Thursday, August 2, 2007

Green Mountain Reservoir update From email from the Bureau of Reclamation (Kara Lamb): "Due to the lack of a Shoshone Powerplant call and the steadily declining basin runoff, the flow in the Colorado River has dropped to below normal levels. In an effort to assist in partially offsetting the lower than normal Colorado River flow, we have increased our releases from Green Mountain Dam. In three separate increments, two yesterday afternoon and one this morning, we increased our releases from 350 cfs to 550 cfs. By this afternoon, releases from the dam to the Lower Blue River were around 550 cfs. We will maintain a release of about 550 cfs until further notice." Category: Colorado Water 10:20:33 PM     Yealy Kos day one We're in Chicago. The kickoff welcome for Yearly Kos was tonight. Howard Dean was the keynote speaker. Governor Dean rallied the faithful with his usual flair. He made an interesting point about the 18-29 demographic. He says that young people today are living in the world created by his generation. They don't see themselves and black, white or hispanic - just young. And they're pissed that we adults won't drop the confrontation. They're hoping that we'll work on the things we agree about and drop things we don't agree about. Coyote Gulch is not so sure. Dean praised the netroots claiming that we are leading the U.S. into a period of transparency in politics, taking back the government, and showing the world how the Internet is leading to democratization. The crowd here is quite a mix. Old hippies (yeah we fit in here), older couples, youngsters, young couples, some minority representation. Lots of Macintosh users. We made friends with people from Tempe, Arizona, Chicago and St. Louis, and hope to shake a lot of hands tomorrow. Juan Cole is here and we got to talk briefly. It's hot and muggy here in the upper midwest. We're wishing for a nice thunderstorm off the Continental Divide to cool things down. Oh wait, we have to be in Denver (or somewhere along the Rockies) for that to happen. Chicago is a big city for a water blogger from Colorado but we're making do. Normally when we're on the road it's not with this many people around. The Hyatt Regency Chicago is a ripoff. You can't use the in room refrigerator to chill your fruit juice without them charging you. We could not use the Wi-Fi for some reason, even after agreeing to pay the stupid fee. Internet access is slow. Category: 2008 Presidential Election 10:07:14 PM     Coyote Gulch outage Today is a travel day for Coyote Gulch. We're heading out to Denver International for a flight to Chicago and Yearly Kos. Our hearts go out to people up in the Twin Cities this morning. We hope everyone you know is safe today. Back to travel. We don't know how connectivity will be in Chicago. We're hoping to spend the weekend conversing with humans rather than blogging. Category: Colorado Water 7:52:40 AM     New groundwater database online From The Greeley Tribune, "The results of 15 years of groundwater samplings are now available in an online database designed to enable the public to learn about the quality of Colorado's groundwater. "The groundwater quality data gathering and analysis is a joint project of the Colorado Department of Agriculture, Colorado State University Extension, and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environmen. The database may be accessed at http://ids-nile.engr.colostate.edu/webkit/Groundwater/." Category: Colorado Water 7:50:39 AM     Colorado Springs Utilities selling excess water Colorado Springs is selling water this year according to KOAA.com. From the article: For the first time in nearly ten years utilities is selling and passing on the excess to other parts of Southern Colorado with the means to access it. According to Water Supply Manager, Wayne Vanderschuere, "It's pretty significant. We've sold about nine and a half billion gallons. We've earned about $335,000 which will contribute to help keeping our water rates low for our customers." The waters going to things like farmers and ranchers along the Arkansas Valley; The Colorado Division of Wildlife has taken some for endangered species habitat at John Martin Reservoir; and the Security Water District has also bought some of the excess to help replenish their water storage, which has been coming back, but just not as quickly as Colorado Springs. Category: Colorado Water 7:45:50 AM     Horsetooth Reservoir update Here's an update on Horsetooth Reservoir from The Fort Collins Coloradoan. From the article: Horsetooth was higher at the end of July than it was last year at the same time, but the reservoir is about to be popular with the irrigators, cities and industry on the Front Range and Eastern Plains that depend on it for water... Each time water levels drop, the marina crew has to move the marina and all its docks out farther. This could be as frequent as every couple days. "We have to take a barge and lift weights to move the whole dock system," said Andrew Garcia, manager at the marina. "It's a lot of work." Despite the extra work, Garcia said he expects to see a lot more recreation for the rest of the season. The reservoir is part of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation project that siphons water from the west side of the state's mountains to the populated Eastern Slope. Category: Colorado Water 7:35:20 AM

© Copyright 2007 John Orr. Last update: 9/1/07; 12:37:22 PM.