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Tuesday, September 23, 2008
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From The Montrose Daily Press: "Changes in the amount of water released from the Aspinall Unit could be altered to benefit endangered fish in the Gunnison River. An environmental impact statement looking at ways to do this will soon be released for public review. The draft EIS analyzes alternative ways to release water from the Aspinall Unit -- Blue Mesa, Morrow Point and Crystal Reservoirs -- to improve habitat conditions for endangered fish in the Gunnison River downstream from Delta, said Steve McCall, Bureau of Reclamation environmental specialist. Per the Endangered Species Act, Reclamation must operate water projects to avoid jeopardizing continued existence of endangered species, while continuing to meet congressionally authorized purposes of the water projects, McCall said. The alternatives generally increase flows in the spring compared to existing conditions. Consequently, flows would be lower other times of the year, said McCall. The EIS will evaluate impacts on hydropower, flood control, recreational fisheries, reservoir levels, existing water uses and endangered species."
Category: Colorado Water
7:15:49 PM 
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Here's Part I and Part II of The Pagosa Daily Post's series Dry Gulch gets wetter?. They're looking at recent water court rulings around Dry Gulch Reservoir.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
Category: Colorado Water
7:07:42 PM
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From The Rocky Mountain News: "In a lawsuit, Quisenberry, whose 106-acre ranch sits along Parker Road, charges that the county is abusing land-use rules to force him to keep his water, which he estimates at 400 million gallons annually, on his property. Quisenberry maintains that he could sell it for tens of thousands of dollars to water-strapped towns and cities statewide. 'Because of water shortages, Douglas County has been trying to secure the water in their county, and the county has tried to backdoor Mr. Quisenberry's rights with land-use regulations,' said attorney James Ruterbories, who represents Quisenberry."
More from the article:
At the center of the dispute are two ponds on Quisenberry's ranch that he wants to fill and use as "recharge pits," storage areas. He claims that the county has consistently required him to obtain "special use by review permits" to fill the ponds. The catch, he said, is that the county won't grant the permits unless he dedicates his water to the property for future development needs.
Douglas County officials take issue with that characterization. "The only time he has to come to us is if he wants to use the water on his land to support development in Douglas County," said Peter Italiano, county director of community development. "At that point, we're going to ask him if he has enough water, and is it dependable and reliable?" The county, he said, has no real use for Quisenberry's water because it's not in the business of delivering water. That's for the job of towns, cities and water districts. "Castle Rock, Centennial and Highlands Ranch are out every day looking for water - not the county," Italiano said. "For us to buy water, we'll have a commodity just sitting there in a closet collecting dust. We don't have pipes. We don't have storage reservoirs." But Quisenberry says the Denver Basin aquifer is drying up, and it's a huge concern for Douglas County and its municipalities...
The ranch is nestled along Parker Road and Castle Oaks Drive in Franktown. Cherry Creek, a tributary of the South Platte River, flows through the property, and Quisenberry says that if you dig 3 feet, you hit water. The ranch has roughly 1,200 acre-feet of nonrenewable and renewable junior water rights,enough to serve 2,200 homes per year. Quisenberry said he believes his water rights could fetch more than $90 million on the open market, but local water experts say he could sell his renewable groundwater for about $12 million. In the last eight years, Quisenberry said, he has had to fight one battle after another to keep the county and the town of Castle Rock "from jumping his claim." The ranch sits three miles south of Parker's Rueter-Hess Reservoir, a $165 million storage facility under construction that will capture and recycle groundwater and flows from Cherry Creek for Douglas County towns. Castle Rock, which borders the ranch, recently struck a $44 million deal for storage in the Rueter-Hess but must now go out and find and purchase water to fill its portion...
Quisenberry has junior water rights, not senior rights, so even if he prevails in court, he'd likely have to jump through a number of hurdles before he could profit, state officials said. Landowners with senior water rights have first dibs on water. Those with junior rights are allowed Platte River water only after senior users have taken their allotment during nondrought years. But unlike others with junior water rights, Quisenberry insists he has an ace in the hole: He can use recharge pits and replace water pulled from the Platte with his groundwater. "That's what makes me different. I have the whole package, and the county knows it," he said...
The county also classified his ponds as major water storage facilities because each pond has a capacity for 300,000 gallons or more. County officials said it's a zoning rule put in place in the 1990s to ensure all developments within the county have the ability to provide a dependable source of water to their projects. It is the county's understanding that water for Quisenberry's ponds will be provided by the Denver Basin, and zoning rule requires water in the basin to be reserved for the benefit of future landowners within the proposed development. "With any land use in the county, we have an obligation to make sure there is an appropriate water supply," Italiano said.
Category: Colorado Water
6:56:26 PM
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Here's an update on the drought in eastern Colorado from The Greeley Tribune:
Considering the rain much of Weld County and eastern Colorado has seen in August and the first half of September, some would think the longstanding drought has dried up its last drop. But that may or may not be the case, says Nolan Doesken, state climatologist at Colorado State University, although those spring-like rains over the past month have certainly improved things.
While Fort Collins is still more than an inch below normal precipitation for the year, Greeley, as gauged by the University of Northern Colorado, is almost 3.25 inches above the average for this time of year. And in some parts of central and northern Weld, that figure could easily be a lot higher. In August, 7.02 inches of rain fell at UNC, but many areas of Weld reported upward of 10 inches or more for the month -- the average is 1.18 inches. Through this weekend, UNC has recorded another 1.87 inches for this month. Average for September is 1.32 inches...
Despite the wet August, the drought monitor developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other cooperating agencies, continues to show much of northern Colorado in a moderate drought condition. Doesken, however, said the latest map is still in the development stage and all the precipitation data from August may not have been computed. "I think that (map) still needs some more assessment," he said. "But I do think we are more out of the drought than the current map shows." The southeast part of the state, particularly Baca and Prowers counties, remains in the exceptional drought category, Doesken added, while the northern part of the state, including Weld, has moved out of the severe drought category where it was in July...
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
Category: Colorado Water
6:00:24 PM
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Here's a recap of the presentation by the Front Range Water Users Consortium at last week's Colorado River District Annual Water Seminar, from The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:
The Front Range Water Users Consortium, a group that includes the biggest water importers in the state, took a stab at explaining their views to the Colorado River District at its annual water seminar last week. While there was polite applause, the presentation made some nervous. "I heard some scary things in there," said Dennis Steckel of the Gunnison River Water Conservancy District. "I hope people were paying attention."
The Front Range group includes Denver Water, Aurora, Colorado Springs Utilities, the Pueblo Board of Water Works, the Northern and Southeastern Colorado water conservancy districts and the Twin Lakes Reservoir & Canal Co. "We have common interests and we also have differences," said Aurora Water Director Mark Pifher, who joined Eric Wilkinson, executive director of the Northern district, in presenting a paper prepared as part of the Interbasin Compact Committee's 50-year water vision process.
"The days of drawing a line around municipal boundaries are going to change," Pifher said, speaking about the existing reality as the water providers see it. Reservoirs, pipeline and water supplies will have to develop regional strategies. He highlighted Aurora's own efforts to use Lake Pueblo storage and exchange as an example of that direction. Aurora began using Lake Pueblo in 1986, after it purchased water rights in the Lower Arkansas Valley and needed a way to move the water to the Otero Pumping Station, fed by Twin Lakes, which it operates with Colorado Springs as part of the Homestake Project. Last year, the city obtained a 40-year contract with the Bureau of Reclamation to store and exchange water using the excess capacity of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project. Although the contract is being challenged in federal court by the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, Pifher said it is an example of a win-win situation because it provides funding to pay off the project while giving Aurora a way to move its water. The exchange also means Reclamation can avoid the "shrink" of moving water down the river. Pifher acknowledged that buying farms in the Arkansas Valley to move water to the South Platte has a bigger impact than replacing crops with homes as cities grow. He said cities have to be prepared to pay more to do this.
Cities will also have to invest more in reusing water, as Aurora has done with its $700 million Prairie Waters Project, Pifher said. Aurora now has a $20,800 tap fee and higher user fees as it has gone far afield to fill its water needs and is now working to stretch its resources by reuse.
There were 13 items on the Front Range wish list, some innocuous - "maximize beneficial use" - and others more intimidating to Western Slope interests - periodically reviewing the need for environmental, recreation and energy water rights. Most of the suggestions preached cooperation, and Wilkinson was rewarded when a Grand County commissioner thanked him for allowing the county, on a handshake, to use Northern's pumping capacity to store 1,500 acre-feet of water earlier this summer to augment late-season flows. The Front Range group also emphasized the need for better urban planning, with more dense development that would preserve open space while minimizing the extension of water pipelines and other infrastructure. Wilkinson said none of the changes would be easy. "You must address and evaluate the impact of acquiring additional water," Wilkinson said. "It's going to require a significant investment by the public."
The presentation sparked a wait-and-see attitude among many at the workshop. "They really didn't say anything," said Eric Kuhn, executive director of the Colorado River District. "A couple of things were of concern: saying that environmental and recreational water rights need to be evaluated when other water rights aren't; and saying oil shale is short-term. It's an economic question. If oil shale is feasible, it will be around for a long time."
More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here.
Category: Colorado Water
6:39:40 AM
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From The Durango Herald: "Flushing unwanted or outdated pharmaceuticals down the toilet or tossing them out with the garbage is a well-documented but as-yet-unquantifiable health concern, the superintendent of the Durango waste-water treatment plant said Tuesday. 'We have to let people know there is a huge problem with the disposal of pharmaceuticals,' John Sandhaus said.
"A wide range of pharmaceuticals contain chemicals classified as endocrine disruptors, meaning that they block the work of the endocrine system, a network of organs that regulate metabolism, growth, development, puberty and tissue functions. 'I can't tell you what we receive here (at the plant), because a test regimen hasn't been set up by the Environmental Protection Agency,' John Sandhaus said. 'The EPA is working on the problem, but right now they can't tell us what we've got.' The hormone blockers are suspected of detrimentally affecting fish, wildlife, domestic pets and humans, Sandaus said. Birth-control pills are one of most notorious source of endocrine disruptors, he said. A Web site of the Rocky Mountain Water Environment Association (Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming) is following the issue closely."
More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here.
Category: Colorado Water
6:27:16 AM
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From The Summit Daily News: "With many of the town's aging septic systems failing, Blue River officials are pushing residents to hook into a sewer system, but the effort has some locals raising a stink. Town officials plan to put a measure on the February municipal ballot to join the Breckenridge Sanitation District -- a move that would require residents to pay as much as $24,000 for sewer lines to their homes when their septic systems fail. 'I really don't think there is a down side to this,' said Blue River Mayor Lindsay Backas, who contends the plan would benefit the town of about 680 residents. But Councilman Jon Warnick, one of two who voted against a resolution supporting the move, said he doesn't see why the annexation is necessary now. He said it would make more sense if the sewer lines were installed in conjunction with water lines...
"After paying an estimated $15,000 to $24,000 per-lot connection costs, residents joining the sanitation district will face a service fee, estimated at about $22 per month for a three-bedroom, two-bathroom household, Carlberg said. (Even if residents don't join the sanitation district, they may face a big expense if their septic systems fail. A replacement septic system can cost about $20,000.) Town planning and zoning chairman Mark Nowak has said the annexation would help protect groundwater from contamination, which already has occurred in at least one instance. Dan Hendershott, environmental manager with Summit County, said the environmental benefit would be significant, noting that between 8 and 10 percent of town septic systems have been discovered to be failing in recent years through change-of-ownership inspections."
Category: Colorado Water
6:19:05 AM
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Here's an update on the battle against zebra and quagga mussels, from The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:
A hot-water wash designed to kill mussels on contact has been installed near the North Shore Marina at Lake Pueblo State Park. "This is decontamination, not a car wash," said Brad Henley, assistant park manager and the state's point man for zebra mussel control. "There's no soap, no wax. We want to hit every possible spot on the boat with hot water." The $500,000 decontamination station, informally called the "boat wash" is a metal rack about 40 feet long that captures most of the water and recycles it in an adjacent water treatment plant. The plant separates oils and filters the water for reuse. The whole thing runs on just 500 gallons of water."
Water is heated to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than home water systems or car washes. The temperature is enough to kill any adults or veligers - the mussel larvae. No chemicals are added, even though it would be possible in the decontamination system originally developed by the military to prevent invasive plant or animal species spreading from one country to another. Chlorine or potassium chloride would kill zebra mussels, if the exposure time is long enough - up to two weeks. A chemical kill is not possible in a quick wash that lasts 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the size and complexity of boat, Henley explained. A power wash removes any debris from the boat's hull, including any adult zebra mussels that might be attached to the surface.
Right now, boat owners do not pay a fee. "This is one way of continuing to reduce the risk, short of opening every area on the boat and drying it out," Henley said. Relatively few boats will be washed, although the number could grow if mussels spread, as expected. Of 26,640 boats that have used Lake Pueblo since April, only 1,284 (about 5 percent) were determined to be high risk because they had been on the water for more than 24 hours, or were coming in from areas known to have zebra or quagga mussels. Rangers inspected those boats and found only 18 that needed to be decontaminated, because the hulls were too dirty to ensure the lack of mussels. Up until the arrival of the permanent boat wash last month, the boats were decontaminated by a portable boat wash...
By catching the problem early, Colorado officials are hoping to prevent the spread to other lakes. Many lakes throughout the state have added inspection programs since April, while some like Clear Creek, owned by the Pueblo Board of Water Works, have been closed to boaters. A task force is now looking at inspection proposals for Twin Lakes and Turquoise Lake.
More coverage from The Pueblo Chieftain:
Substrate sampling, sweeping the lake with nets and sending teams of divers to look at piers and dams has so far turned up no new confirmed mussels in Lake Pueblo. But, it's like finding a needle in a haystack since samples are small and the lake is a big place.
That could change this weekend, as two efforts will leave no stone unturned - literally - in an effort to see if the clam-like creatures have begun to spread. The Cuerno Verde District of the Rocky Mountain Council of the Boy Scouts of America will have a camporee at Lake Pueblo this weekend. As a service project, the scouts Saturday will be turning rocks over on the shoreline and looking for mussels. "We haven't done an organized shoreline search," said Brad Henley, assistant manager of Lake Pueblo State Park. "The water levels are down on the lake, so they might turn up." The lake's levels have dropped about 18 feet since April, well within the zone where zebra mussels could live.
From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, a cleanup of the shoreline and the water is being organized by Aquatic Adventures Scuba & Swim and state parks. Certified divers will collect trash from the bottom of the lake, and rangers will be on hand to inspect the debris for mussels. Henley said pulling the trash from the water provides another opportunity to find the mussels, since they are frequently found attached to cans or other man-made surfaces as well as natural surfaces like rocks.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
Category: Colorado Water
6:06:39 AM
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© Copyright
2008
John Orr.
Last update:
10/1/08; 6:45:37 AM.
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