Sunday, April 15, 2007

State of the Rockies conference Mrs. Gulch points us to this Denver Post Perspective on The State of the Rockies conference held this week. From the article, "Prolonged drought, perilous forest conditions and rapid population growth are combining to create serious challenges for the eight-state Rocky Mountain region. "With increased population growth and continued drought-like conditions becoming a regional norm, how will the Rockies manage competing needs, particularly allocation of the region's already scarce water? That was the key question that the 2007 Colorado College State of the Rockies Project examined. "The issue of sustainability increasingly permeates discussion of water distribution in the Rockies. Limited in supply and often separated from 'higher-value users,' water has and will continue to be a fundamental challenge for Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. The sustainability and livability of the Rockies, so valued by millions of residents and visitors, depends largely on how this limited, variable and potentially shrinking supply is managed in the face of myriad challenges, ranging from climate change to rapid urban growth. Water supplies must sustain both human and environmental needs if the region is to retain vitality and viability." Category: Colorado Water 10:28:40 AM     Duck scam Watch out for the ducks. Thanks to NewMexiKen for the link. 9:49:57 AM     New Carter Lake outlet Carter Lake is going to get a new outlet this summer, according to the Longmont Daily Times-Call. From the article, "This fall, Carter Lake's three boat ramps will close when the reservoir's water level sinks low enough for workers to build a new outlet. Officials will begin drawing down water in July, but at least one boat ramp will remain open through Labor Day. Officials plan to start refilling the lake in March 2008 and have all three boat ramps open by May of next year. Carter Lake, owned by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, is part of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project and operated by the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. Before 1995, the Water Conservancy District delivered Carter Lake water only during the summer irrigation season; crews could repair the lake's outlet in the winter months. In 1995, the district finished the Southern Water Supply Project, which delivers water to cities and towns in addition to farmland, which means the outlet needs to operate all year... "More than 300,000 municipal and industrial users depend on Carter Lake water, according to the district. Because of that constant need, the district can shut down the more than 50-year-old outlet on Dam No. 1 for only a few days at a time to make the necessary repairs. 'We can't work on it unless we shut it down,' said Carl Brouwer, manager of the district's project management and planning department. So this spring, SEMA Construction Inc. will begin work on the $10 million Carter Lake Outlet Project. The new outlet will supplement the existing Carter Lake outlet. The outlet will run through an 800-foot tunnel about 200 feet south of the existing outlet structure on Dam No. 1 at the reservoir's southeast side. To build the opening for the 6-foot-diameter, steel-lined tunnel, crews will drill and blast through rock." Category: Colorado Water 8:20:26 AM     South Platte Reservoir The new South Platte Reservoir is nearly finished and should start filling this summer, according to CBS4Denver.com. From the article, "Highlands Ranch will soon have a new water source, but not everyone is happy about how the plans for the new South Platte Reservoir have been taking shape. Crews are nearly done transforming an old gravel mine near Santa Fe and C-470 into a massive water storage project. The reservoir, located to the north of Chatfield State Park, is designed to hold stormwater runoff. South Platte Reservoir will be nearly a mile across and there will be enough water to serve 25,000 homes in Highlands Ranch... "Crews are set to begin filling the South Platte Reservoir this summer. In addition to being delivered to homes, the water might be used at times to recharge underground wells. Centennial Water & Sanitation District, the water district for Highlands Ranch, is footing the $22 million cost of the reservoir." Category: Colorado Water 8:07:28 AM     State of the Rockies conference Colorado Springs Utilities was on hand at last week's State of the Rockies conference to talk about growth and their needs going forward, as reported by the Pueblo Chieftain. From the article, "'We're working to respond to growth and we have not looked at using water as a way to limit development,' Gary Bostrom, Colorado Springs Utilities projects manager, told an audience of about 100 people during the unveiling of the Colorado College State of the Rockies Report Card last week... "After a report that detailed the growing reliance of the West on developing municipal water supplies in overappropriated basins, with potential climate change and at the expense of agricultural uses, members of the audience peppered the panel with questions about growth and sustainability of water supply. Bostrom showed a map of pipelines that now serve Colorado Springs from the northwest, west and south, as well as a photograph of a blowout on the Homestake Pipeline last fall that interrupted water deliveries while it was repaired. Homestake brings water in from the Eagle River basin to the west, while the Blue River Pipeline takes water across the Continental Divide to the northwest and the Fountain Valley Authority Pipeline connects to Pueblo Dam. Colorado Springs needs another pipeline, the Southern Delivery System, to provide backup for its current systems as well as water for future growth, Bostrom said. SDS is another pipeline from Pueblo Dam that would bring up to 78 million gallons a day 43 miles north through a 66-inch-diameter pipe. The Bureau of Reclamation is conducting an environmental impact statement on the proposed pipeline and seven alternatives, which Bostrom said should be complete by 2009. That would allow Phase I of the project to be constructed by 2012 at a projected cost of $600 million. More than $1 billion more would be needed to build two reservoirs and construct other features of the project in Phase II, projected to be built from 2014-30." Here is another article about the conference from the Chieftain. They write, "Rocky Mountain states are growing faster than the rest of the nation and get less rain, stressing its water supply, which is already overtaxed in many places. Climate changes are projected to reduce the amount of water available in the future. Finally, transfers from agriculture, which still uses most of the water, to growing cities are evolving with innovative strategies, but the ultimate price might be the quality of life in the West, not just the sustainability of the water supply. Those are conclusions reached in Colorado College's 2007 State of the Rockies Report Card, released and discussed last week at a three-day conference... "Overall, water withdrawals - through diversions, transfers or wells - peaked in 1980. Since then, agricultural use has decreased slightly, power generation has remained steady and urban use has climbed. Unlike the rest of the country, the Rocky Mountain and Pacific states use most of the withdrawn water for irrigation. In the rest of the country, most is applied to electric power generation. The amount withdrawn for cities is the second-leading use in the West, but a distant third in most of the country. The problem is, the growth is not always occurring where the water is. Coupled with pressures on the agricultural communities - the loss of about 150,000 acres of irrigated land every decade - urban growth and revised estimates of how much water is available, changes could be devastating for rural communities, McMahon said... "Outside of Pueblo, about 6 percent of the valley's economy is driven by farm income, a high percentage for the state. The ray of hope may be ways to share water, including water banking, interruptible supply, alternative crop patterns or lease agreements. In the Arkansas Valley, the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District is looking at reviving a water bank concept. A water bank in Idaho has worked successfully since 1930 and could be a model, McMahon said. Meanwhile, the 'Super Ditch,' a rotational fallowing, lease management program being studied by the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District could bring seven mutual ditch companies together in a groundbreaking program that would allow irrigators to lease water to cities on their own terms." Category: Colorado Water 7:50:27 AM     Aspinall: In the West, when you touch water, you touch everything From the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, "Former Congressman Wayne N. Aspinall believed that water projects in the West make the desert bloom and become productive, former Mesa County Commissioner Tillie Bishop said Saturday at the unveiling of a memorial to Aspinall in his hometown of Palisade. Aspinall, who died in 1983, is known throughout the West for his vision of how the region's natural resources should be developed. He played a significant role in the approval of some of the region's greatest water projects, including the Glen Canyon Dam and the Central Arizona Project. His name graces the three reservoirs of the Aspinall Unit on the Gunnison River, a project created under the Colorado River Storage Project Act, which he helped push through Congress. He also played an integral role in the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964 and the creation of the National Trails System, the National Scenic Rivers System, Redwood National Park and a handful of national seashores. So it is fitting that one of Aspinall's most famous quotes is prominently chiseled into granite upon his memorial adorned with water cascading over granite: 'In the West, when you touch water, you touch everything.' On the memorial, Aspinall's bust even faces the Colorado River, which he so loved." Category: Colorado Water 7:40:02 AM     Farm disaster on the South Platte Farmers, whose wells were shut down last spring are selling out in some cases, according to the Denver Post. From the article, "As a gabbling auctioneer sold off nearly 30 years' worth of accumulated farming equipment, men in sagging blue jeans and sturdy work boots studied the rows of tractors, plows, cultivators and other equipment displayed on what used to be part of Steve Weigandt's first crop of alfalfa. There won't be a second crop on his land this year. There isn't enough water. Like hundreds of other South Platte Basin farmers in Adams, Weld and Morgan counties, Weigandt can pump only 15 percent of the water in the farm's shallow well. That's not enough to sustain 80 acres of beans, corn and alfalfa... "More than 3,000 irrigation-well owners are reeling from the first strict enforcement of a 1969 water- rights law that has closed 440 wells entirely and restricted an additional 2,600 irrigation-well owners to using 15 percent of their water. Farmers fortunate enough to own a share of supplementary surface ditch water watched the price of water soar. 'We paid $15,000 per share for five shares of ditch water in 1997, and sold two shares in 2005 for $140,000 apiece,' said Greeley farmer Glenn Bad ley. The Badleys used the income to pay off the mortgage on his 80 acres, along with pumping-depletion fees dating back to the 1960s... "Currently, the law requires irrigation-well owners to replace every gallon they use by putting it back into the South Platte River. Even farmers lucky enough to have both well- and ditch-water irrigation find that task nearly impossible. Many pay thousands in fines for pumping too much water from the wells that Colorado encouraged farmers to drill in 1938. Then, state officials hoped to avoid a repeat of the 1930s droughts that resulted in dense clouds of dust destroying farms from eastern Colorado to northern Texas. 'They're talking about another Dust Bowl now,' said Claudia Farrell, who runs the popular U-pick Berry Patch Farm in Brighton. She and her husband are spending $10,000 to dig a pond for supplemental water. They also pay for supplemental ditch water, and they count their blessings when they consider the well-reliant farmers who can't pump enough water to sustain ground cover, leaving their land vulnerable to wind... "Another likely scenario is that lawns and houses will stand where crops once grew. The Deans' farm is so close to a new Brighton housing development that they saw thieves scuttle into their fields to steal corn and uproot pepper plants. Some swiped the Deans' irrigation pumps to sell for scrap metal. Driving through Weld County, Weigandt resentfully eyes the burgeoning clusters of new two-story homes, each fronted by a bright green lawn. Some yards sport tiny decorative windmills. He is fully aware of the irony that the water denied to a farmer growing alfalfa is readily available once the same land is annexed by a city with senior water rights." Category: Colorado Water 7:27:21 AM

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