Day: June 13, 2016
Construction will close US 34 from October 2016 to June 2017 — CDOT
From the Colorado Department of Transportation via The Estes Park Trail-Gazette:
The Colorado Department of Transportation announced today that beginning in late October and continuing through early June of 2017, travel on U.S. Highway 34 between Estes Park and Loveland will be limited to Big Thompson Canyon residents only seven days a week.
Permitted residents will be allowed access between the hours of 6 to 8:30 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m.
The highway will remain open this summer to traffic in both directions, but when work begins in July, there will be short-duration lane closures for general construction activities and traffic stops for rock blasting work between Mile Points 77 and 81 (from just east of Drake to the Cedar Cove area). People driving through this area should plan for up to 20- to 30-minute delays throughout the summer.
This fall when travel is restricted to canyon residents, only drivers displaying the requisite vehicle permit will be allowed to follow pilot cars in either the eastbound or westbound direction between Drake and Cedar Cove. With the closure area being about 3 ½ miles long, canyon residents will encounter some delays as each pilot car completes its passage through the work zone and is ready to make the return trip in the opposite direction. This phase of work, which will focus on the east end of the canyon between mile markers 77 – 80, will start in October and continue through early June 2017.
“We took into consideration all the public comments received in several public meetings, emails and phone calls, conversations with emergency service provides, school bus drivers, city agencies and various other project partners, when we developed this traffic management plan for the first phase of work between Drake and Loveland,” said James Usher, U.S. 34 Big Thompson Canyon Project Director.
The only access to U.S. 34 from late October through June 2017 will be canyon residents, emergency services and people doing business in the canyon (i.e. waste haulers, propane companies, package delivery, etc.) through permits. In September, CDOT will distribute detailed information on how to obtain permits and how this process will work.
All others will need to use U.S. High 36 and Colorado Highway 66 to travel between Estes Park and Loveland.
“We realize that while this traffic control schedule accommodates most of the concerns we heard from the community, it won’t address every concern and cater to everyone’s personal schedule. In the interest of maintaining safe access to canyon residents and completing this first phase of rock blasting work as quickly as possible, it was determined that this was the best option available,” said Usher.
This traffic control schedule also enables most of the stringent travel restrictions to occur during the tourism “off season” to minimize the impact on area businesses. While there will be traffic impacts in subsequent summers that include sections of one-lane travel through the canyon, this summer there will only be short-term traffic stops when blasting work is done. Through travel will be maintained in the canyon this summer and all businesses will be open and accessible.
U.S. 34 Big Thompson Canyon was heavily damaged during the 2013 floods with many homes damaged and more than 100 air-lifted evacuations performed. The canyon and its residents also suffered from flooding in 1976. As a result of these two events, CDOT has been studying the hydraulic flow of the river in the canyon and its impact on the road and bridges along its path while looking for safety improvements and resiliency solutions to prevent/protect against future flood events.
CDOT Project Information
For updates to this project, the public may call (720) 263-1589 or visit http://www.codot.gov/projects/floodrelatedprojects/us-34-big-thompson-canyon-1. To sign up for “CDOT Alerts” on projects in your chosen area, visit CDOT’s website http://atwww.codot.gov and choose the envelope icon at the bottom of the page. Or, to see CDOT’s lane closure reports for projects statewide, visit http://www.codot.gov/travel/scheduled-lane-closures.html. Major CDOT project updates are also available via CoTrip.org, Twitter @coloradodot or Facebook.
2016 #coleg: Water in the just ended legislative session.
From The Colorado Independent (Marianne Goodland):
Authorizing the use of rain barrels wasn’t the only major water decision to come out of the 2016 legislative session, but no matter your views on the issue, it was clearly this session’s shiny new dime.
Gov. John Hickenlooper signed House Bill 16-1005 into law on May 12, the day after the session ended.
The new law allows most Colorado households to collect rain coming off of rooftops into two 55-gallon rain barrels. That water can only be applied to outdoor use, such as watering lawns and gardens.
Rain barrel use has actually been legal for some Coloradans since 2009, primarily for those who don’t have well access. But the ability for urban dwellers to collect rain has been a controversial issue, blocked primarily by rural lawmakers and their supporters who fear such use will interfere with the state’s prior appropriation doctrine. The implication is that rainwater, which drains into ground water basins along the Front Range, for example, belongs to those who hold first claim on water rights and who use that groundwater for irrigation purposes.
Conservation groups have argued that allowing municipal residents to collect rainwater will help educate them about the need to conserve water. Such education could even help with the implementation of Hickenlooper’s statewide water plan, which includes a lofty water conservation goal of 400,000 acre-feet.
City slickers can start collecting rainwater on August 10.With the exception of the rain barrel bill, water issues took something of a back seat in 2016. The interim water resources review committee, which typically sponsors the year’s major water bills, had nothing for lawmakers to consider in 2016.
But that didn’t stop lawmakers from coming up with their own water ideas.
On Thursday, Hickenlooper signed HB 16- 1256, which tasks the Colorado Water Conservation Board with studying the South Platte River for possibilities on water storage.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. J. Paul Brown, a Republican from the southwestern town of Ignacio, tackles the issue of trying to hang onto millions of acre-feet of water that annually leaves Colorado via the South Platte and heads into Nebraska. Water experts have long noted that Colorado sends more water into Nebraska from the South Platte than is required by a nearly century-old water compact.
But why would a Western Slope lawmaker, whose district is the furthest away from the South Platte, take an interest in a South Platte reservoir? It’s all about protecting Western Slope water, Brown said.
Brown told this reporter that the state water plan envisions more water flowing from the Western Slope to the Eastern Plains. At the same time, Colorado River water, the main body of water on the Western Slope, is needed to boost Lake Powell water levels, which are currently at historic lows. That lake provides water to Arizona, Nevada, California — which is coming out of a record drought — and even Mexico, under water compacts. “We just don’t have the water” to send to the Eastern Plains, Brown said.
He also pointed out that most of the water that will fill an expanded Gross Reservoir in Boulder and Glade Reservoir in Larimer County comes from the Western Slope. “I support all of that, but I also believe we shouldn’t let the South Platte River water leave the state,” Brown said.Water storage along the South Platte would solve this dilemma. The idea dates back at least 50 years, when a reservoir was proposed for The Narrows, an area along the South Platte near Fort Morgan. That idea was ultimately vetoed by President Jimmy Carter, and since then, some of the land intended for the project has been developed.
Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg of Sterling marshaled the storage bill through the Senate. “I think we will see out of this — no more talk, no more hypothetical — locations we can pursue. We have places that could be options, such as Pawnee Pass between Kersey and Wiggins, or The Narrows, which would be the big project. Small projects also could be necessary. But this study will set those locations.”
Added Sonnenberg, “All of this is part of the grand scheme to keep Colorado’s water in Colorado.”
Storage on the South Platte will also help protect endangered species and promote recreational use, Brown said. Coming up with the money for storage will be tough, he said, and it won’t happen overnight. It will take years of planning, but Brown is hoping that process can be speeded up — something another one of this year’s bills could help with.
On June 8, Hickenlooper signed a bill authorizing a position that would work on one of the biggest problems with new water storage projects: local, state and federal permitting. That new law, also carried by Sonnenberg, tasks a gubernatorial appointee with coordinating the permitting process.
Lawmakers did reject one proposal tied to the state water plan. That bill, HB 16-1313, would have asked local communities to incorporate water conservation and water management goals from the state water plan into their own master plans. It would have also asked cities and towns to require developers to incorporate some of those conservation and management goals into their development plans as a condition for approval.
The bill had bipartisan sponsorship throughout its trip through the House, including favorable votes from 10 mostly-rural Republican lawmakers and the entire Democratic caucus of 34. Rep. Jon Becker of Fort Morgan was among those 10 Republican lawmakers to vote in favor of it.
Environmental groups like Conservation Colorado and Trout Unlimited backed the bill, as did Northern Water and Adams County. But other county governments across the state opposed the bill and some lawmakers — even those who voted for it — said the measure was unnecessary and that county governments didn’t need the state’s permission. Republican sponsor Rep. Don Coram of Montrose acknowledged that some counties already do what’s included in the bill, but wanted the General Assembly to encourage more of it.
The measure met its match in the Senate, where it was assigned to the Senate’s “kill committee:” State, Veterans and Military Affairs. There, with Sonnenberg in opposition, it lost on a 3-2 vote.
The interim water resources review committee, of which Becker and Sonnenberg are both members, begins its summer schedule on June 20 with a tour of the Gunnison basin.
#ColoradoRiver #COWaterPlan: Making water conservation a reality #COriver
From the Middle Colorado Watershed Council (Dan Ben-Horin) via The Glenwood Springs Post Independent:
It may be difficult to think of water conservation now as we look out our windows at rivers and creeks swollen with spring runoff, but we need to remind ourselves of where we live. Here in the Colorado River Basin, we live with a constant threat of a looming drought.
As Eric Kuhn wrote in his May 12 article in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, “we cannot be fooled by talk of a continuing drought. Instead, we need to be diligent and prepared for the next drought.” Our current reality includes an increasing population and a decreasing water supply, and it is now time for us to realize how far conservation measures can improve our water use efficiency.
As part of the recently published Colorado Water Plan, one of the Colorado River Basin’s themes is to encourage a high level of conservation. Statewide, we have done a remarkable job of reducing water use, with per-capita use dropping by almost 20 percent over the past decade. Some municipalities have even cut water use by as much as 30 percent during this time period. Incredible work has been done thus far, and we can now build upon what we learned statewide.
Many entities in the state are now required to have a specific water conservation plan approved by the Colorado Water Conservation Board. Locally, the Roaring Fork Conservancy partnered with the Community Office for Resource Efficiency, Ruedi Water and Power Authority and local municipalities in the Roaring Fork Watershed to develop a water efficiency plan. The plan consists of water efficiency plans for Aspen, Snowmass Village, Basalt, Carbondale and Glenwood Springs, as well as a regional plan that applies the common elements of the five individual plans to the watershed.
Plans such as this outline actions steps for reaching conservation goals by identifying best practices such as landscape efficiencies, water loss management features and variable rate structures. A successful conservation strategy must look beyond past accomplishments and create a specific action plan to meet conservation goals.
The water saving benefits resulting from water efficiency projects are tremendous. Reductions in water demands allow providers to save money on annual operations and maintenance. Further reductions in municipal water use would provide increased longevity on facilities right here in our communities.
In addition to these water supply benefits, we can achieve other benefits, such as an improved environment. Reduced wastewater discharges through indoor water savings can improve water quality and aquatic habitat in our lakes, rivers and streams.
Conservation also acts as a management tool to buffer against drought. Water providers can store water in a drought reserve as a long-term water conservation effort, and use those reserves during periods of shortages. As Mr. Kuhn pointed out in his May 12 article, when we entered the drought period of 2000-04, both Lake Powell and Lake Mead were completely full. Having reserves allowed us to mitigate the potentially devastating consequences of those dry years. With those lakes currently sitting at approximately 40 percent of capacity, what would happen if we were to enter into a period of prolonged drought today?
We cannot allow ourselves to become shortsighted when water is plentiful. It is time to build upon the conservation measures and efficiency savings we have already achieved. By adopting a variety of strong, permanent tools, we can fulfill our ongoing obligation to conserve water resources. The reality of climate change is that hotter, drier weather will become the new normal in the West, so conservation of our precious resource should become the new normal as well. As we learn and adapt to living in this semi-arid climate, we can make conservation become the new water reality.
Dan Ben-Horin is a watershed specialist for the Middle Colorado Watershed Council, which works to evaluate, protect and enhance the health of the Middle Colorado River Watershed through the cooperative effort of watershed stakeholders. To learn more, go to http://www.midcowatershed.org.
Meanwhile here’s a report about conservation in the water sector in California from Joshua Emerson Smith writing in The Los Angeles Times:
…a new study finds that reductions in urban water use have saved significant amounts of electricity and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
The analysis, published by UC Davis, capitalized on the unique circumstances created by California’s drought. It culled statistics that electric utilities and water districts statewide were required to submit because of Gov. Jerry Brown’s unprecedented order for residents and businesses to lower water consumption by an average of 25%.
During Brown’s initial emergency conservation program that stretched from June 2015 through February, energy savings from water conservation totaled 922,543 megawatt-hours — enough to power 135,000 homes for a year, according to the data project…
The electricity saved from less water consumption was substantial enough that during peak summer months last year, savings equaled the effect of all energy efficiency programs offered by major investor-owned utilities in the state combined — and at less than a third of the cost.
“We were quite surprised when we looked at the numbers,” said Frank Loge, director of the UC Davis Center for Water-Energy Efficiency, which produced the new analysis.
“I think people have known this intuitively for a couple of years, but our analysis highlighted it,” he added.
The findings come as environmental groups and water managers have sometimes differed on how much conservation is needed, especially as new supply sources — including desalination plants, expanded reservoirs and water recycling programs — come online.
Separate utilities board for #Colorado Springs?
From The Colorado Springs Gazette (Billie Stanton Anleu):
When you pay that bill to Colorado Springs Utilities each month, you might not realize that Colorado Springs owns the four-utility organization, and it’s run by the City Council, which also functions as the Utilities Board.
Mayor John Suthers, Council President Merv Bennett and Colorado Springs Forward, a powerful nonprofit, want to see an appointed board take over governance of the $1 billion-a-year public entity.
Most City Council members don’t. They want either an elected board or no change at all. So Suthers and Colorado Springs Forward are pushing for a compromise – a hybrid board, with a majority of appointed members plus a few elected ones.
What’s the best model to govern Utilities? Through the City Council, as is done now, a different elected board, an appointed board or a combination of both? And if members will be appointed, who should appoint them?
Current Utilities Board members could recommend a switch to any of those new models, but they don’t decide whether a change actually gets made. That will be up to voters, the ratepayers themselves, who are expected to see a ballot proposal in April.
The hybrid board
This model is widely regarded as dysfunctional, and the Utilities Board voted unanimously May 25 to reject it as an option.
“The hybrid governance model is rare, for good reason,” said Jeff Tarbert, consulting facilitator for the Utilities Board’s governance review. “Any model that has the consequence of creating unintended factions or creates confusion concerning where a board’s ultimate fiduciary duty lies makes effective governance more difficult.”
Bennett said, “All the research we’ve done, in every instance, it (the hybrid model) created dysfunction. I could accept either (appointed or elected); I much prefer an appointed board.”
Board member Keith King said he sat on the Colorado League of Charter Schools’ hybrid board for 14 years and watched as fighting factions formed.
“In the end, it was a non-functioning board. A hybrid does not work well because people who are elected then are appointing people to the board. It makes for conflicts,” King said.
The league structure was changed four years ago. Now all its members are elected, King said.
Colorado Springs Forward leaders said in a statement to The Gazette they prefer the elected model: “While we see many advantages to the all-appointed option . we believe the hybrid of appointed and elected is the better alternative .”
The status quo
Some Utilities Board members believe they’re doing a fine job in that role even while serving on the City Council.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” said City Council President Pro Tem Jill Gaebler.
“They say they want people who would focus exclusively on Utilities. Tell me who that is. Give me a name. Those who are qualified are probably CEOs of other companies, and I don’t think they’re going to have any more time than I do.”
That’s a reversal from Gaebler’s position six months ago, when she said serving Utilities and its committees took too much time. “I don’t think it’s fair to ask that much of a council that has a whole other role at $6,250 a year,” she said then.
Gaebler’s previous viewpoint resonates with some of her colleagues. As council members, they have their hands full working on marijuana regulatory reforms, a new strategic plan, a review of the City Code and myriad landslide, land swap, planning, rezoning and other issues.
The time crunch has become intense for a council facing contentious issues in a city of nearly a half million people while also supervising Utilities in the increasingly complex energy and water arena.
But Gaebler and others say they can oversee Utilities if they’re given better resources.
“The longer I look at it, the more I’m inclined to leave it with the City Council,” King said. “I’m not sure we’d be getting higher-qualified people running Utilities than what we’re already doing. If the council could have staff, the ability to do research, the ability to really govern . I think we would be able to govern it well.”
Board member Bill Murray pointed to a J.D. Powers study that ranked Utilities No. 2 in the West among mid-size utilities for customer satisfaction as proof that ratepayers have no issue with Utilities’ governance.
“In this particular case, the name of the game is control of the Utilities,” Murray said. “The mayor needs to control Utilities because he needs the money.”
But while some board members say they provide good accountability for Utilities, critics say City Council members lack scientific knowledge to run the enterprise effectively.
“This board – being elected and being politicians – they’re so easily swayed,” said Jacquie Ostrom, who served on Utilities’ Customer Advisory Group last year to help develop its Electric Integrated Resource Plan. “CSU works so hard to schmooze them and be their friend. We need to gain information and knowledge outside of CSU. . There’s just no way these politicians can bring the kind of expertise we need.”
“In the past,” said board member Don Knight, “we’ve had board members who won’t believe a single word the staff tells them, and we’ve had board members who will never question the board. Whether appointed or elected, we need a board that will know when you have to dig deep and question, when something doesn’t seem right on the surface or is an incomplete solution.”
Environmental activist John Crandall said competency is an issue, citing a previous City Council’s decision in 2011 to sign a $111.8 million contract for unproven coal-plant scrubber technology without putting the project out to bid.
“My emphasis is on competency,” said Crandall. “That’s what I want to see on the board, and we’ve never had that. It’s a hell of a job.”
Monument attorney Leslie Weise, a clean-air advocate, said City Council candidates aren’t asked about their qualifications to serve on the Utilities Board.
“It’s almost an afterthought that you have this extra duty to run a $1 billion business that’s highly technical, regulated and complex,” Weise said. “From what I’ve observed, it’s not functioning.”
Some ratepayers favor a governing board of experts in air quality, water quality, medical effects of air pollution and other specialties. That’s not the plan, though. Current members want a board of management experts, such as CEOs with business backgrounds.
The appointed board
A random check of municipal utilities about the size of the local department shows all have unpaid, appointed boards.
“I come from a nonprofit environment, where all our boards are appointed,” Bennett said. “Personally, I think we can get better talent through an appointed board.”
Said Suthers: “Utilities is getting more and more complex – the role of renewables, when to terminate coal-fired power. I would like to bring more expertise to the table. I would love to feel more comfortable with the Neumann Systems (scrubbers). You don’t get that kind of expertise in an elected board.”
Lincoln Electric System in Nebraska has nine board members representing the utility’s service area. The City Council can recommend nominees, who are chosen by the mayor and confirmed by the council.
The Knoxville (Tenn.) Utilities Board of seven commissioners nominates its own replacements, who then are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council. The board also appoints a president and CEO.
The public utility in Tacoma, Wash., has a five-member board appointed by the City Council.
The five-member board for the Orlando, Fla., utility consists of the mayor, three Orlando residents and one from unincorporated Orange County.
Orlando has a nominating board that vets candidates for appointments. When a seat opens, a few nominees are selected, and the sitting utilities board interviews them and chooses one.
And the five-member utility board for Chattanooga, Tenn., is appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council.
But even if the Colorado Springs City Council appointed the Utilities Board, most current members don’t favor that model.
“I have not seen any appointments, whether by the mayor or fellow council members, that have not been approved for confirmation,” Knight said. “I don’t think we do a really good job of a complete vetting and getting the people’s input on it. The other concern I have, I’ve also seen nobody (appointed) ever get dismissed.
“If I buy stock in any company, and I don’t like what the board of directors is doing, I can sell my stock. I can’t do that as a CSU ratepayer. The ultimate accountability is to the ratepayers, and those are the voters. When you’re appointed, you’re also beholden to the person who appointed you.”
A new elected board
Like Knight, most other current Utilities Board members say if any change is made, it should be to a separate elected board.
Murray said he’d be willing to turn Utilities governance over to an elected board. “But that would be the only way I’d do it. . We’re very concerned about the appointment process because, historically, the mayor appoints, and you’ve never even seen who applied.”
Utilities Board Chairman Andres Pico, who initially balked at the idea of shedding board responsibilities, now says he’s willing to consider that change, but only to an elected board, which ratepayers overwhelmingly preferred in a recent survey by Utilities.
“With a company, the stockholders pick the board the majority of the time, and the board answers to the stockholders,” Pico said. “And that’s the same here: The citizens are the stockholders. I adamantly think an elected board is the way to go.”
Colorado Springs Forward, whose PAC endorses and donates money to candidates, said it can’t support an all-elected board because that would set up “a situation where election politics and special-interest agendas will dominate the election process, creating a highly politicized board.”
The Utilities Board expects to decide in July whether to recommend a change and, if so, what change or changes.
Whether appointed or elected, Bennett said, a change is needed. “We need a City Council who gives 100 percent attention to the city and a Utilities board who gives 100 percent attention to Utilities.”
“We’ve got a lot of capable people here in the city, and I think we can find the folks who can do the job,” said Councilman Larry Bagley, who is leaning in favor of an appointed board. “I don’t have any qualms about it being a separate board or different people doing it. I think it’ll work.”
#ColoradoRiver: CPW hopes public can understand its efforts at Elkhead Reservoir — Craig Daily Press #COriver
From The Craig Daily Press (Patrick Kelly):
The tournament is hosted by CPW, and it is offering over $6,000 in prizes, but the effort is part of the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery program.
To prevent further federal involvement, the recovery program was formed in 1988 to provide endangered species act compliance and keep water development projects closer to the local level.
Three states — Colorado, Utah and Wyoming — along with a multitude of federal agencies and private organizations formed the recovery program to help improve fish populations of the endangered humpback chub, Colorado pikeminnow, razorback sucker and ponytail.
The program’s actions are dictated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but it still provides an important buffer between state and federal government.
If the program fails and is dissolved, an individual who draws water from the Yampa River would have to justify their use and provide evidence that their use does not impact endangered fishes — a task the recovery program currently completes.
Sherman Hebein, CPW’s senior aquatic biologist for the northwest region, said his organization is hosting the tournament at Elkhead and offering serious prizes because it is important to engage the public in the effort to control non-natives.
Elkhead Reservoir is home to nonnative northern pike and smallmouth bass, making it a popular fishery for anglers from across Colorado.
But the same nonnatives that attract anglers to the reservoir eat the four fish the recovery program is trying to save.
“The objective of this tournament is to suppress these fish, smallmouth bass and northern pike, to reduce the impact of those fish on the Yampa River,” Hebein said.
Hebein said protecting these fish easily approaches philosophical debate but genetic diversity is an important thing to protect.
“A lot of people ask what’s so important about these four fish species… don’t they live somewhere else?” he said. “These fish don’t live anywhere else… These fish are the true natives of the Colorado River Basin… If we don’t recover them here, they won’t be anywhere else.”
Until humans have a better understanding of DNA and what makes us tick, it is crucial to preserve all iterations of life, Hebein said.
“Until we can figure that out, we really need to conserve the DNA of all these living organisms because we don’t know how to make it,” he said.
But some are still opposed to a tournament that would potentially reduce the fishery in Elkhead Reservoir.
Steve Smith, Craig local and longtime Elkhead angler, had a sign posted in protest of the tournament at the turn off to the launch ramp.
“This is one of the closest lakes that we can fish,” he said. “It’s been holding it’s own for crappie or pike or bluegill but now they want to eliminate or lower the number of smallmouth or pike.”
Despite their differences, Smith and CPW officials were able to interact with respect. Smith understands that CPW has objectives to complete and CPW officials understand Smith’s passion for his hometown fishery.
Hebein said CPW is not out to kill the fishery, like many locals believe.
“We’re here to turn this lake into a far better fishery but to do that we have to suppress the numbers of big predators,” he said.
Hebein and CPW spokesman Mike Porras both said that without their efforts, Endangered Species Act compliance would be out the window and federal intrusion into local affairs would be even greater.
“Every water user would be compelled to deal with a Section 7 consultation with the (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) on how their use of water would not impact the endangered fish,” he said. “That’s a lot of work and a lot of paperwork and that’s the reason behind why the recovery program has been such a valuable thing.”
Out of all the anglers interviewed by the Craig Daily Press on Saturday, only one was from Craig, and a gentleman from the Denver area joined him
The rest of the fishermen were from Grand Junction, Eagle or Rifle.
The tournament ends on June 19 with daily prizes for smallest, biggest and most fish caught. Catching a fish with a tag enters anglers into a raffle for big prizes, with the top prize being a new boat.
“The sooner that we can recover the endangered fish, the sooner we can have some more freedom,” said Hebein. “I’d like to encourage everyone to think about the recovery program and the value it has presented in everyone’s lives. How can we get together, recover the fish and move on from there?”
