Monday, April 9, 2007

Fry-Ark space for Aurora? Here's an article about some of the objections to the Aurora Long Term Storage contract with Reclamation, from the Pueblo Chieftain. They write, "Colorado courts, rather than a federal contract, would be a better way to deal with water transfers from the Lower Arkansas Valley to Aurora, a key water official maintains. Joe Kelley, La Junta water supervisor, said the concerns of downstream communities are not adequately addressed in a finding of no significant impact issued last month by the Bureau of Reclamation in its environmental assessment of a contract with Aurora... "'When I did the letter for La Junta, I made no political statements at all. It was all based on technical aspects of the Aurora contract,' Kelley explained. 'You can't really stop Aurora from using its water or the contracts, but I would hope there'd be a way to mitigate the impacts.' Reclamation's finding doesn't provide that protection, Kelley said. 'They make a lot of assumptions about what Aurora is going to do if they don't get a contract in their no-action alternative. What would really happen if they took no action would depend a lot on what happened in water court. If would allow others to comment and set conditions,' Kelley said. Kelley criticized the finding of no significant impact because it makes loose assumptions that could affect water quality, and thus La Junta's treatment costs, down the road. The remedy, according to Reclamation's document, is to bring the affected parties together if there appears to be a problem caused by the contract." Category: Colorado Water 5:41:30 AM     Animas-La Plata This article from ACP Pubs brings us up to date on the Animas-La Plata project. They write, "The current design, funding and project contracted or yet to bid includes the construction of a 280-cubic-feet-per-second pumping plant on the Animas River just south of downtown Durango, Colo.; an underground pipeline to carry project water from the pumping plant to the reservoir location, and an off-stream reservoir at Ridges Basin, southwest of Durango. This reservoir will store about 120,000 acre-feet of water to be pumped from the Animas River on the south end of Durango. In addition, the project includes a future buried pipeline from the Farmington, N.M., area to the Shiprock, N.M., area, supplying water for Navajo Nation usage. "It is interesting that the diverted water is removed from the Animas River for controlled discharge back into the Animas River. At this time, there is no plan or provision for the water entering any other watershed or direct discharge from the dam into any water system. Any such use facilities would have to be paid for by others." Be sure to read the whole article. More Coyote Gulch coverage here. Category: Colorado Water 5:30:22 AM

© Copyright 2007 John Orr. Last update: 5/1/07; 9:43:50 AM.