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Monday, September 15, 2008
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Say hello to Potters for Peace. From the website: "Potters for Peace...is a U.S. based nonprofit, a network of potters, educators, technicians, supporters, and volunteers. Founded in Nicaragua in 1986, we work primarily in Central America although our water filter projects are worldwide.
"PFP is a unique organization devoted to socially responsible development and grass roots accompaniment among potters."
Thanks to the Denver Post for the heads up. They write:
[Ron Rivera], a Bronx-born Peace Corps volunteer who spent much of his life as a development worker in Central and South America, discovered his life's mission in Ecuador in the early 1980s. A Guatemalan chemist, Fernando Mazariegos, was showing local potters a ceramic pot he had invented. It was made of clay mixed with sawdust or ground rice husks that burned off during firing, leaving pores so tiny that they blocked the passage of water-borne bacteria while letting the water seep through. After being coated with a bacteria-killing silver solution, the pot effectively eliminated 98 to 100 percent of diarrhea-causing contaminants like E. coli, cryptosporidium and giardia. The pot was easy to make and cheap to buy. Suspended inside a five-gallon container to collect the water, it could purify one to three quarts an hour, drawn through a spigot.
Off and on, Rivera began working with charities and development groups to set up workshops for turning out the filters. He later improved the filter by developing a mechanical press and standardized molds to ensure a consistent product. After Hurricane Mitch cut a swath through Central America in 1998, Rivera, who had been doing development work in Nicaragua for the previous decade, joined with a tiny American organization called Potters for Peace and went into high gear."
Category: Colorado Water
5:55:34 PM 
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In-stream residents have been doing backflips over HB 08-1280 and the bill's potential to help with streamflow. Here's an update from The Rocky Mountain News. From the article:
Colorado, for the first time in its history, is infusing $1.5 million into a program to preserve water for streams. Until now the initiative has relied largely on the charity of others. The money, which will be provided each year, means the Colorado Water Conservation Board can buy water outright, rather than relying on donations or staking claims to very young water rights, as it has done since 1973, when the state's stream protection program began. "The way you get to bomb- proof water is through acquisition," said Amy Beatie, executive director of the Colorado Water Trust, a nonprofit that also seeks water for environmental purposes. "It's the perfect step in the right direction." For more than 100 years, Colorado's Constitution has mandated that the right to divert "shall not be denied" anyone who owns a water right. But nature doesn't own water rights, and streams rarely benefit from diversions. They need the water to stay in place, to continue flowing for plants, bugs and fish.
Colorado has one of the oldest so-called "instream" flow programs in the West. To date, nearly 30 percent of the state's 29,289 miles of year-round streams - about 8,500 miles - have some level of protection, according to the Colorado Water Conservation Board...
Much of the state's program relies on very young water rights. But in dry years, when the water is usually needed most, these young water rights rarely are entitled to any water. It goes instead to older, more senior rights held on the streams, as mandated under state water laws. The cash lawmakers set aside this year means the state will now be able to buy senior water rights in critical river systems where fish and wildlife are suffering...
Thanks to Colorado's oil and gas boom, severance tax revenues rose enough this year to allow new funds for the program, said Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, who co-sponsored the legislation authorizing the cash. "The climate was unique this year," Curry said. "We had a more supportive staff, a more supportive (Colorado Water Conservation) board and we had available funds from the severance tax. Without that, it would not have gone through."[...]
For 150 years, Colorado's natural rivers and streams have served as an intricate plumbing system for the state's cities, which control vast portfolios of senior water rights. Anytime new flows are staked out for the environment, cities and other water-right holders worry that it will make their work - delivering water for humans - harder. As a result, the new cash program is being carefully watched. Linda Bassi, director of the instream flow program, said new rules are being written to ensure the money is spent carefully. And lawmakers will have the right to approve or reject certain individual acquisitions...
One goal, Bassi said, is to protect species that are at risk of being listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. Such listings, while important to protecting fish and other wildlife, also make stream management more difficult. How much more work the state needs to do to protect stream flows isn't clear. Bassi said efforts are under way to assess how much H2O is needed and where it's needed most.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
Category: Colorado Water
6:34:51 AM
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From The Glenwood Springs Post Independent: "Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) members' tentative endorsement of several new rules last week and last month may garner the attention of several states as they look to regulate the ongoing energy boom in the American West, the head of the agency said Friday. Dave Neslin, acting director of the COGCC, said several states may look to Colorado about how to regulate that energy boom after the commission's initial endorsement of several rules that he said 'mark some new approaches on some issues.'"
More from the article:
The rules Neslin cited would mandate that companies inform the state of which chemicals are being used at a drilling location, encourage operators to use a comprehensive drilling plan and require companies in three counties in northwest Colorado to use green completion techniques. That is a process that recovers gas that would otherwise be vented or flared during the completion phase of a natural gas well...
Colorado's oil and gas commission has given tentative approval to about 80 rules during five hearings in August and last week. Commission members based much of their provisional votes on rule language drafted by agency staff. "Our final recommendations reflected a lot of input from different parties," said Neslin, adding those parties included the energy industry, environmental organizations and local governments like Garfield County. "The commission certainly gave thoughtful and thorough deliberation to the rules it acted upon." Two more days of hearings will be held on Sept. 22 and Sept. 23. That is when commissioners are expected to begin deliberation on wildlife and waste pit rules, which have engendered the most criticism and controversy during the state's current rule-making process...
COGCC staff began work on the new rules in August of last year. That process began because of legislation the legislature passed last year that required the agency to expand its focus to consider public health and wildlife impacts, and require the use of best management practices to minimize harm from oil and gas development. Ken Wonstolen, an attorney with Fulbright & Jaworski and legal counsel for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said there is "no question" that the proposed rules are some of the "most restrictive" ever proposed by a state. "There isn't another state in the union that provides for general public comment on drilling permits," he said. He was referring to a rule that would allow a 20-day comment period on all drilling permit applications, along with individual notice to the surface owner and individuals who own property within 500 feet. As the rule-making process has moved forward in August and September, Wonstolen said there has been some movement forward to include industry's suggestions and wording into agency staff's final rule recommendations. "In terms of actual wording, the staff recommendations probably incorporated more wording from industry alternatives than other parties," he said. "But I think the commissioners have given a fair hearing to the issues raised by all of the parties."
Here's a list of some of the proposed rules from The Independent:
The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) held more than 30 hours of deliberations during three days of hearings last week. Here is a snapshot of what they tentatively decided:
- On Tuesday, the commissioners signed off on a rule that would encourage oil and gas companies to draft comprehensive drilling plans identifying future drilling locations. Those plans would be crafted with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Local government and surface owners would be invited to participate in the drafting of those plans. It is voluntary for companies to draft such plans. But if they go forward with them, they can gain incentives from the state, like possible fast-tracking of drilling permits through the COGCC's permitting process.
The commissioners also gave preliminary approval to a rule that would keep the minimum distance a drilling rig may be placed near a home at 150 feet. However, a stakeholder group is expected to meet in January and report back to the commission in April about possibly increasing that setback distance.
- On Wednesday, commissioners endorsed a rule that would mandate that energy companies operating in Mesa, Garfield, Gunnison and Rio Blanco counties receive approval for each new well pad they may place in those counties.
- On Thursday, commissioners tentatively approved rules requiring energy companies to notify landowners in areas where drilling will occur. Those rules also allow people whose property will be subject to drilling to request a hearing with the commission if they allege any kind of violation. However, adjacent landowners would not be able to request a hearing.
Category: Climate Change News
6:17:25 AM
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© Copyright
2008
John Orr.
Last update:
10/1/08; 6:39:44 AM.
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