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Day: July 31, 2019
@COHighLineCanal: Stormwater Transformation and Enhancement Program (STEP) update
From The Highline Canal Conservancy:
The Stormwater Transformation and Enhancement Program (STEP) will bring a new life and a renewed utility to the High Line Canal as a green infrastructure system that provides for stormwater quality management.
The High Line Canal Conservancy is working with Denver Water, Mile High Flood District and local jurisdictions through STEP to advance stormwater solutions in the Canal for both existing and new conditions.
Two Main Goals of STEP
Plan for and implement stormwater management projects in the Canal that transform it into a stormwater management system.
Develop a collaborative management, maintenance, financial and operational model to advance stormwater projects in the Canal.
Any drop of water that falls into adjacent watersheds naturally drains toward the Canal. In some areas, stormwater already enters the Canal, while in other areas, stormwater is diverted away from the Canal. Diverting that stormwater toward the Canal and holding it there briefly (less the 72 hours) can provide many benefits.Benefits to the Canal and region include:
WATER
Reduces the amount of pollution going into the waterways, improves water quality, boosts water cycle support, upholds flood management and allows for cleaner stormwater NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
Improves air quality, promotes carbon sequestration, increases wildlife diversity and abundance and reduces the urban heat island effect COMMUNITY HEALTH & LIVABILITY
Encourages healthy lifestyles, increases access, builds climate resilience, enhances human health and user experience and fosters stewardship
Fountain Creek lawsuit update: Court grants more time for settlement talks
From The Pueblo Chieftain (Robert Boczkiewicz):
Officials of Pueblo County and of the Lower Arkansas Valley are making significant progress to resolve a lawsuit against Colorado Springs for years of defiling Fountain Creek.
“The parties have made significant progress toward settlement,” states a July 23 report obtained by The Pueblo Chieftain.
The report was submitted to a judge in Denver of the U.S. District Court for Colorado, where the lawsuit is pending.
The Chieftain reported in December that both sides of the dispute had begun meeting to discuss a potential resolution without further litigation.
The new report and the one in December were signed by attorneys for the litigants: the county commissioners, the Lower Arkansas Water Conservancy District, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Public Health and Environment on one side, and the city of Colorado Springs on the other side…
After a trial last year, the judge overseeing the case decided in November that the Colorado Springs violated its permit that regulates discharges into the creek from the city’s storm water sewer system.
The next step would have been for another trial to determine what the city must do to remedy the violations.
The commissioners, the water conservancy district, plus the federal and state environmental agencies stated in December they would ask a judge to order Colorado Springs to improve its storm water system, impose monetary penalties “and other appropriate remedies” if both sides could not agree on how to resolve the dispute.
In last week’s report, all sides stated they “have been meeting regularly and intensively to reach settlement.”
They asked the judge to put the case on hold in order to give them at least until Nov. 22 “to focus on settlement.”
Senior Judge John L. Kane granted the request.
#Runoff news: #YampaRiver streamflow close to average
From Steamboat Today (Eleanor C. Hasenbeck):
On Monday afternoon, the river was flowing at about 200 cubic feet per second at the U.S. Geological Survey stream gauge at Fifth Street, falling over the course of the past week from just under 300 cfs on Monday, July 22. Saturday’s rainfall boosted flows back up to 300 cfs on Sunday, though the river fell back to 200 cfs by Monday.
The river typically levels out after its peak, but city water resources manager Kelly Romero-Heaney said that level varies year to year.
“We see the hydrograph tail off after the peak snowmelt, and then it hovers above 100 cfs typically for the majority of the summer, but it can depend on what’s happening with releases out of Stagecoach Reservoir and irrigation diversions upstream from town and the weather,” Romero-Heaney said…
So far this July, the area received 1.06 inches of precipitation at a National Weather Service Cooperative Observer Network weather station, below the long-term average of 1.52 inches at the same location.
#PFAS: Widefield aquifer cleanup update
From Colorado Public Radio (Dan Boyce):
The Environmental Protection Agency issued a health advisory in 2016 that warned of the connection between PFAS and certain types of cancer.
After the advisory and the discovery of widespread groundwater and soil contamination near Peterson Airforce Base, the Pikes Peak Community Foundation shut down organic vegetable production at the Venetucci farm. They opted to instead raise lower-priced feedstock for horses.
It’s one example of the financial burden this region still bears from the pollution, despite the $50 million the Air Force has spent on cleanup around Peterson.
“There are 60,000 stories just like this and they’re happening at the kitchen sink in every Fountain, Widefield and Security home,” Clark said of the communities whose water was tainted by the foam.
The foundation, as well as the nearby Security Water District, have sued the Air Force over the chemicals. District general manager Roy Heald said they had to find a new source of water for their customers, a complicated process which involved the construction of a mile-long pipeline to buy water from Colorado Springs. The cost of the pipeline and the first two years of water set the district back $6 million…
In 2018, the Air Force stepped in to cover the district’s water costs until the construction of a new treatment facility was completed. The Air Force will also pay for the facility. Still, Heald said it’s unclear what the ongoing long-term costs will be for the district when it comes to the new facility. It will be needed as long as the contamination remains in the groundwater, which could essentially be forever…
As of this June, $357 million has been spent on PFAS cleanup around 22 Air Force installations nationwide. It’s a lot of money that many who live near the sites say barely touches on the full problem…
There’s disagreement even between government agencies about what concentration of PFAS is safe for humans. A division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that levels should be set seven to 10 times lower than the EPA’s health advisory.
Genna Reed, the lead PFAS researcher for the Union of Concerned Scientists, has said the Department of Defense “misrepresented the scope of this issue in order to avoid having to pay.”
The Air Force would not grant an interview for this story, but states on the PFAS website it established that “protecting human health is our priority.”
Reed said the Department of Defense has limited which PFAS chemicals it tests for in groundwater and only releases data when the results are above the higher EPA threshold.
“Community members who have been exposed to this chemical and were not told of its release are being the ones left with the burden of paying for this contamination and paying to find out how much is in their water and also to find out how much is in their blood,” Reed said.
Rosenbaum said the full blood panel to test for PFAS chemicals costs about $700 — out of reach for many living near Peterson AFB.
Rosenbaum has organized a local clean water coalition to go after grants to test residents’ blood and water. She’s frustrated they have to do that work themselves.
“There’s absolutely no reason for our communities to go into debt over another water contamination that we didn’t cause,” she said.