Day: June 17, 2013

Buena Vista: Cottonwood Creek project improves fishery

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From The Mountain Mail (Nancy Best):

Trout Unlimited, a national conservation organization, is active in the local area through its Collegiate Peaks Anglers chapter. The chapter serves the Upper Arkansas Valley from Leadville to Cotopaxi and boasts some 300 members. Despite its name, Trout Unlimited is not a fishing club; indeed, there are members who do not fish. However, what is common among them is a love of the outdoors and natural settings.

One project that TU spearheaded was the creation of the Buena Vista Wildlife Area on CR 361 just off CR 306, from what was an inaccessible marshy meadow and a section of Cottonwood Creek that was too straight and shallow for fish to thrive in.

Local TU member Bob Gray explained what was involved. A year was spent writing and presenting a grant to the federal program Fishing Is Fun. A wetland mitigation plan was submitted, and many different aspects of the project that needed to be coordinated were put in place. Then, it took only the month of August 2006 to actually construct the BV Wildlife Trail and rebuild the section of Cottonwood Creek running alongside it.

Led by TU, it truly was a town effort. ACA Products donated gravel and boulders. Town trucks hauled gravel, local graphic designer Sherry York researched and wrote informational signs, and Weston Arnold and Zeke Farber, two students in the high school metal shop program, constructed a handicapped guardrail to make fishing accessible to those in wheelchairs. The Department of Corrections heavy equipment program, led by Tom Foreman and Tom Bowen, provided machines and labor.

Rod van Velson, before his retirement from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, mapped out a new stream, designing where rocks should be placed and how they should be oriented in order to direct the water flow, create holding pools, undercut banks, speed up or slow down the creek and stabilize banks, all to make an inviting home for brown trout.

The concerted effort of those mentioned, plus other businesses and many volunteers, led to the rewards of having a trout stream close to town and a trail with interpretive signs that has the potential to expand. Gray said, “I think of the future of this area and how spectacular it would be to one day see open space and a trail all along Cottonwood Creek.”

The brown trout living in other parts of Cottonwood Creek have realized what a nice home this specifically designed area is and have migrated to it, increasing in size and number, making this a naturally reproducing brown trout fishery.

For fishermen, what makes for an ideal habitat for the trout also makes for technically challenging fishing. At the same time, the area has been improved for animals and birds, with elk wintering in the town-irrigated meadow and bluebirds nesting in the locally made birdhouses.

Members of TU continue to monitor and maintain the area. Some members, like Boys & Girls Club Board President Karen Dils, pick up trash, while others transplant willow trees to keep the shoreline as it should be.

More Arkansas River Basin coverage here.

Barr Lake/Milton Reservoir Watershed Association Public Stakeholder Meeting June 25

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Click here to read the agenda.

Metropolitan State University
OWOW Center Student Success Building
Room 400
890 Auraria Parkway

More South Platte River Basin coverage here.

Yuma: EPA Q&A on Spill Prevention and Control Countermeasures June 26

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From email from US Representative Cory Gardner:

UPCOMING EVENT: Q&A on Spill Prevention and Control Countermeasures

In conjunction with the Colorado Farm Bureau, we will be hosting an informational session for farmers and ranchers regarding the Spill Prevention and Control Countermeasures (SPCC) on Wednesday June 26 at 9am at 529 N. Albany Street in Yuma.

A representative from the Environmental Protection Agency will be on hand to discuss what is expected under new SPCC guidelines for storing fuel and petroleum products. SPCC regulations apply to any agricultural operation that stores over 1,320 gallons of oil, and it went into effect on May 10, 2013.

Anyone with questions concerning SPCC is encouraged to attend this informational session.

WHO: Congressman Cory Gardner’s office and Colorado Farm Bureau

WHAT: Informational session and Q&A with EPA representative on SPCC guidelines

WHEN: Wednesday June 26 at 9am

WHERE: 529 N. Albany Street, Yuma in the gymnasium

Parachute Creek spill: Recent testing (June 8-11) finds benzene in the creek #ColoradoRiver

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From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Dennis Webb):

Benzene has again been detected, but at barely detectable levels, in Parachute Creek at the site of a natural gas liquids leak.

The carcinogen was measured at 1.4 to 1.5 parts per billion at a single location in the creek in daily samples between Saturday and Tuesday, according to updates from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Williams, the company responsible for the leak.

Benzene hadn’t been detected for more than two and a half weeks in the creek after previously having been measured at levels that briefly and barely topped 5 parts per billion. That’s the drinking water standard for the contaminant, although the creek isn’t regulated as a drinking water source by the state.

The contamination resulted from a leak from a faulty pressure gauge on a pipeline leaving Williams’ natural gas processing plant northwest of Parachute. Williams believes about 10,000 gallons of natural gas liquids contaminated soil and groundwater, with benzene also eventually reaching the creek.

The weekend benzene detections were at just the one location where benzene in groundwater has been sporadically entering the creek. Samples up and downstream aren’t currently showing any benzene contamination, and no hydrocarbon sheen has ever been seen on the creek, CDPHE says.

It says the sampling shows the size of the groundwater contamination plume remains stable, with benzene concentrations at the plume’s end staying constant.

Williams continues to operate a groundwater aeration system to remove benzene, and work continues on construction of a new facility to remove and treat contaminated groundwater so it can be returned to the watershed. The system’s major components are on site, and work is being completed on plumbing and electrical systems and on obtaining state water discharge and air emission permits.

More oil and gas coverage here and here.

Drought news: Hydraulic fracturing competes with crops for water #COdrought

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From the Associated Press (Garance Burke) via the Longmont Times-Call:

Hydraulic fracturing, or the drilling technique commonly known as fracking, has been used for decades to blast huge volumes of water, fine sand and chemicals into the ground to crack open valuable shale formations. But now, as energy companies vie to exploit vast reserves west of the Mississippi, fracking’s new frontier is expanding to the same lands where crops have shriveled and waterways have dried up due to severe drought. In Arkansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wyoming, the vast majority of the counties where fracking is occurring are also suffering from drought, according to an Associated Press analysis of industry-compiled fracking data and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s official drought designations.

While fracking typically consumes less water than farming or residential uses, the exploration method is increasing competition for the precious resource, driving up the price of water and burdening already-depleted aquifers and rivers in certain drought-stricken stretches. Some farmers and city leaders worry that the fracking boom is consuming too much of a scarce resource, while others see the push for production as an opportunity to make money by selling water while furthering the nation’s goal of energy independence.

Along Colorado’s Front Range, fourth-generation farmer Kent Peppler said he is fallowing some of his corn fields this year because he can’t afford to irrigate the land for the full growing season, in part because deep-pocketed energy companies have driven up the price of water. “There is a new player for water, which is oil and gas,” said Peppler, of Mead. “And certainly they are in a position to pay a whole lot more than we are.” In a normal year, Peppler said he would pay anywhere from $9 to $100 for an acre-foot of water in auctions held by cities with excess supplies. But these days, energy companies are paying some cities $1,200 to $2,900 per acre-foot. The Denver suburb of Aurora made a $9.5 million, five-year deal last summer to provide the oil company Anadarko 2.4 billion gallons of excess treated sewer water…

In Colorado’s Weld County, home to Peppler’s farm and more than 19,000 active oil and gas wells, some officials see selling unneeded portions of their allotments from the Colorado River as a way to shore up city budgets. The county seat of Greeley sold 1,575 acre-feet of water last year to contractors that supply fracking companies, and made about $4.1 million. It sold farmers nearly 100 times more water but netted just $396,000.

More oil and gas coverage here and here.