildlife than recognized in the EIS; The economic impact on the city would be greater than quantified in the document, which looks at effects to recreation but not potential development along the river.

The analysis will be used in crafting the city's comments on the draft EIS to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which released the document April 30. The Corps is taking comment on the document through July 30. Having mistakes in a draft EIS is not unusual, especially on a project as large as NISP, said Chandler Peter, who is overseeing the project for the Corps of Engineers. That's why government entities, organizations and individuals are encouraged to review the document and offer their comments, he said. "This is exactly how the process is supposed to work," Peter said. "We want to hear about things we've missed and to get more information. If an issue comes up, that means we dig a little deeper and do more analysis." Leaving out the Drake water treatment facility might be "a major error," Peter said, or a misinterpretation of information supplied by the city, Northern Water or a consultant. Many of the environmental impacts of NISP will not be fully understood until it is built and the interplay between its diversions and others, such as taking water to irrigate farmland, becomes clear "in the field," he said. The EIS calls for using "adaptive management" to address issues as they come up, he said...

The city hopes to have more time to complete its study of the EIS, Gertig said. "We've already requested an extension on the comment period," he said. "It's an incredibly complicated document, and we want to use every minute we can to do a complete analysis and understand the impacts of this project." Peter said a request for more time to review the EIS is "the No. 1 comment I've received so far." A decision on extending the comment period will be made after three public hearings on the document scheduled June 16 and 17 in Fort Collins and June 19 in Greeley.

Here's an editorial urging caution about NISP, from The Denver Post. They write:

A massive $426 million water project, anchored by the proposed 170,000-acre-foot Glade Reservoir, will reshape the face of northern Colorado for the rest of this century if it is built. With the stakes so high for the region's economy, environment and lifestyle, it's important not to rush blindly into a decision on the Northern Integrated Supply Project, designed to supply water for at least 80,000 new homes in the area. That's why The Post urges the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to grant the request of Fort Collins and Greeley, supported by Larimer County, for an additional 90 days to review the massive draft environmental impact statement released April 30. The NISP issue could shape up as the largest environmental controversy in the state since the administration of President George H.W. Bush vetoed the proposed Two Forks Dam on the South Platte River in November 1990. That's why it's vital to review it carefully before deciding to authorize, or veto, the project...

Yet, the Corps has allowed for only 90 days to review and comment on the DEIS -- a period that ends July 30. The cities want that date extended by 90 days to Oct. 28. It's a reasonable request. The NISP project has been a gleam in developers' eyes for 40 years, but the massive DEIS revealed some new and surprising information. For one thing, the project could result in a 71 percent drop in peak flows in the Cache la Poudre River -- which even one of the project's boosters conceded would reduce the majestic waterway to a "trickle" as it passes through Fort Collins and further downstream. Plus, impounding the spring runoff would reduce the Poudre to little more than a storm sewer by eliminating its ability to renew itself by scouring silt and algae from its natural pools. Last, but by no means least, the NISP plan would have major effects on Fort Collins' water quality, which would take tens of millions to remedy. There may well be ways to mitigate and even resolve these problems, but the experts involved need time to review and analyze the voluminous data and prepare a response.

More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here.

Category: Colorado Water
7:46:10 AM    



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