Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Reclamation to begin storing water in Ruedi From email from Kara Lamb (Bureau of Reclamation): "I thought I'd get into the spirit of the spring season with an update on releases from Ruedi Reservoir. This week, we begin storing water in Ruedi. "That means, tomorrow, we will cut releases back. Currently, we are sending about 133 cfs from the dam to the Fryingpan. The Rocky Fork is contributing about 5 cfs. On Wednesday, the 11th, we will cut releases back by about 48 cfs. With the Rocky Fork, that will put flows in the 'Pan around 90 cfs." Category: Colorado Water 6:01:20 PM     Eagle River cleanup There is some good news about the Eagle River, according to the Aspen Times. From the article, "Senior citizens are a good thing to find flopping in the Eagle River. That's why biologist John Woodling was excited to pull from the water an eight-year-old trout, which is sort of an ancient oddity in the fish world. He knows this because of the small tag he found embedded in its head. Someone put it there five years ago when the fish was probably three, and here he is, still swimming... "That trout was one of hundreds of fish 'shocked' in the Eagle River Thursday and Friday by several volunteers along with members of the Colorado Division of Wildlife, the U.S. Forest Service and the Eagle River Watershed Council conservation group. The process is called 'fish shocking' because literally, the fish are stunned with electric probes and collected by quick people with nets and waders. The dazed fish are then counted, measured and weighed by a team of biologists to determine the river's health. Mainly, they're concerned about the high levels of metal that have spilled over the years from the Eagle Mine south of Minturn and hurt the fish population. There was a major cleanup around the mine site, and overall, things are looking better than they did 17 years ago, Woodling said. The biologists are looking for a few things. Finding a lot of fish is good, but it's also important to find a wide variety of species and ages. Brown trout, for instance, are pretty tolerant of zinc in the water, while a fish called a sculpin can barely stand it. The fish shockers were happy to actually find some sculpin in the river the past couple days, which shows progress." Category: Colorado Water 6:12:54 AM     Water officials sit down with mediator Representatives from the rainy side of Colorado and the Front Range met yesterday with their newly hired mediator for talks aimed at fostering cooperation between east and west, according to the Denver Post. From the article, "A professional mediator has taken on the task of ending the century-old water wars between Colorado's Front Range and the Western Slope, renewing efforts to find a 'global solution' for dividing a limited resource. John Bickerman, an attorney from Washington, admitted he was 'parachuting into an ongoing war' when he met Monday for the first time with about 40 officials from the Denver Water Board and a panoply of water providers from west of the Continental Divide... "So suspicious are both sides that the process of choosing a mediator took months before they hired Bickerman, an adjunct law professor at Georgetown University with no personal interest in the outcome. Still, there were signs of hope as the two sides sat together for the first time in more than a year, intent on hammering out agreements on water allocation.'I didn't put out a seating chart, but I am glad to see some intermingling between the Western Slope and Denver Water,' Bickerman observed. Western Slope water entities - including the Colorado River Water Conservation District, county governments and water users - first proposed a water-sharing plan in May 2005. Officials from Denver Water, however, have been hesitant to negotiate, fearing that any deal might compromise the agency's ability to provide water to its 1.1 million customers, a figure that is expected to grow to 1.9 million by 2050." Category: Colorado Water 5:58:44 AM     Green Mountain pumpback? Here's an article about the proposed Green Mountain pumpback, from the Denver Post. They write, "The so-called Green Mountain pumpback could unlock as much as 50,000 acre-feet of water for the metro area, according to a joint study by the Colorado River Water Conservation District and Denver Water Board. 'This is just an alternative that's on the table for consideration,' said Chris Treese, director of the water conservancy based in Glenwood Springs. The idea is to allow the water to flow down the Blue River to supply water between Silverthorne and Heeney, and then send it back through a 25-mile pipeline to Dillon, where Denver can tap it. In exchange, Denver could scale back its draws from the Wolford Mountain and Williams Fork reservoirs, offsetting the diminishing flows further downstream. The pumpback - which could cost hundreds of millions of dollars - would stabilize water levels in Dillon, a popular recreation site, and provide more water to Denver relatively cheaply, at about $12,000 an acre-foot... "It would have drawbacks, too. Not least would be decimating flows out of Green Mountain Reservoir and potentially loading the recirculated water with phosphorus as it is exposed repeatedly to drainage from leach fields. Ken Neubecker, vice-president for Colorado's Trout Unlimited, said the proposal would essentially rob Peter to pay Paul, taking water from the lower Blue River and replacing it in the Eagle at a proposed Wolcott reservoir." More Coyote Gulch coverage here. Category: Colorado Water 5:49:40 AM     Denver Water's Reservoirs in good shape Denver Water's reservoir storage is in good shape heading into the summer, according to the Denver Post. From the article, "Thanks in part to bountiful snowfall this winter and water-pinching consumers along the Front Range, Denver Water's system of reservoirs features the highest levels since 1958." Category: Colorado Water 5:43:00 AM     State of the Rockies conference Here's a short report from the State of the Rockies Conference on the subject of ag water sales, from the Colorado Springs Gazette. From the article, "Agriculture in the Rocky Mountain West consumes the lion's share of the region's water supply, but farmers are increasingly cashing in on the thirst of rapidly growing cities, according to the 2007 State of the Rockies Report Card released Monday... "Selling water rights to cities is nothing new in the arid West. But urban areas such as Denver, Las Vegas and Phoenix are growing far faster than the nation as a whole. The demand for green lawns, clean cars and drinking water comes as groundwater supplies shrink and farmers battle low commodity prices. Selling water rights becomes a 'bail out' for farmers, according to the report. The practice may bring short-term profits but can hurt rural economies, the report says. Property taxes may plummet on land that goes from productive to parched. Retail sales at businesses such as supply stores and tractor dealers decline. Populations shrink... "The report highlights several ways agriculture can help cities meet their demands without harming rural areas, including: Interruptible supply agreements that allow cities to negotiate with water-rights holders to pay for water in times of drought; Rotational crop-management agreements in which a group of farmers periodically fallow portions of their properties to deliver a regular water supply to their buyer; Water banks that allow unused water rights to be leased for current or future use; A 'purchase and lease back' strategy in which a city buys land and its water rights and leases them back to the land's user, allowing the land to still be used at least part of the time." Category: Colorado Water 5:34:31 AM

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