Monday, October 27, 2008

Big Thompson Watershed Forum: Annual meeting From the Loveland Reporter Herald: "[The] Big Thompson Watershed Forum's annual meeting is Tuesday in Berthoud. The meeting begins at 8 a.m. at Northern Water, 220 Water Ave." Category: Colorado Water 6:18:55 PM     Trial to in RGWCD groundwater management Sub-district #1 The trial stage of the fight over the Rio Grande Water Conservation District's groundwater management Sub-district #1, according to the Pueblo Chieftain. From the article: A plan designed to reduce groundwater irrigation in the north-central San Luis Valley while avoiding state-mandated regulation will get its day in court Monday. The trial in the Division 3 Water Court is expected to last two to three weeks, and will examine the approval of the plan by the Rio Grande Water Conservation District and the state engineer's office. Groundwater irrigators in southern Saguache County and northern Alamosa and Rio Grande counties are backing the plan, which lays out a combination of assessment fees and funding from a federal conservation program that would allow them to fallow up to 40,000 acres." More Coyote Gulch coverage here. Category: Colorado Water 6:13:45 PM     Metro Wastewater Reclamation District: Moving to a decommissioning of their gaseous system The Metro Wastewater Reclamation District is using a different disinfection agent to help with security around the plant, according to the Denver Post. From the article: To eliminate rail shipments of chlorine -- which carry with them the danger that a terrorist attack or accidental derailment could unleash a poisonous cloud of gas -- the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District is in the final stage of switching to safer chemicals for its disinfection process. For years, Metro Wastewater has used chlorine to disinfect effluent before it is discharged into the South Platte River. Now, the district has constructed a new process that instead uses 12.5 percent liquid sodium hypochlorite, a concentrated form of household bleach, as the disinfection chemical... The twin concerns of accidental release or deliberate attack have prompted a number of wastewater plants across the country to convert to alternative disinfection techniques that eliminate shipments and on-site storage of chlorine. Metro Wastewater recently opened an $11 million structure for storing and pumping liquid sodium hypochlorite as its disinfection chemical and sodium bisulfite, a companion liquid that is used to de-chlorinate residual amounts of the disinfecting chemical in the wastewater just before it is released into the Platte. Until the new hypochlorite process is fully certified, Metro Wastewater still is using chlorine disinfection as well as the new process, Rogowski said. Tank cars with chlorine and sulfur dioxide sit within a locked, fenced-in area at Metro Wastewater that is topped with razor wire and monitored by rifle-toting guards. Under the old disinfection process, gaseous sulfur dioxide is used for dechlorination before wastewater is released to the river. The facility's new disinfection system is more costly than the chlorine-based operation -- about $1 million more per year. But Rogowski said: "We felt the costs are more than offset by the benefits in improved site safety. Our intention was and still is to move to a decommissioning of our gaseous system." Category: Colorado Water 5:48:06 PM     Hazardous spills up since 1998 From the Denver Post: "Hazardous-waste spills and discoveries reported to Colorado authorities nearly doubled over the past decade, from an average of 561 a year from 1998 to 2000 to an average of 1,035 from 2005 to 2007. Population growth, carelessness, and the boom in oil and gas drilling are largely to blame. Much of the increase comes from rural Colorado, where towns often lack equipment and training to deal with the growing number of incidents. Some count on volunteers, or Colorado State Patrol troopers, who respond as soon as possible to contain spills yet lack resources for actual cleanup." Category: Climate Change News 5:33:21 PM     Windy Gap Firming Project and Moffat expansion project Gretchen Bergen makes the argument against more transmountain diversions in yesterday's Denver Post. She writes: The draft EIS looks only at impacts from the Windy Gap Firming Project. (Dec. 29 is the deadline for public comments on the Windy Gap EIS.) Denver Water's Moffat Firming Project will further reduce flows in the upper Colorado. Both projects are seeking federal approval at the same time and their collective impacts (think two big straws in the same soda) need to be considered. More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here. Category: Colorado Water 5:30:11 PM     Happy Birthday to Theodore Roosevelt Happy 150th birtday to Theodore Roosevelt -- 26th president of the United States -- and creator of our National Forests amongst other outstanding conservation measures. Enabling Los Angeles to dry up of the Owens Valley not so much. We bet the Republicans could win with you this year. Populism is all the rage. 5:15:47 PM     Bayfield treatment plant facing increased costs and decreased demand for taps Bayfield's new treatment plant may be facing funding problems due to site conditions and reduced demand for taps, according to the Pine River Times. From the article: Sales tax, the life blood of town governments, is looking good in Bayfield this year despite national economic conditions. Sewer tap fee revenue to pay for the new $7 million sewage treatment plant is another matter. Town trustees got that information on Oct. 7 along with presentation of the first draft of the 2009 town budget. The budget shows $2.4 million being spent on the new sewer plant this year, and $4.6 million in 2009. Site work started in July. It has been complicated - and the costs increased - by boggy conditions. Town Manager Justin Clifton advised that the number of new sewer taps being sold is below the estimated 30 per year that the town was counting on to make debt payments on the new plant. He told the Times that around 24 taps have been sold this year. Payments on the loan principal were deferred for a year, but then they will be $367,000 a year, and 30 tap sales covers half of that, Clifton said. "Even if we are only short five taps, that's $30,000," he said... The first payment was $23,000 in 2007. It increased to $133,000 this year. In 2009 it will be $182,000. In 2010 it will jump to $367,000 and stay at that level through the life of the loan. Clifton said his goal is to get a year's worth of extra debt payments set aside in case there is a year with really poor tap sales, but escalating plant construction costs are making that hard. He said the increases are due to general construction cost increases, as well as dealing with the boggy site. More Coyote Gulch coverage here. Category: Colorado Water 6:35:30 AM     Tour of Boulder's 75th Street Wastewater Treatment Plant on Tuesday From the Boulder Daily Camera: "A public tour and open house is scheduled to help celebrate the completion of Boulder's 75th Street Wastewater Treatment Plant. The tour of plant improvements will be from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday at the plant, 4049 75th St. The celebration will include a reception, brief presentation and tour of the completed improvements." Category: Colorado Water 6:29:23 AM     Southern Delivery System: 3 public meetings this week Here's an analysis of Pueblo County's concerns over the Southern Delivery System from the Pueblo Chieftain. From the article: Ultimately, the major concern of Pueblo County with Southern Delivery System is not the 100-foot-wide path for a trench from Pueblo Dam to the El Paso County line that would come and go in a couple of years. Instead, it is the potential for more permanently damaging flows down Fountain Creek that will come as Colorado Springs and neighboring communities grow that has drawn the heaviest feedback. In court, Colorado Springs has fought Pueblo's authority to regulate SDS on the basis of Fountain Creek impacts. In practice, Colorado Springs has included Fountain Creek in its application for a Pueblo County 1041 land-use permit, and touts its responsiveness to downstream concerns by citing the millions of dollars it has spent to fortify its sewer lines, contain spills and improve flood structures. Colorado Springs is taking pro-active measures by participating in the Fountain Creek Vision Task Force and by developing a Master Plan in cooperation with the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District. Still, Colorado Springs resists the notion that locating the intake for SDS downstream of the Fountain Creek confluence at the Arkansas River is an environmentally sound policy, despite the fact that groups like the Sierra Club favor it, because it would force Colorado Springs to deal with its own effluent. "There's no incentive to clean Fountain Creek if we have to treat it with reverse osmosis," SDS Project Director John Fredell said last week. "We could take water of any quality and ship it north." Additional energy required to pump the water from further down the river would add cost and enlarge the "carbon footprint" of SDS, Fredell added. Environmental groups, in their comments about SDS to the Bureau of Reclamation, now developing an environmental impact statement, said not enough information was included in the report about potential alternative energy options that could reduce the carbon output of the project. There is also worry downstream that Colorado Springs voters will gut the recently created stormwater enterprise that is generating $17 million a year to begin addressing a $300 million backlog of sewer projects. A proposition sponsored by state Rep. Doug Bruce would make stormwater fees voluntary... Those who live along Fountain Creek are particularly worried about the continued destruction of their property from more intense flows caused by development to the north. It is the chief concern of the Turkey Creek Conservation District, which also worries about the impact of the pipeline construction as it crosses fragile ecosystems. The district also asked Pueblo County to consider whether wetlands created by additional flows down Fountain Creek could become mosquito breeding grounds. "Contrary to Colorado Springs Utilities' denials, flood events are exacerbated by the increased daily flows in the Fountain caused by the introduction of hundreds of cubic feet of effluent from upstream sewage disposal systems," Bill Alt, president of the Turkey Creek district, wrote in a letter to Pueblo County planners. Alt, who lives along Fountain Creek just north of Pueblo, also said the higher average flows on the creek have increased turbidity, salinity and selenium in Fountain Creek flows. Past erosion and floods have taken chunks of property away from landowners... Absent in the 1041 application or the Reclamation report, is any mention of the possibility of building a dam on Fountain Creek, a proposal first suggested in 2005 by Pueblo County's land-use attorney Ray Petros. The Corps this year evaluated and rejected one site just north of Pueblo because it would not be cost-effective in terms of flooding. Petros' idea was a multipurpose reservoir that would accommodate storage for reuse by Colorado Springs, recreation and flood control. Federal legislation to study the feasibility of a multipurpose reservoir or series of reservoirs has been introduced by U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo. Colorado Springs envisions two reservoirs as part of SDS. The terminal storage reservoir on Upper Williams Creek would be used for raw water supply and recreation. An exchange reservoir lower on Williams Creek would regulate return flows of treated effluent and would be closed to recreation... There are three meetings this week on the proposed Southern Delivery System... Pueblo West Impacts - Monday at the VFW Post 5812 Building, 127 E. Spaulding Ave., Pueblo West. An open house will be from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. followed by a public meeting on the impacts of the pipeline route through Pueblo West. The meeting is part of the Pueblo County 1041 process. Fountain Creek Impacts - Thursday at the El Pueblo History Museum, 310 N. Union Ave. An open house will be from 5:30 to 6 p.m., followed by a meeting on impacts to Fountain Creek. The meeting is part of the Pueblo County 1041 process. Changes in the draft EIS - The Bureau of Reclamation will host a public hearing on the supplemental information report to the draft EIS on SDS from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Pueblo Convention Center, 320 Central Main St. Speakers may register from 5:30 to 6 p.m. and will be limited to three minutes. More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here. Category: Colorado Water 6:20:56 AM     Amendment 52 Here's an analysis of Amendment 52 from the Grand Junction Free Press. From the article: [Jim] Spehar, a former Grand Junction City Council member and Mesa County commissioner, joined a bipartisan group of community leaders at a press conference Friday to speak against Amendment 52, which they say would earmark funds for maintenance and construction along Interstate 70 at the expense of state water projects. State Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, former Republican state Rep. Matt Smith, Grand Junction City Council Member Linda Romer Todd and Tom Burke, former chairman of the Colorado Wildlife Commission, also spoke against the measure. State Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, coauthor of Amendment 52, admitted Friday that part of the purpose of Amendment 52 is to counter Amendment 58. Amendment 52 proposes to change the state constitution in regards to the allocation of revenues from state severance tax; Amendment 58 would change state law without amending the constitution. Amendment 58 would eliminate a state tax credit given to the oil and gas industry which would boost state severance tax collections by $321 million in budget year 2010. The increased revenue would go toward college scholarships for in-state residents, wildlife habitat, renewable energy projects, transportation projects in energy-impacted areas and water treatment grants. Colorado's current severance tax rate is the lowest among eight Western energy-producing states. Amendment 58 would raise the state's rate to the third lowest. Companies pay Colorado severance taxes to extract nonrenewable resources from public lands. Currently state severance taxes are split between local governments and the Department of Natural Resources. Half of what the DNR receives go to the Colorado Water Conservation Board. Amendment 52 would not change the tax credit given to energy companies. According to the Colorado Secretary of State Web site, three energy companies -- Plains Petroleum and Exploration of Houston, Berry Petroleum in Bakersfield, Calif., and Occidental Oil and Gas Corporation of Los Angeles -- each contributed $100,000 in July to pay help get Amendment 52 on the ballot. Amendment 52 would change how severance taxes are distributed... A "massive" funding shortage for Colorado's roads and bridges is the motivation for Amendment 52, Penry said. But amending the Colorado Constitution to fix roads is "wrong," Buescher said. "We should not put transportation policy in our state constitution. Times change. It may not work in 15 years. It's putting water against transportation." Spehar said the Colorado Municipal League also opposes Amendment 52, saying the state constitution is the "wrong place to do this kind of work." Romer Todd agreed. "We're not against funding transportation; it's just the wrong mechanism," she said. Club 20, Colorado Water Congress, Colorado Water Conservation Board, Colorado River Basin Roundtable, Colorado Farm Bureau and the Colorado Farmers Union oppose Amendment 52. More Coyote Gulch coverage here. Category: Colorado Water 6:05:38 AM

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