From email from Governor Hickenlooper’s office:
Gov. John Hickenlooper signed 12 bills into law today and yesterday…
HB13-1044, Authorize Graywater Use, Fischer/Schwartz, Concerning the authorization of the use of graywater.
More HB13-1044 coverage here. More 2013 Colorado legislation coverage here.
Here’s an in-depth look at how water served as the catalyst to unite San Luis Valley residents in opposition to plans to ship water to the Denver Metro area back in the 1980s and 1990s, from Nature Conservancy Magazine (Frederick Reimers). Click through and read the whole article. Here’s an excerpt:
In the early light of a spring morning in 1989 a fellow barged into the Crestone, Colorado, bakery where Christine Canaly worked, hungry for breakfast. The man, it turned out, was vice president of a company that planned to spend $150 million to drill 100 wells and pipe water from the rural San Luis Valley to the Denver suburbs, more than 100 miles away. Those suburbs, he said, would pay top dollar for the water, and the project would be a financial bonanza for everyone in the San Luis Valley…
…[Rancher Greg Gosar] had been chewing over a conversation that he’d had a year earlier. The principal owner of the sprawling, 97,000-acre Baca Ranch, a Canadian oilman named Maurice Strong, had been applying for extensive water rights in the valley. Gosar had asked Strong what he planned to do with the water. “Maurice told me, ‘We’re going to put in some potatoes, and we’re gonna plant quinoa,’” he recalls.
But Gosar didn’t quite believe it. And now, talking with [Christine Canaly], all the pieces began to fit together. Strong was the head of the same company that Canaly’s hungry visitor worked for. And if the massive water-export plan went through, there was a very good chance that the project would suck the valley’s farms and streams dry. Gosar was angry.
“Let’s go get these guys,” he told Canaly.
That was all she needed to hear. Within a few weeks, she and Gosar had formed a group called Citizens for San Luis Valley Water. Then, by happenstance, she met David Robbins, an attorney for the district that supplies water to local farmers.
“He’s this imposing, brilliant guy with a huge handlebar mustache,” says Canaly. “He told me they were already planning a lawsuit to stop the project. I asked him how he felt about citizens’ groups. He looked at me and said, ‘I love citizens’ groups.’”
More Rio Grande River Basin coverage here.
From The Denver Post (Bruce Finley):
Dealing with the Suncor spill north of Denver, detected in November 2011, still ranks among the toughest environmental challenges in the region. Another oil and gas industry spill this year tainted Parachute Creek in western Colorado with benzene. Spills from industry pipelines and storage facilities at 12 other locations have contaminated groundwater with benzene, prompting state health department orders for corrective action. About 20 percent of the 300-400 oil and gas spills reported annually to state commissioners reach groundwater.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is pressing companies responsible for the big spills to quickly remove all benzene from soil, water and air. But a review of Suncor case documents and interviews show that, even though benzene technically is easier than other toxic chemicals to remove, full cleanup can be complicated and slow…
CDPHE officials have identified a broken “dead-leg” pipe beneath a storage tank as the source of the Suncor spill. It was capped in February 2011, yet liquids that flowed from that pipe into an underground toxic plume continue to foul surface water in Sand Creek, which flows into the South Platte. Benzene-laced groundwater also has spread in other directions: along the concrete-lined Burlington irrigation ditch, beneath the adjacent Metro Wastewater Plant and under the bed of Sand Creek. The plume does not reach the river directly. The overall size is said to be stable or shrinking. But the levels of benzene — a widely-used a chemical contained in petroleum, known to cause blood cancer — this month remained around 33 parts per billion in the South Platte, state data show. The federal safe drinking water standard is 5 ppb. The river concentrations are down from 45 ppb in April and about 240 ppb a year ago. One mile downriver, the benzene dissipates to around 4 ppb, and 3 miles downriver the level is negligible. In Sand Creek, however, benzene remains significantly elevated, according to the data that comes from tests done by Suncor contractors…
Since 2011, he and other CDPHE officials have issued Suncor at least 10 formal orders to complete about 200 actions, including repairs near another storage tank. Today, underground walls of clay have been built around nearly half the known perimeter of the plume. Suncor crews have removed more than 1.2 million gallons of liquid hydrocarbons from trenches that crews dug after the spill was revealed. “The footprint of the contamination continues to shrink. The extensive remediation systems Suncor has designed and installed … are working effectively to reduce the contamination,” company vice president John Gallagher said in an e-mailed response to queries. “It is unlikely that there are other underground sources of contamination of a size that would reverse the positive trend we are seeing.”[…]
CDPHE officials in recent months have ordered the installation of more walls, monitoring wells to track toxic plumes, and aeration systems that suck benzene vapors from soil. More than 100 aeration wells have been placed between the refinery and Metro Wastewater, where required construction projects are in progress. Extracting benzene from soil is tricky because this transfers toxic material into the air. State air officials recently ordered Suncor to install emission controls, including charcoal filters, to minimize air pollution. They’ve directed Suncor to apply for an air pollution permit.
The CDPHE team also is demanding documentation of when and how broken pipes near storage tanks were repaired, including work orders. And CDPHE has ordered Suncor to hire an independent auditor to review its system for maintaining and inspecting storage tanks.
From The Denver Post (Scott Willoughby):
After winter’s late run put spring on ice into May, temperatures in the high country have suddenly spiked, triggering a rise in river levels as a massive meltdown gets underway. The Eagle River below Beaver Creek Resort, for example, rose roughly 1,000 cubic feet per second since the weekend. Below the Eagle’s Confluence with the Colorado, the increase in water flow was more than 1,500 cfs. Similar spikes can be seen on the Yampa, White, Roaring Fork and other freestone rivers across the state…
Although the upper Arkansas River is rising steadily, the promised recreational rafting releases of 700-plus cfs have yet to arrive for the summer and the river has been fishing well. As the snowmelt pushes into late May, however, members of the Arkansas River Outfitter Association say they expect runoff to crank up soon and linger a little longer.
“A key factor that plays out in May just about every year is the changing of the sun angle on the high elevation snowfields,” said Bob Hamel, owner of Arkansas River Tours. “This brings down whatever snow is there, no matter the amount of snow that is present. Of course other factors contribute like wind, dust in the snowpack, etc. Front Range weather is not always indicative of what is occurring up high. That is why we are keenly observant of the high elevation and monitor headwater Snotel sites.”
From the Associated Press (Mary Clare Jalonick) via The Denver Post:
The legislation, approved 15-5, includes concessions to Southern rice and peanut farmers, thanks to a new top Republican on the committee, Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran. The bill eliminates $5 billion in annual subsidies, called direct payments, that are important to those Southern farmers but makes it easier for them to receive alternate subsidies if prices dip.
T
he Senate bill calls for a total of roughly $2.4 billion a year in cuts, while a House version to be considered Wednesday would save $4 billion out of almost $100 billion annually. Those cuts include more than $600 million in yearly savings from across-the-board cuts that took effect earlier this year.Much of the savings in the House and Senate bills comes from eliminating the direct payments, which are frequently criticized because they aren’t tied to production or crop prices.
Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, the top Republican on the committee in the last session of Congress, criticized the higher subsidies for Southern farmers. “I simply don’t know how to justify a program that pays producers more than the cost of production and essentially becomes nothing more than another income-transfer program, not a risk-management tool,” Roberts said.
Here’s the release from Governor Hickenlooper’s office:
Gov. John Hickenlooper today directed the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) to begin work on a draft Colorado Water Plan that will support agriculture in rural Colorado and align state policy to the state’s water values.
“Colorado deserves a plan for its water future use that aligns the state’s many and varied water efforts and streamlines the regulatory processes,” Hickenlooper said. “We started this effort more than two years ago and are pleased to see another major step forward. We look forward to continuing to tap Colorado’s collaborative and innovative spirit to address our water challenges.”
An executive order signed by Hickenlooper directs the CWCB to utilize the work of the state’s grassroots water process, the Basin Roundtables and Interbasin Compact Committee, in developing a draft report by December 2014. A final report should be completed one year later.
The Colorado Water Plan is necessary to address a variety of issues, including:
The gap between water supply and water demand. The Statewide Water Supply Initiative forecasts that this gap could exceed 500,000 acre feet by 2050. Moreover, the largest regional gap is set to occur in the South Platte Basin, the most populous as well as the largest agriculture-producing basin. Colorado’s drought conditions threaten to hasten the impact of the water supply gap. Indeed, the past two decades have been Colorado’s warmest on record, dating back to the 1890s. Colorado’s water quantity and quality questions can no longer be thought of separately. Each impacts the other and state water policy should address them conjunctively. Interstate water concerns are as pressing as ever and require Colorado to be vigilant in protecting its interstate water rights pursuant to its nine interstate compacts and two equitable apportionment decrees. The Executive Order directs the CWCB to work with its sister agencies within the Colorado Department of Natural Resources as well as the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority, the Colorado Department of Agriculture, the Colorado Energy Office, and other relevant state agencies as needed. Each of these agencies is directed to cooperate with the CWCB as needed on the Colorado Water Plan.
“Throughout our state’s history, other water plans have been created by federal agencies or for the purpose of obtaining federal dollars,” the order says. “We embark on Colorado’s first water plan written by Coloradans, for Coloradans. Nevertheless, our past and current data and studies will aid in developing a plan for the future.”
A signed copy of the complete Executive Order ca be found here.
From the Summit County Citizens Voice (Bob Berwyn):
Colorado water experts will try to figure out how to manage the state’s most precious resource in an era when all signs points to increasing shortages and the potential for growing conflicts within the state and the region over its allocation.
Under an executive order issued this week by Gov. John Hickenlooper, the Colorado Water Conservation Board will lead the effort to address the growing gap between supply and demand. Especially worrisome is the gap in the South Platte Basin, the state’s most populous and at the same time, the most productive agricultural basin.
From KDVR ( Eli Stokols):
Hickenlooper also issued an executive order directing the Colorado Water Conservation Board to begin work on a draft Colorado Water Plan to address a water gap and streamline regulations across the state…
Environmentalists, who’ve been firing off sharp-tongued releases criticizing Hickenlooper after a series of legislative battles at the Capitol, lavished praise on the administration Wednesday.
“We are pleased to see that Gov. Hickenlooper highlights the need for smart, efficient water conservation as a key element of the State’s first ever water plan,” said Bart Miller, Water Program Director for Western Resource Advocates. “Conservation is faster, cheaper, and less controversial than building costly structural projects.”
“We congratulate Gov. Hickenlooper and our legislative champions for moving Colorado forward on transportation and water today,” said Conservation Colorado’s Pete Maysmith.
From The Denver Business Journal (Cathy Proctor):
A 2010 report from the Statewide Water Supply Initiative forecast that the gap between water supplies and demand in the state would be bigger than 500,000 acre feet by 2050. That’s enough water to supply more than 1 million households for a year.
Among Colorado’s river basins, the South Platte Basin — which supplies half the water used by Denver Water and supports agriculture operations downstream of Denver — had the biggest supply-demand gap, according to the governor’s office…
Craig Mackey —co-director of Protect the Flows, which represents 850 businesses that depend on the Colorado River — said Hickenlooper’s order was timely, given that parts of the state may might face water shortages this summer due to dismal snowpacks during the last two years.
“The governor understands that water drives Colorado’s economy and our quality of life, including 200,000 sustainable jobs in our tourism and recreation economy,” Mackey said.
