From the High Country News (Emilene Ostlind):
Although the surface of Lake Mead today is at almost 75 percent of its maximum level, the reservoir holds just 39 percent of its full capacity. The new low illustrates a trend that has implications not just for the almost 20 million people downstream who rely on the reservoir’s water, but for the entire Colorado River watershed.
More Colorado River basin coverage here. More Lake Mead coverage here.
Update: From The Denver Post (Jessica Fender):
Lawmakers in the 2010 legislative session added $1.1 million to the Revenue Department’s budget to hire staff and contract third-party appraisers to resolve the backlog. That money became available at the start of July, department spokesman Mark Couch said. His agency welcomes an audit, he said. “We hope it will help resolve concerns about these tax credits,” Couch said. “These are very complicated tax returns. They take a lot of review when they go through the process of being disputed and protested. We didn’t have the funding until the beginning of the fiscal year.”[…]
An unknown number of landowners and tax-credit buyers around 2005 began getting notices from the Revenue Department advising them they had claimed a larger break than they were entitled to and questioning the appraised value of the land that determines the size of the credit. Of 2,847 conservation easements the state has considered between 2000 and 2008, about 500 have been denied or are in question, Revenue Department figures show. Letter recipients are given a month to appeal the decision. Many do.
And that’s where the bottleneck starts, according to J.D. Wright, president of Landowners United. The group advocates for about 90 landowners entangled in easement disputes. He said some property owners have erroneously had wages garnisheed. Others live in uncertainty about their financial futures.
From the Associated Press (Stephen K. Paulson) via Bloomberg Businessweek:
The Legislative Audit Committee on Monday said it will consider whether to audit the state Department of Revenue later this year to find out if landowners are being treated fairly and disputes are resolved in a timely manner. State Rep. Marsha Looper, a Republican from Calhan who requested the audit, says it could take 10 years at the current rate to resolve disputes from 355 landowners who claim over $90 million in tax credits. Those credits have been challenged by the state. Lawmakers first want to find out how much information is available because it involves confidential state and federal tax records. “Some of these property owners only have 30 days to protest denial of their appeals that could lead to foreclosure, and they’re not even getting a certified letter. Credit buyers are already getting liens on their loans. The state is going after the credit banks,” Looper said.
From The Denver Post:
South Metro Water Supply Authority, a public entity of cooperating water providers in Doug las and Arapahoe counties, has accepted Dominion Water and Sanitation District as its 15th member. Dominion is a wholesale water provider for the Chatfield Basin population, including Sterling Ranch.
More South Metro Water Supply Authority coverage here and here.
From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
The city plans to eat up the last of its stormwater funds generated from 2007-09 to finish up one project and meet its requirements for Environmental Protection Agency and Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment stormwater permits through next year.
Then, it will have to look to its general fund to meet the permit costs.Colorado Springs will spend only one-fifth of what it would have generated if the stormwater enterprise were still in place, and has nothing left for capital projects. City Council eliminated the enterprise nearly one year ago.
The news rankled Pueblo political and environmental leaders, who say Colorado Springs told the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Pueblo County commissioners the stormwater enterprise would help deal with growth issues created by the Southern Delivery System. “They consistently mentioned the stormwater enterprise and the $70 million in critical projects it would address,” said state Rep. Sal Pace, D-Pueblo, who protested unsuccessfully to Reclamation when the enterprise was dissolved. “It really appears Colorado Springs is not meeting their obligations under the Pueblo County 1041 permit as well.”[…]
In a memo presented to Council Monday, city staff reported there are only enough funds to partially cover next year’s projected stormwater costs.
The city only spent $26.5 million to deal with six of the highest priorities on a $300 million list of backlogged projects, $66 million of which were called critical. Of that, $5.6 million came from grants and partnerships. “No dedicated funding or engineering staff are projected to be budgeted in 2011 for stormwater capital improvement projects,” the memo states. Stormwater maintenance projects have been turned over to the the city street department, which will mainly respond to citizen complaints about structures that are not working properly, according to the staff report.
More stormwater coverage here.