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Thursday, October 2, 2008
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From The Sterling Journal Advocate: "The Board of Directors of the Republican River Water Conservation District will hold its regular quarterly meeting from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9, at the Wray Community Center (Roundhouse), 245 W. Fourth St."
Category: Colorado Water
7:54:56 PM 
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The Leadville Chronicle asks, "Will Lake County lift its state of emergency?" From the article:
The Board of County Com missioners (BOCC), who drew national attention to the LMDT in February when they declared a state of emergency in response to perceived potential of a mas sive tunnel blowout, have not officially chimed in yet. As more responses come in, the BOCC seems to be biding its time before making any more major decisions, namely lifting the emergency declaration. There is still a lot to consider, the commissioners have agreed. Commissioner Carl Schaefer said on Sept. 26 that he had just received a draft on comments from Jerry Stallman with the BOR in regard to the BOR emergency plan, and from BOR staff at the water treatment plant connected to the LMDT. According to Commissioner Mike Hickman, the BOCC has not yet discussed the latest assessment or whether to lift the declaration. "I was prepared to lift it...with the BOR's risk assess ment findings," said Hickman, but added that the BOCC decided to wait for the EPA's response as well before making a final decision.
After its initial release, Com missioner Ken Olsen said he didn't believe the BOR had suf ficiently addressed all concerns. After the commissioners received the EPA response on Sept. 12, a meeting was set between the BOCC, the Col orado Department of Public Health and Environment and the EPA to discuss the contents of the EPA's letter and the report the Corps of Engineers had pre pared for the EPA. The meeting was designed to help explain the finer points of the EPA's report. "We need to discuss it, have a public meeting about it and make a decision," said Hickman.
Thanks to the The Water Information Program for the link. More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here.
Category: Colorado Water
7:48:37 PM
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Here's an update on groundwater recharge efforts in the Upper Black Squirrel Basin, from The Colorado Gazette. From the article:
The subterranean basin could hold up to 605,000 acre-feet of water, a water expert from the Colorado Geological Survey told the El Paso County Water Authority on Wednesday. Rural water suppliers in the county are excited about the idea of using the storage space to help counter their dwindling groundwater supplies. But officials must now determine if it is legally possible, given Colorado's complicated water laws, in a basin where water disputes often wind up in court. "There's no question that the technology has proven water can be put into the ground," said hydrogeologist Ralf Topper. "What remains to be sorted out are the water law considerations." "If you put water in the ground, do you retain the right to withdraw that water in the future?" he said.
An alluvial aquifer, it is much shallower than the deep bedrock of the Denver Basin. It is mostly self-contained, meaning not much water would be lost to seepage. And as a state-designated basin, it isn't tied to any downstream surface water rights. Officials also know it is being depleted. With nearly 3,300 wells sucking out the water, it is thought to have lost 60,000 acre-feet since 1964, much of that between 1964 and 1974, when agricultural use was heaviest. "This really created an opportunity to put water back in the ground. If we've taken that much water out, we can certainly return that much water to the system," Topper said. The Colorado Geological Survey determined water could be put in, through injection wells, percolating ponds or other techniques. The survey also determined that not much water would be lost to out-flow, and there is an infrastructure in place to move the water. "The bottom line is that we've got the right land use planning, we've got large parcels of land that we can work with and we have the infrastructure in place to minimize the implementation costs of a potential project," Topper told the county water authority, which works on water issues on behalf of local suppliers.
Many rural water suppliers in the county support the plan, as does the Upper Black Squirrel Creek Ground Water Management District, appointed by the state to protect the water, which has often wound up in court with water suppliers over their use of the aquifer. Unlike Colorado Springs Utilities, which gets most of its water from snowmelt, most rural water comes from finite groundwater, and suppliers have long suffered from a lack of affordable storage capacity. An underground reservoir could hold water cheaper than a surface reservoir, without the loss of evaporation. The authority has estimated demand for water outside Colorado Springs is expected to be 32,260 acre-feet a year by 2020, up from 19,870 in 2000. Officials hope to begin a demonstration project next summer.
Supporters acknowledge there are many questions to be answered, including where the water would come from - treated effluent is the most probable source - which agencies would take part, how much it would cost to replenish the aquifer and where the money would come from.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here.
Category: Colorado Water
7:38:25 PM
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From The Valley Courier: "The [Colorado Conservation Partnership (CCP)] grant awarded the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust will help provide a conservation easement to permanently protect six miles of the Rio Grande along the 1,100-acre Rio Oxbow Ranch. The Rio Oxbow's forested uplands, broad irrigated meadows, and extensive river corridor, ponds and wetlands provide critical habitat for the endangered lynx, as well as high quantity and quality of habitat for two other high-priority endangered species, the boreal toad and the bald Eagle, along with important fisheries and big game habitat."
Category: Colorado Water
7:23:20 PM
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DARCA: "DARCA workshop, GIS for Ditch Companies, will be held Monday, November 17 from 9:00 to 4:00 p.m. in the Engineering Building at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. This one-day workshop will provide a basic understanding of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for use with irrigation system management. Through a hands-on tutorial, the course will provide an overview of GIS and participants will be guided through a lesson that uses real data that will likely be beneficial to your ditch company. Through this workshop you will learn to download data from the Internet, display the data using ArcGIS, and make informative maps...The price of the workshop is $100 for DARCA and Colorado Water Congress members and $200 for non-members. Lunch and refreshments are included. There is a limit of 30 participants. For information regarding workshop registration please visit the workshop area of the DARCA website or contact us at 970-412-1960."
Category: Colorado Water
7:07:45 PM
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From 7th Space.com: "Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced today that the Bureau of Reclamation has awarded a $14.8 million contract to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe's Weeminuche Construction Authority of Towaoc, Colo., for re-alignment of County Road (CR) 211 around Lake Nighthorse. "This is one more significant step towards the completion of the Animas-La Plata Project in which construction is quickly coming to a close," said Secretary Kempthorne. The road was designed under a cooperative agreement with La Plata County and will be located entirely on Reclamation land. Because the current CR 211 alignment would be inundated when filling of Lake Nighthorse commences, project workers are reconstructing the road in an area just north of the future reservoir. It will begin at the intersection of CR 212 and then follow the northerly ridge to tie into CR 141."
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
Category: Colorado Water
6:21:35 AM
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From The Aspen Times: "Pitkin County voters are being asked to raise the county's sales tax rate to pay for a new county program, called the 'Healthy Rivers and Streams Fund,' intended to protect, preserve and perhaps expand local water quality and quantities. The request is coming in the form of Referendum 1A, placed on the Nov. 4 ballot by the county commissioners in August. The referendum calls for raising the county's sales tax rate from its current level of 3.5 percent to 3.6 percent, an increase of one-tenth of 1 percent, or a dime on every $100 purchase of goods in the county."
More from the article:
If approved by the electorate, the tax, which is to be dedicated to what will be a newly created water fund, is expected to raise up to $1 million in revenues in its first year. That money is to be used strictly for:
- Maintaining and improving water quality and quantity within the Roaring Fork River watershed, which includes the tributaries up Castle, Maroon, Hunter, Snowmass and Woody creeks, as well as the Fryingpan and Crystal River valleys;
- purchasing, leasing or otherwise obtaining new water rights, and defending existing water rights in court;
- working on minimum stream-flow issues, in cooperation with nonprofits, state and federal agencies;
- promotion of water-conservation methods;
- and building or improving "capital facilities that contribute to the objectives listed above," according to the language of the question.
While the proposed fund has raised some eyebrows regarding whether the timing is right to be raising taxes -- given the national economic slump, the bedeviled housing market and the ailing stock markets -- it has not generated any organized opposition, at least not to the knowledge of Pitkin County Clerk and Recorder Janice Voss Caudill.
Category: Colorado Water
6:17:32 AM
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Here's an update on Powertech's proposed uranium mining operation in Weld County, from Fort Collins Now. From the article:
Plans to leach uranium out of the ground beneath Northern Colorado are quietly progressing, as the mining company awaits the final crop of tests on the land, air and water where it hopes to build its wells. And opponents of Powertech Uranium Corp. are waiting, too, hoping to maintain the momentum they gained last spring after the formation of two new laws strengthening state regulations. Richard Clement, chief executive officer of Powertech, said last week his company will complete its tests in December, and begin the process of applying for an underground injection control permit. Environmental regulations require the company to collect five quarters' worth, or 15 months, of data about existing conditions before anything can be done. "From that information, we're compiling all the data, including cultural resources, birds and bees and land, soils and air, baseline and radiometric surveys, and just a general dust (survey)," he said. "It's all the information that you have to have to create what the environment is before you begin operations." The first production wells could be drilled about a year after that, so roughly 15 months from now.
Last month, the company applied for permits to drill 10 holes on the Centennial Project site in Weld County, about 12 to 15 miles northeast of Fort Collins. Those holes will be used to determine where Powertech would locate a plant associated with the extraction of uranium from the sandstone...
This summer, a Belgian energy company called Synatom, a subsidiary of the European energy firm Electrabel, purchased a nearly 20 percent ownership in Powertech for about $9 million. Clement said Synatom handles all Belgium's nuclear power plants and is associated with Electricite de France, which handles the French plants. "They had an interest in gaining experience and participating in the development of uranium deposits because of their interest in nuclear power," he said. "The company was one of the premiere companies in terms of its personnel and properties, so they proffered some funds for participating in our company, which we accepted, and we will continue to work with them on a very close basis." Powertech also anticipates working with other companies prospecting for uranium in the region. There's always competition, but in an era and a region where in-situ leach mining is not exactly popular, uranium companies know they have to work together, Clement said. One other company, Australia-based Geovic, owns some uranium deposits near Grover, in northern Weld County...
Powertech and Geovic are hardly the only companies looking for uranium in Colorado. Others are prospecting in a historically productive region called the Uravan belt (known for its concentrations of uranium and vanadium), in southwest Colorado. Vince Matthews, director of the Colorado Geological Survey, said many uranium mines are in the process of trying to open or are in exploration phases to determine whether they would be commercially viable. "There have been more than 20,000 mining claims filed just on federal land in Colorado in the last three years. Most of those, from what we can see where they are located, are uranium," he said. Between 2005 and 2006, miners filed 10,000 claims; there were another 10,000 filed last year alone, Matthews said...
Two laws signed by Gov. Bill Ritter this spring will add controls on how those mines are to be cleaned up once the companies get uranium out of the ground. The laws, sponsored by Northern Colorado legislators, will require Powertech to use more water to clean up the mined area, Clement said. Powertech plans to force oxygenated groundwater into uranium-bearing sandstone layers underground, which formed as a barrier island of an ancient sea. Other minerals will come out of the sandstone with the uranium, and residents who use the same groundwater for domestic and agricultural purposes want to make sure it's safe. One of the measures, known as House Bill 1161 before it became law, will require the company to restore the groundwater to pre-mining conditions or better. Clement said many of the material that will come out with the uranium is not harmful and federal environmental regulations do not require their removal. Those include sulfates and chlorides, along with dissolved solids. Opponents of in-situ uranium mining point to those and other materials as proof that mining companies don't bring water back to its original state. Clement argued those materials are harmless.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here, here and here.
Category: Climate Change News
6:09:42 AM
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From The Rocky Mountain News: "Gov. Bill Ritter on Wednesday announced a drought and climate conference in Denver next week. Ritter will host the event sponsored by the Colorado Water Conservation Board and the Governor's Conference on Managing Drought and Climate Risk Oct. 8-10 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel."
Category: Colorado Water
5:58:29 AM
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© Copyright
2008
John Orr.
Last update:
11/1/08; 7:40:03 PM.
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