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Wednesday, September 24, 2008
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From email from Western Resource Advocates: "This is the first time in the nation that a PUC has approved a utility resource plan to retire old and inefficient coal-fired power plants and replace them with cleaner, more modern resources with the goal of cutting global warming pollution."
For a copy of the release send email to coyotegulch [AT] mac [DOT] com.
Meanwhile the predicted release of methane in the Arctic Ocean has been detected. From The Independent:
The first evidence that millions of tons of a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic seabed has been discovered by scientists.
The Independent has been passed details of preliminary findings suggesting that massive deposits of sub-sea methane are bubbling to the surface as the Arctic region becomes warmer and its ice retreats.
Underground stores of methane are important because scientists believe their sudden release has in the past been responsible for rapid increases in global temperatures, dramatic changes to the climate, and even the mass extinction of species. Scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed the entire length of Russia's northern coast have discovered intense concentrations of methane - sometimes at up to 100 times background levels - over several areas covering thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf.
The trouble with this scenario is that the release could result in a positive feedback loop where the increase of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere pushes Arctic temperatures up and more methane is released. And so on.
Category: Climate Change News
5:44:25 PM 
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From The Pueblo Chieftain: "The Army Corps of Engineers is funding a $414,000 project to repair damage to the embankment caused by small floods in recent years. 'We'd lost that section in 1999 and they had repaired it once,' said Dennis Maroney, Pueblo Stormwater Utility director. 'It had eroded, and a big storm would have taken the railroad tracks out.'"
More from the article:
"The purpose of the project is to repair and armor the bank to reduce the risk of further erosion," said Bruce Hill, spokesman for the Corps. Workers have cut a pilot channel down the center of Fountain Creek to divert the stream from the west bank. The channel is temporary, but will remain after the work is completed, Maroney said. However, the creek's natural tendency to develop sweeping curves to slow down flows - called sinuosity - will likely bring the creek closer to the west bank again after a large storm, Maroney said. "There are braided channels that meander," Maroney said.
When the initial work was done, the Corps used small rocks to line the bank under the railroad tracks. This time, the rocks will be wrapped in wire to prevent them from washing away again. More fill dirt also is being added to the bank. "We'd asked the Corps to use larger rocks, but they are staying with the original design," Maroney said.
The city last spring made similar repairs to Fountain Creek at Dillon Drive near the Pueblo Mall, using boulders in three jetties to break up flows. The design worked well during the Sept. 12 flooding, shuttling water away from the bank. Maroney said the value of side detention ponds was also evident during the Sept. 12 flooding. The flows were reduced in intensity from a 10-year storm at Security to a five-year storm at Pinon and a two-year storm at Pueblo, because rainfall was most intense at the Sand Creek tributary. The channel is wide enough to detain some of the flows coming down the creek during that type of storm. However, that type of storage would not stop a major storm over the entire watershed that continues over several days - the type of storm Fountain Creek experienced in 1999 or 1965, Maroney said.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
Category: Colorado Water
6:45:29 AM
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From The Glenwood Springs Independent: "Current data suggests that there is an 'acute problem with toxic emissions' from natural gas development, which could signify an 'emergent problem for the health' of Garfield County residents, a recently released report said. A group of seven researchers from the University of Colorado-Denver and Colorado State University said in a report that there are 'major gaps' in the past assessment of air and water quality associated with oil and gas development on the Western Slope. But 'air and water quality studies conducted to date indicate that potential exposures to hazardous emissions exist' for Garfield County residents, the report said. The researchers also said there is an 'immediate need for specific information on exposures and the impact from oil and gas development on all aspects of human health.' The group of researchers also called for further monitoring, and for oil and gas companies to release water and air quality data that may have been collected but are not in the public domain."
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
Category: Climate Change News
6:29:37 AM
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Here's an update on the progress of Colorado Springs proposed Southern Delivery System, from The Colorado Springs Gazette. From the article:
Colorado Springs Utilities got the green light from the City Council on Tuesday to start making deals for the Southern Delivery System's north route in El Paso County. Of the roughly 80 tracts, at least 10 are owned by Banning Lewis Ranch LLC. The 23,000-acre Banning Lewis Ranch, which has just recently started to be developed, is a prime reason for the proposed $1 billion pipeline from Pueblo Reservoir. Banning Lewis Ranch and the other owners, which include several developers, a church and more than a dozen individuals, will share in $6 million set aside for property for the north route, which runs from Squirrel Creek Road east of Fountain to northeast Colorado Springs. All but two of the transactions will be for easements, meaning the city will buy permission to use land beneath the surface. That means landowners would be able to use their property with certain restrictions, such as a prohibition on building structures over the 66-inch pipe. The pipeline will be buried in 12-foot-deep trenches beneath 66 inches of dirt. The city will buy only two tracts, one for a treatment plant and another for a pump station.
Dan Higgins, SDS construction manager, said the city feels comfortable acquiring rights for the north route prior to a federal permitting decision slated for next year, because the north route works for either of two alternatives the city is pursuing...
So far, the city has paid Wilson & Co., of Wichita, Kan., about $600,000 for real estate services in connection with identifying easements, title searches and other work for the north route. The consultant also will participate in negotiating with landowners. All deals will be submitted to the City Council for approval.
This summer, the city identified another potential site for the treatment plant. The 120-acre tract is located at Marksheffel Road and U.S. 24 and Colorado Highway 94 and would work for both the Pueblo Reservoir and Fremont County alternatives, Higgins said. It's owned by Colorado Springs Land Association, a coalition of investors. The original 200-acre treatment plant site lies just below the Jimmy Camp Creek Reservoir site north of highway 94 and west of Blaney Road. Utilities added the new alternative after substantial public concern was expressed during the Draft Environmental Impact Statement study about significant archaeological artifacts at the Jimmy Camp site from prehistoric times...
The city also has selected an alternate site for a reservoir. Besides the Jimmy Camp site owned by Banning Lewis developers, the city now is considering a tract south of Bradley Road east of Security for the reservoir, slated to go into service in 2018. The council approved proceeding with land acquisitions without discussion.
In a related matter, the council approved borrowing $45 million this fall to pay SDS' project costs next year.
It's not likely that the Southern Delivery System will be used to move water from the Bessemer ditch in the event that El Paso County water providers are successful in buying its shares, according to John Fredell, SDS project director via The Pueblo Chieftain. They write:
While the Pikes Peak group has studied building a pipeline from the Stonewall Springs site east of Pueblo, the water could conceivably be moved through SDS, a $1 billion proposal by Colorado Springs, Security, Fountain and Pueblo West to build a pipeline from Pueblo Dam 43 miles north. It will be years before Colorado Springs needs the full capacity of the pipeline, so in the meantime other entities could physically use the excess space. Fountain and Security are also members of the El Paso County Water Authority and would be entitled to use new water rights as part of the SDS supply. Colorado Springs is not a member of either group Barber represents. However, there is no standing agreement and many details would have to be worked out before that could happen, said John Fredell, SDS project director. "I'm not saying it couldn't be done, but there is no agreement today," Fredell said. "There would need to be an environmental study, but it's not going to be in our environmental impact statement."
Any El Paso County water users other than Colorado Springs, Security and Fountain would need to obtain the same contracts from the Bureau of Reclamation that the SDS partners are using. "Clearly, they would have to study the environmental impacts," Fredell said. In addition, there would be issues with the Bessemer Ditch bylaws, which currently restrain use of the water to historically irrigated lands, and with Pueblo County land-use regulations under the 1974 HB1041...
Reclamation will not consider the potential transport of Bessemer Ditch water in the current EIS, because it is not a "reasonably foreseeable action," as defined by Reclamation policy, said Mike Collins, area manager. Reclamation intends to finish the EIS, including a new section on water quality, by the end of this year and begin contract negotiations for SDS in early 2009, Collins added.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here, here and here.
Category: Colorado Water
6:17:20 AM
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© Copyright
2008
John Orr.
Last update:
10/1/08; 6:46:38 AM.
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