Arkansas Valley: State engineer plans to file proposed irrigation rules in Division 2 Water Court by the end of the month

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

At the end of the month, the state plans to file new rules in Division 2 Water Court that would cover improvements like sprinklers and drip irrigation systems fed by surface sources, rather than wells. Canal improvements, such as concrete lining or pipelines, are also covered, but on-farm improvements have been exempted during a process set up last year by State Engineer Dick Wolfe.

A committee made up of affected farmers, lawyers and governmental agencies involved in chipping the rough edges off rules first proposed in 2007 will have its final meeting in Pueblo on Sept. 21. “I think we’ve done a great job,” Wolfe said. “The whole idea was to get a consensus on a draft set of rules. The committee has worked through a lot of issues and we’ve made substantial changes along the way.”

More Arkansas Valley consumptive rule rules coverage here and here.

H.R.3123, Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel Remediation Act of 2009

From the Colorado Independent (Katie Redding):

A U.S. House bill ordering the Bureau of Reclamation to pump and clean the contaminated water in the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel was voted down Tuesday, largely by Democrats, including two from Colorado, in what observers suggest looked like clear political gamesmanship.

H.R. 3123 coverage here.

Guy Laliberte to deliver message about water from space station

From The Associated Press via The Denver Post:

Guy Laliberte, the Canadian billionaire founder of the Cirque du Soleil, said Thursday he aims to read a statement to the world about the planet’s water problems after taking a Russian rocket to the space station…

He said his reading from space will be part of several shows in 14 cities around the world beginning Oct. 9. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, pop singer Peter Gabriel and Irish rockers U2 have said they are participating in the event.

Nestlé Waters Chaffee County Project: Chaffee Citizens for Sustainability meeting September 16

From the Ark Valley Voice:

Hello Friends, CCFS has scheduled a meeting to discuss the status of the Nestle Waters project. The date is Wednesday September 16, 7pm at the Salida Community Center (3rd & G St.) At this meeting we will present some background, talk about the current standing of the permit application, discuss the permit resolution, and explore some of the options that the public has to resist the project. If you can be present we encourage and invite your participation.

More Nestlé Waters Chaffee County Project coverage here and here.

Iliff: Colorado State University to hold Limited Irrigation Field Day September 22

From The Holyoke Enterprise:

Colorado State University (CSU) is hosting a Limited Irrigation Field Day Tuesday, Sept. 22 from 10 a.m. to noon one mile east of Iliff. This field day is open to all interested in learning more about practical research information regarding farming with limited irrigation resources. The research is sponsored by CSU and Parker Water and Sanitation District. The Lower South Platte Irrigation Research and Demonstration Project is now in its third year of study…

The program includes field plot tours with researchers showing their work on limited water cropping systems. Annual field crops shown in the research include corn, surgarbeet, canola, wheat and soybean. Two perennial crops are being studied as well: alfalfa and 15 grass species and varieties. A talk is included on the CSU weather station and public access to current data.

More conservation coverage here.

Sterling: Lower South Platte water quality meeting

From the Sterling Journal-Advocate:

The meeting is open to the public and is scheduled for Sept. 16, 2009, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Gary DeSoto Community Center, 1120 Pawnee Ave., in Sterling. Landowners, agencies, organizations, businesses and residents are invited to discuss water quality concerns and priorities for managing natural and agricultural resources in the Lower South Platte basin.

State Representative Jerry Sonnenberg of Sterling has been invited to speak on the importance of water quality to the economic viability of the entire watershed. Dick Parchini, Watershed Program Manager, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Water Quality Control Division and Cindy Lair, Colorado State Conservation Board Program Manager, will also be in attendance. “This is the second of several public input meetings to be held in different locations in the Lower South Platte Watershed over the next four months as we work to develop and write the Lower South Platte Watershed Plan,” stated Mark Cronquist, Conservation Specialist with the Colorado State Conservation Board and the Colorado Department of Agriculture…

The goal of this planning process, scheduled for completion in November 2010 with the publication of the Lower South Platte Watershed Plan, is to empower a group of landowners, managers, conservation professionals and residents to implement and oversee the plan in their watershed and review the plan on a regular basis to determine if changes are needed to keep the plan functional.

More South Platte Basin coverage here and here.

Blue Mesa Reservoir: Fall schedule for invasive mussel inspections

From the Delta County Independent:

Elk Creek and Lake Fork boat ramp hours will be 7 a.m. through 7 p.m. beginning Sept. 8. Both entrance and exit inspections at Elk Creek will be done at the Elk Creek Marina, rather than the campground entrance. Vessels that have been slipped or on the water for more than 24 hours must go through a high risk inspection and possibly decontamination. No motorized or trailered vessel launching or retrieval is allowed outside of Elk Creek and Lake Fork boat ramps, only hand launched watercraft may launch outside of these locations and their trailers may not enter the water…

Due to nighttime temperatures below freezing and the potential for water lines and portable decontamination units to freeze, boat decontamination may not be available at Lake Fork. Boats requiring decontamination will be sent to Elk Creek. The best way to assure that your boat does not require decontamination is for it to be clean, drained and dried of any standing water upon arrival at Blue Mesa Reservoir. Due to freezing fall temperatures and the likelihood that our large decontamination unit will have to close, the proper decontamination may not be available to vessels coming in with attached adult mussels. Those vessels may be denied access to the lake until they obtain decontamination at another facility.

More invasive species coverage here and here.

Harris Sherman tapped by President Obama to lead U.S. Forest Service

From the Grand Junction Free Press:

President Barack Obama chose a Colorado natural resources official Thursday to be the new agriculture undersecretary in charge of the U.S. Forest Service. Harris Sherman, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, will be nominated for the federal post, which requires Senate confirmation, Obama said.Harris Sherman, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, will be nominated for the federal post, which requires Senate confirmation, Obama said.

Here’s an editorial about the appointment from The Durango Herald:

That job is important to Colorado in that the person holding it oversees this country’s national forests. And with former U.S. Senator Ken Salazar now secretary of the Interior, and therefore in charge of the Bureau of Land Management, all of this state’s federal lands will be supervised by native sons.

Sherman has an extensive résumé, all of which is on target for his new job. He has had a long career in Colorado government and now is director of the state’s Department of Natural Resources, a position he also held under Gov. Richard Lamm…

Matt Garrington, field director for Environment Colorado – a group whose name pretty well explains where it is coming from – immediately issued a statement describing Sherman in glowing terms. “Harris Sherman,” he wrote, “is a stalwart conservationist and an excellent pick. … Sherman has spent a lifetime working to conserve open spaces, wildlife habitat and Colorado’s precious water resources.”

More coverage from The Durango Herald (Joe Hanel):

Sherman has been one of the most high-profile members of Gov. Bill Ritter’s Cabinet. He led the charge for Ritter’s drive to overhaul the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and he now serves as chairman of that commission. He also leads the Interbasin Compact Committee, a group that is supposed to broker a deal on water resources between the Western and Eastern slopes…

In June, officials with the Wilderness Society and Trout Unlimited went public with their criticism of Sherman and urged Obama not to nominate him. “We haven’t agreed with him on everything, and certainly Colorado passing its own roadless rule is one of those issues,” said Wilderness Society spokeswoman Suzanne Jones. But Jones pledged her group would work well with Sherman on roadless forests and other issues, including climate change. “We think he will be a good steward,” she said.

By far Sherman’s biggest fight, though, has been with the gas and oil industry. He led the effort to get the Legislature to revamp the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, then steered the commission through a yearlong process to pass environmental rules. The Colorado Petroleum Association fought Sherman almost every step of the way, but on Thursday, its president had only kind words. “We always had a good relationship with Harris,” said Stan Dempsey. “He’s certainly well-qualified, and I’m sure he’ll serve the administration well.”

Sherman served as director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources in the 1970s under Gov. Richard Lamm. Between then and his appointment by Ritter, he was a partner at the Denver law firm Arnold & Porter, specializing in natural resources…

[Secretary of Interior Ken] Salazar sent his endorsement in a news release Thursday. “In the many years I have worked with Harris Sherman, I have known him to be a top-notch public servant, a champion for Colorado’s land, water and wildlife, and a problem-solver,” Salazar said. “President Obama and Secretary Vilsack have made a terrific choice in nominating him to serve our country as under secretary for Natural Resources and Environment.”

More coverage from The Denver Post (John Ingold and Bruce Finley):

As undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment, Sherman would oversee the U.S. Forest Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. This would put him in charge of vast swaths of land in the West as well as some significant conservation programs…

With former U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar as secretary of the Interior Department and former Colorado U.S. Attorney Tom Strickland as Interior’s assistant secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Sherman’s confirmation would put Coloradans in charge of roughly 700 million acres of federal land, or nearly 30 percent of the land area in the United States…

Meanwhile, pine beetle battlers said they are hopeful Sherman — the co-chairman of the state’s Forest Health Advisory Council — will draw greater attention to the problem in Washington. “He gets it,” said state Sen. Dan Gibbs, D-Summit County. “He’s not someone who’s coming from an area where he needs a lot of education on it. He’s been working on these problems for a number of years.”

More coverage from the Colorado Independent (David O. Williams):

Others in the environmental community felt Sherman’s direction of the Department of Natural Resources during the state’s push for its own roadless rule would hurt his chances. The Colorado Roadless Rule, crafted by the state to manage more than 4 million acres of the state’s largely undeveloped public lands, has been moved steadily forward by Gov. Bill Ritter’s administration despite conservationist’s concerns that it allows far too many road-building exceptions for power and water infrastructure, logging, ski area expansion and oil and gas development.

In fact, a group of Colorado environmental groups is launching the “Don’t Sell Colorado Short” Roadless Road Show at the Alliance Center in lower downtown Denver Friday, heading to Durango for a formal launch before moving around the state to document and call attention to Coloradan’s support for a more restrictive roadless rule like the one the Clinton administration put in place in 2001. That rule was quickly tossed aside by the Bush administration, but conservationists, for the most part, seek reinstatement of a nationwide rule similar to the Clinton rule.

“We would like to congratulate Mr. Sherman and ask that he promote the long-term conservation of our backcountry hunting and fishing traditions,” said Joel Webster, associate director of campaigns for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership’s Center for Western Lands, “including upholding and defending the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which safeguards our nation’s roadless areas, should he be confirmed as undersecretary.”

Here’s an excerpt from an editorial praising the Sherman pick from The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel:

It is likely to be environmentalists and sportsmen’s groups that raise the greatest ruckus during Sherman’s confirmation hearings for his new job — undersecretary for natural resources and the environment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture…

Sherman has for decades taken a thoughtful, moderate approach to natural resource management in this state. He is an excellent choice for the Department of Agriculture job.

More coverage from The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka). From the article:

As a member of Governor Ritter’s cabinet, Sherman oversees Colorado’s energy, water, wildlife, parks, forestry and state lands programs and serves as chairman of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and co-chairman of the Forest Health Advisory Council. Obama and Vilsack have made restoration, conservation and management of America’s forests and private working lands a priority in order to make them more resilient to climate change and ecologically sustainable for current and future generations, according a statement from the USDA…

Sherman moved the IBCC into thinking about long-range planning, said Jay Winner one of the Arkansas River basin’s representatives on the state board. “I think where Harris Sherman is going will be of great benefit to the state,” said Winner, general manager of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District. “He had the foresight to look at the future of the state 50 years out, and was an inspiration to the IBCC. He got us talking about things that will affect the state for years to come.”[…]

“Sherman’s tenaciousness will make him a strong champion for the environment in the Obama administration. Environment Colorado looks forward to working with him and knows he’ll bring his same conservation ethic to work toward the protection of our forests for years to come,” said Matt Garrington, advocate of Environment Colorado.

More coverage from the Denver Business Journal:

Sherman received a bachelor’s degree from Colorado College and his law degree from Columbia University Law School. As managing and senior partner of the Denver office of law firm Arnold & Porter, his law practice focused on natural resources, environmental, water, public land, real estate, and Indian law.

Silverton: School officials cautiously optimistic about potential for geoexchange project

From the Silverton Standard & The Miner (Mark Esper):

A huge drill rig from Geo-Energy Services pulled into town last week and was parked on the school playground. On Friday, drilling began. The drillers worked through one hole to 210 feet, said Sue Morris, owner’s representative for the school district’s massive renovation project…

Morris said the goal of the first hole was to drill to 360 feet, but ground conditions prohibited further drilling.
Nonetheless, the drilling hit a constant water source pumping at 5 gallons per minute and approximately 47.5 degrees, Morris said. “These conditions are good for geo-exchange,” she said…

Josh Druege, mechanical engineer for Geo-Energy Services, was on the playground last week as drilling began.
“What we’re anticipating here is finding ground with a temperature of about 45 degrees,” Druege said. “We can still extract heat from that.” He said the process involves using “just a little bit of energy” to boost refrigerants to a level that is extractible to be converted to heat. A system for the school and gym, he suggested, if it is found feasible, might involve 60 loops of small tubes each moving three or four gallons of refrigerant per minute deep below the playground.

More geothermal coverage here and here.

Coal Creek Watershed coalition awarded two grants

From The Crested Butte News:

he Coal Creek Watershed Coalition (CCWC) recently received $33,006 from two sources to further their work within the Coal Creek Watershed. The Colorado Healthy Rivers Fund awarded $10,756 to the CCWC to fund four programs. A portion of the funding will be used to complete the data analysis and interpretation of a tracer study. The study will characterize groundwater interactions with surface water during spring conditions. The funds will also be used to help provide support for a storm water study being conducted in 2009. The remaining funds will be used to attend conferences and workshops and will also provide funding for a third year of VISTA member support for the organization.

The CCWC was also awarded $22,250 by the Colorado Water Conservation Board to complete a riparian assessment in the watershed. The goal of the assessment is to assess the health of riparian (river) corridors within the watershed to develop prioritized list of areas most suitable for future restoration efforts. Ultimately healthy riparian areas contribute to the overall health of stream systems, provide habitat for a variety of organisms, function in the maintenance of a normal hydrologic regime and are aesthetically pleasing; among other values.

More Gunnison Basin coverage here.

Prowers County tamarisk efforts

Prowers County is taking to the air to fight tamarisk, according to a report in The Lamar Ledger (Aaron Burnett). From the article:

[Prowers County Commissioner Henry Schnabel] said the county has concentrated its efforts in the area from Holly to the state line in hopes of clearing out the river channel and lessening the possibility that high water levels could result in flooding in and around Holly. “With the different entities coming together in a cooperative effort, it just shows what can be done when you have that cooperation among all the people to really get out there and get something done,” said Schnabel.

The area being sprayed through the project include sections along the Arkansas River as well as upland tributaries and runoffs. “We feel that if can control those tamarisk in those upland situations and get them killed, they shouldn’t be coming back,” said Michael Daskam, NRCS agent in the Holly office. Daskam said the water saved by removing tamarack and revegetating with native plant species is approximately 70,000 acre feet a year in the river. “That’s like John Martin (Reservoir) in a good year, and that’s the net savings each year.” Daskam said there are several benefits to removing tamarisk from the area. “There’s these water conservation benefits that we talked about, there’s flood hazard mitigation benefits, there’s wildlife benefits as well because tamarack don’t provide much of any kind of habitat for our native species. If we can get the native species to come back, then we’ll have a lot more valuable wildlife habitat.”

Following the completion of aerial spraying, ground spraying will be conducted in areas too tight for aerial spraying. It takes three years from the time of the chemical application for the tamarisk to be completely killed, at which point it can then be manually removed.

More tamarisk control coverage here and here.

Coyote Gulch outage

I have a deadline at Colorado Central Magazine. I’ll be back Saturday morning.

Rio Grande Basin roundtable CFWE survey results

From the Valley Courier (Ruth Heide):

Through a survey conducted by The Colorado Foundation for Water Education, whose primary role is education, the roundtable members revealed the areas they believed the group has been successful, areas they believe they require more information and areas of future emphasis.

Of those responding to the foundation’s survey, Rio Grande Roundtable members said they believed their top priorities as a water group should be: to promote sustainable water use; promote statewide vision and solutions; identify projects and processes to meet future consumptive and non-consumptive needs; educate; influence water policy; and protect the basin’s water.

The priorities statewide ran a little differently with identifying projects and processes to meet future needs as the number one priority and influencing water policy as the last priority. Education came in fourth statewide as a priority. Second was promoting statewide vision and solutions and third was promoting sustainable water use.

Kristin Maharg from The Colorado Foundation for Water Education met with the Rio Grande Roundtable on Tuesday to discuss the survey results. She said the Rio Grande Basin identified its top water issues in 2007 as: Rio Grande Compact (effects of prolonged drought and achieving sustainability); agricultural water needs (ag groundwater use currently at unsustainable levels); economic impacts of reduced groundwater irrigation (minimizing those impacts); residential growth (in some areas of Valley such as South Fork the growth was creating a need for augmentation of water supplies); and municipal/industrial/ag water needs. Of those priorities, Rio Grande Roundtable members and participants ranked the issues they personally felt they required more information about in 2009. The top water education need was the economic impacts of reduced groundwater irrigation with the associated agricultural water needs coming in second. Respondents also ranked those two issues as the top priorities for water education for the roundtable as a whole with the Rio Grande Compact coming in next…

Three Valley projects will be going before the Interbasin Compact Committee (IBCC) next week including one for Willow Creek, one for a local Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program and one for the Trinchera watershed. Smith said the IBCC has $5 million in requests for $2.4-2.8 million in available funding so the competition will be stiff.

More Rio Grande Basin coverage here and here.

La Plata Archuleta Water District looking for mill levy vote in May 2010 to fund district

From The Durango Herald (Katie Burford):

[Dick Lunceford, president of the water district’s board] said the board is now looking at a May 2010 vote on the mill levy, with the interim spent making the case to members of the district that it’s worth the expense. Lunceford and Amy Kraft, who works for Harris Water Engineering and has been contracted to work on a master plan for the district, appeared before La Plata County commissioners during their regular meeting Tuesday to give them an update. Last year, voters narrowly approved creation of the district, which aims to establish a rural water system in areas of southeast La Plata where resident depend on wells or trucked-in water. The vote was 481 in favor, 449 opposed. Officials are now seeking passage of the mill levy to fund the system. A brochure being distributed by the district estimates that the property-tax increase for a $250,000 home would be $8.25 per month, or about $99 a year.

More infrastructure coverage here.

Aspen: Stormwater runoff

From the Aspen Daily News (Catherine Lutz):

At one major downtown outlet, Aspen allows 11 times more sediment to flow into the river than the national average. City officials monitored the Mill Street “outfall” from 2003 to 2007, and found that the ratio of suspended solids going into the river averaged 1,700 parts per million. That’s 11 times the national average of 150 parts per million, said April Barker, the city’s stormwater manager. The Mill Street outfall is located at the bridge that crosses the Roaring Fork River leading to Red Mountain. It’s the largest of three major drainages in the downtown area, and, with nothing to filter the runoff, the most impacted one, said Barker. At one point the monitoring results showed sediment levels at 20 times the national average, she said. “In rural areas stormwater has the ability to hit a street or roof and then hit grass before going into the river,” she said. “But in an urban area [stormwater] carries pollutants with it without the ability to get filtered in grass. So that’s why lot line to lot line development has more impact than if everyone was more spread out. It’s something that has to be controlled; we need to find way to treat it.”[…]

Aspen can be said to have more responsibility than other Roaring Fork River communities, because it’s essentially the first place manmade pollutants can enter the river. “We are the upstream component to this watershed, so we are putting in the pollutants,” said Barker. “It comes out of Independence Pass clean.”

More stormwater coverage here and here.

Energy policy — oil and gas: Possible Wyoming groundwater pollution from frac’ing operations catches the eye of Colorado regulators

From the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Dennis Webb):

Dave Neslin, director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, spoke about that Wyoming study last week at the Northwest Colorado Oil & Gas Forum in Rifle. The study found possible drilling-related contaminants, including a substance sometimes used to hydraulically fracture oil and gas wells. “This is something that we have been following, and we will be looking into. It’s more complicated than the press has suggested, and the connection to (fracturing) is not as clear as some of the press reports have suggested,” Neslin said…

The EPA found or tentatively identified contaminants in 11 of 39 water wells it studied in Pavillion, Wyo. These include methane in eight wells, and 2-butoxyethanol, or 2-BE, in three wells. Sometimes used in fracturing as a foaming agent, 2-BE also is used in household cleaning products and other applications…

Neslin said several new Colorado oil and gas rules are designed to address concerns about water supply protection. These include requirements to report results of pressure testing related to fracturing operations, to abide by minimum operational setbacks from public drinking water supplies, and to keep chemical inventories that must be made available under appropriate circumstances. Rules already were in place regarding well casing and cementing and the protection of groundwater, Neslin said. The chemical inventory requirement applies when more than 500 pounds of a chemical are used or stored on a well site. State oil and gas commissioner Tresi Houpt said Colorado may have to evaluate whether that threshold is low enough to be adequate for some chemicals.

More oil and gas coverage here and here.

Beaver Brook Watershed update

The U.S. Forest Service is rolling the Beaver Brook watershed into the Roosevelt and Arapahoe national forests. Here’s a report from Vicky Gits writing for the Clear Creek Courant. From the article:

The U.S. Forest Service held a ribbon-cutting ceremony announcing that the Beaver Brook Watershed is officially part of the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests. After recently signing a deal for 900 acres previously owned by Clear Creek Open Space, the Forest Service controls 4,000 acres from Mount Evans Wilderness to Noble and Elk meadows, about 4 miles west of Highway 74 on Highway 103. The property begins at the old Squaw Pass gate.

From the watershed plan (pdf):

Beaver Brook Watershed is a unique open space in the Front
Range in that it is one of the last remaining undeveloped
subalpine forests. Its wildflower-filled meadows, bubbling
streams bounded by lush vegetation, forested slopes, abundant
wildlife, and dramatic rock outcroppings are beloved to many
people. Only 3.5 miles west on Squaw Pass Road from Route
74 in Bergen Park, it consists of 1,442 acres. Because of its
proximity to Evergreen and the Denver metropolitan area, it is
easily accessible to visitors. See Map 1, Open Space Purchase.

Undecreed ponds are a target in El Paso County

From The Colorado Springs Gazette (Bill Vogrin):

Already this year, Brian Sutton, water commissioner for the area that includes El Paso County, has opened cases against 15 or so ponds created either by the diversion of creek or river water, or well water. He said there may be 1,000 similar ponds in the area and he intends to bring every one of them into compliance. Sutton said he’s not trying to ruin anyone’s business or home landscaping. He’s just enforcing the law. “We’re talking about channel reservoirs that have a direct impact on stream flows,” Sutton said. “This is a big issue. I don’t want to see these ponds go. But there are people downstream who have senior water rights and they get priority. The water is for farmers downstream.”

More water law coverage here.

Runoff news

From The Mountain Mail (Ron Sering):

The Arkansas River reached its low summer flow at about 235 cubic feet per second late Friday at the Wellsville gauge – the lowest since March…Although low water makes boating difficult, “This is actually very favorable for the fish,” Greg Policky, aquatic biologist for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, said. “They don’t have to fight the current.” Low water enables fish to feed efficiently, he said and added it is especially favorable for brown trout. “It will put them in good shape for the fall spawning season. Flow between 250-400 cfs is optimum for fishing,” Policky said.”

More Arkansas Basin coverage here.

Tamarisk control in Montezuma County

Here’s an update about Tamarisk control in Montezuma County, from Kristen Plank writing for the Cortez Journal. From the article:

For the past two weeks, the tamarisk leaf beetle has been chowing down on the area’s tamarisk, cropping up in sporadic locations from McElmo Canyon clear across the county…

Killing off an entire tamarisk typically takes a few seasons of defoliation, and beetles often will leave some of the leaves intact on each plant. “We really don’t know how long it will take for all of a tamarisk to be gone, but it’s not realistic to think that beetles are going to get it all,” Kolegas said. “Beetles only eat as much as they can. They want to sustain their population.” Which is why other efforts to rid the area of the water-loving weed, like native revegetation, will still occur. But most of the local tamarisk eradication efforts will be drastically reduced, Downs said. “We’re putting tamarisk removal on hold for now,” she said. “We’re going to finish the projects we’ve already started, and we’re going to continue heavily with revegetation efforts. “We want to get willows and cottonwoods and box elders in the area before the tamarisk is completely dead.”

How the bugs came into the county is unknown, but tamarisk beetles were released in Moab, Utah, and other parts of Colorado, Downs said. Reasons for not releasing the insect prior to now was due mostly to federal concerns for the southwest willow flycatcher, an endangered bird. The flycatcher, which used to nest in willows along riverbanks, now nests in tamarisk.

For residents interested in learning more about the tamarisk leaf beetle’s progress, the district will hold a public information meeting in conjunction with the Tamarisk Coalition at 6 p.m. Oct. 12 in Empire Electric’s Calvin Denton room, 801 N. Broadway, Cortez. The leaf beetle will go dormant in early October, but residents wishing to report a known population or to ask questions can call D-TAG and the Dolores Soil Conservation District at 565-9045.

More Tamarisk coverage here.

Colorado River management

The recent visit by Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar to the Arkansas Valley prompted a discussion of the future management of the Colorado River. Here’s a report from Chris Woodka writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

The Parks Service is apparently concerned about the levels at Lake Mead, which is a popular recreation area as well as a source of water supply and electric power for California, Arizona and Nevada. Prolonged drought and increased demand have caused levels to drop and it can cost millions of dollars to move marinas on the lakes. The service has asked for more authority on the operation of Glen Canyon Dam, which releases water from Lake Powell through the Grand Canyon and into Lake Mead. The states are objecting to broadening the authority under past acts of Congress and Interior policies. “The interim guidelines [for drought managment] offer a secure foundation on which to build the important initiatives necessary to achieve greater flexibility in the development and management of the Colorado River water supply,” the states wrote in the letter.

The Arkansas Basin imports an average of about 131,000 acre-feet from the Western Slope each year, or about 18 percent of the supply of water when measured against the high point of flows on the Arkansas River at Avondale. The amount varies widely, however, and Front Range water users are wary about what could happen if there were a call on the river from downstream states.

The Colorado Water Conservation Board is looking at studies both to quantify how much Colorado River water is still available to use within the state and to determine which rights would be curtailed if the state was limited in how much water it could divert. “We, as a state, need to come to a better understanding of what water is available under what conditions,” [Alan Hamel, executive director of the Pueblo Board of Water Works] said. “If there is a call on the Colorado River, how do we manage the call?”

Such a call would not be as simple as a traditional river call in Colorado, where junior diverters on one stream are shut off. The Colorado River system is complex, with some reaches that are fully appropriated, reaches where additional water is used to protect endangered species and others that have never been administered under state water laws. Transmountain diversions are further complicated by the need to maintain certain flows downstream. In some years, not all of the water called for in a decree can be taken, while in some emergency situations the transmountain diverters have been asked to take even more water to prevent flooding on the Western Slope.

More Colorado River Basin coverage here and here.

Happy Labor Day

Happy Labor Day to one and all. We’ll be eating barbecue later on here at Gulch Manor.

Arkansas Valley: St. Charles Mesa Water District change case(s) update

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

The St. Charles Mesa Water District is trying to bring water rights it obtained in the last five years under the same requirements for use as ditch shares changed in a 2004 case. The new case on 180 shares of Bessemer Ditch was filed in late June in Division 2 Water Court. The recently settled 2004 case applied to 1,877 shares of Bessemer Ditch previously acquired by the district. All told, St. Charles owns a little more than 10 percent of the Bessemer Ditch and serves 4,048 customers in the same general area historically irrigated by the ditch.

More Bessemer Ditch coverage here and here.

Upper Arkansas River augmentation plan update

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

A blanket augmentation plan for the Upper Arkansas River is being extended to include portions of Custer County…

“This is the augmentation plan we already have, but includes Texas Creek and Grape Creek,” said Terry Scanga, general manager of the Upper Ark district. “It saves the water rights owners the expense of $50,000-$150,000 to file their own augmentation plan.” An augmentation plan assures that water will be released to the river to make up for out-of-priority depletions. Water usually is released from storage to make up for well-pumping or surface diversions at times when the water is needed. “The benefit to the district is that it puts a plan in place to protect the senior water rights,” Scanga said. The plan touches other water operations in the Arkansas Valley and attracted the attention of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District last week, which voted to enter the case.

More Upper Ark coverage here.

Monument Lake: Restoration of fishery will start with chemical reclamation

From The Trinidad Times Independent (Randy Woock):

Fishing at the lake will be prohibited and the lake will be blocked off during the “chemical reclamation” of the lake, which will continue until the project is completed and the lake restocked at an unspecified later date. However, the park’s restaurant, cabins, lodge and RV spaces are to open and available for the remainder of the season. Robb said during a Thursday interview that “soft side” tents would not be allowed at the park during the near future, due to the fish kill possibly attracting bears. He also stated that the fish kill process could possibly take as long as 30 days or as few as 14.

Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDW) officials informed the city in November 2007 that white suckers, a type of fish alien to the lake, comprised an overwhelming majority percent of the lake’s fish population to the detriment of the more-popular trout. It was theorized by the CDW that the white suckers may have been introduced into the lake by fishermen illegally using them as live bait. The CDW had been stocking the lake with extra trout as a temporary means of dealing with the alien fish.

In November 2007, CDW officials had suggested three more permanent options for dealing with the White Suckers. The first involved doing nothing and allowing the White Suckers to continue dominating the lake. The second option had involved introducing a natural predator of the White Suckers to the lake. The third option involved dumping large amounts of chemicals into the lake, killing all the fish and then restocking it with the desired species.

More restoration coverage here.

Nunn says no to Powertech’s proposed in situ uranium mine

Bump and Update: Say hello to PowerTechExposed.com where you can read the full resolution passed last week by the Nunn Town Board. Coyote Gulch reader Jim sent in the link and added: “It was quite a slog, but we got ‘er done.”

The Nunn Town Board can’t stop Powertech’s project but they’re interested in making a statement. Here’s a report from Bobby Magill writing for the Fort Collins Coloradoan. From the article:

Hailed by a standing ovation Thursday night from a gymnasium full of Weld County residents distrustful of uranium mining company Powertech, a divided board of trustees approved a resolution opposing the company’s proposed Centennial Project uranium mine. Nunn joins the cities and towns of Fort Collins, Greeley, Ault, Wellington and Timnath in opposing the mine slated to be built on nearly 10,000 acres between Nunn and Interstate 25 about 15 miles northeast of Fort Collins. The resolution urges the state, Weld County and the federal government to deny Powertech its mining permits. The fate of the mine depends on both the state and county issuing it permits and on the final form of in-situ uranium mining rules state officials are now writing.

More coverage from The Greeley Tribune (Colin Lindenmayer):

The measure passed 4-2 — one trustee abstained — to accept the resolution, proposed by Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction. Though the resolution cannot prevent Denver-based Powertech Uranium Corp. from building its uranium mine, some residents hope it will affect a state decision that could prevent mining in the area…

Mayor Jeffery Pigue expressed concern during the meeting that preventing landowners from receiving financial benefits presented by the mine could result in legal action by the ranchers. “There’s several landowners out there that do plan on getting the royalties from this mining operation, and if these ranchers feel that we have caused significant damage to this operation, then they could possibly seek legal action,” Pigue said…

Public comment was dominated by residents opposed to the mine. Ault’s Charles Kindsfather compared bringing a uranium mine to Nunn to “playing Russian roulette with a loaded pistol.” “There is a loaded shell in every cylinder.” he said. “You can’t develop a filter that is large enough and fine enough to remove these microscopic, highly toxic chemicals.”[…]

Williams, who lives six miles west of Nunn, received applause after summarizing a 41-page document regarding water quality on former mining sites, saying, “To date, no remediation of an ISR (in-situ leach recovery) or ISL (in-situ leach) operation of the United States has successfully returned an aquifor to baseline conditions,” meaning the amount of heavy metals in aquifors have always been measured higher after mining operations than before.

More nuclear coverage here and here.

Flaming Gorge pipeline: Size of diversion still up in the air

Here’s an update on Aaron Million’s plans to move water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir and the Green River to Colorado’s Front Range, from Ben Neary writing for the Associated Press via The Durango Herald. From the article:

Million said he is re-evaluating what would be a reasonable size for the pipeline project. He said he doesn’t have a figure yet of how much water he may apply to take from the river if he reduces his application. Million hasn’t modified his original applications to divert water, still pending with the Wyoming State Engineer’s Office. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is preparing a detailed environmental study of Million’s original proposal…

Million has said his planned pipeline would carry water more than 500 miles, east across Wyoming and then as far south as Pueblo. He has said that if the environmental review finds his project would harm the river ecosystem in ways that couldn’t be mitigated, he wouldn’t proceed…

Million said he wants to move all his planned water diversions downstream from the town of Green River. He said he’s now looking at a diversion point on the river below the town and another within Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

Brett Johnson, attorney for Sweetwater County, said Friday that county commissioners as well as city officials in Green River and Rock Springs openly oppose Million’s project. “The county is certainly concerned on the effects of taking the water out of the river and the effect that that will have on the Flaming Gorge and the uses that we have here – obviously fishing and recreation,” Johnson said. Wyoming Gov. Dave Freud-enthal also has come out against the pipeline project. He has said he opposes trans-basin diversions of water and also believes Million should disclose exactly where the water would be used. The Corps of Engineers announced recently that it will require Million to identify his potential customers in coming months. Million has said he has talked to municipalities and other possible water customers in Wyom-ing and Colorado, but has declined to name them so far…

Million said the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has determined that there’s a surplus of water in the Green River even after the needs of endangered species and other water uses are met. He said the analysis found that there’s a minimum of 165,000 acre-feet of water left over that would be available for the pipeline project.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Fountain Creek: Pigeon poop main E. coli culprit

From The Colorado Springs Gazette (R. Scott Rappold):

“After doing some detective work and talking to the city of Manitou Springs, it became likely pigeons might be the source,” said David Mau, hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. That’s right, it was pigeons. In Manitou Springs. With their droppings. “Not a good mystery novel,” acknowledged Rich Muzzy, environmental planning manager for the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments, which worked with the USGS on the study.

The results of the study will be discussed at a public meeting Wednesday in Colorado Springs. The public is encouraged to attend to voice thoughts on the E. coli problem and ways to deal with it…

Molecular microbiology tests matched E. coli in the water with that found in humans, and while some was found in the creek, it wasn’t enough to explain the summer spike. Next they ran tests for cows, deer, elk, dogs and cats, and they still didn’t find enough matches to explain the high levels. “It has to be coming from some other source, these high E. coli concentrations, and the only potential source after looking at the area was that birds may be the source,” Mau said.

Researchers talked to Manitou officials, and learned there is in fact a healthy pigeon population. While there is no test to link E. coli with pigeon intestinal linings, Mau said one is in development…

Colorado Springs Utilities, which contributed $134,000 for the $450,000 study, has long been blamed by some downstream for the E. coli problem, because of occasional sewage and wastewater spills into the creek. “We’ve been very confident, certainly with the amount of money we’ve invested in our wastewater system, that it wasn’t from our system,” Utilities spokesman Steve Berry said. “We’ve said all along it’s a large watershed and there are potentially multiple sources of E. coli that wind up in the waterway.” Researchers also determined Manitou Springs’ aging sewage system was not to blame, Muzzy said. A few leaking lines were identified and fixed, but high levels remained, he said.

More Fountain Creek coverage here and here.

Parachute: Benzene probe down to one company

From the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Dennis Webb):

Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission staff have dropped allegations against Marathon Oil Co., Petroleum Development Corp. and Nonsuch Natural Gas. They also cleared one Williams Production RMT well pad as a possible contributor to the contamination, but they are looking into whether other Williams operations might be to blame.

The investigation stems from an incident May 30, 2008, in which De Beque resident Ned Prather visited his cabin, drank water from his spring and became sick enough that he had to go to a hospital…

Oil and gas commission staff initially issued what are called notices of alleged violation to the four energy companies based largely on proximity of their operations. However, commission Director Dave Neslin said Thursday that sampling has indicated the contamination is coming from east of the spring, where only Williams has nearby operations. “But we have not yet identified a specific release point,” he said.

Williams spokeswoman Susan Alvillar said that based on the company’s own investigations, it doesn’t believe its well pad and pipeline east of the spring are the contamination source.

More oil and gas coverage here and here and here.

Sterling: City Council wrestling with designing rate structure

From the Sterling Journal Advocate (Forrest Hershberger):

Tuesday night, the city council met in a work session to discuss how to establish the rates necessary to fund the [treatment plant upgrades]. Part of the dilemma the city is facing is grant and loan funding may be limited unless the city proves it has an acceptable rate program. Tom Ullmann of The Engineering Company in Fort Collins said part of the reason the rates will change under the proposal offered Tuesday night is changes to the capital improvement budget in the project. He said rates for water use alone could increase as much as 190 percent by the year 2020. “The last time I was here, we were talking about $65 per month, so we are looking at about a $10 increase” since then, he said. He said the present average for water consumption, not including waste water and trash service on the city bill, is about $21.66, and an average monthly consumption of 10,000 gallons for a 3/4 inch tap. He maintained that with the proposed increase over the next several years, Sterling water rates will be only a little higher than Fort Morgan’s rates are now. Much of the two-hour meeting was involved in how best to design a billing system. Options discussed were increase the flat rate on a tier system based on the size of the tap and amount used, or to change the minimum usage. Part of the equation required by the EPA and Colorado Water Conservation Trust is a water conservation plan. The dilemma is that if water customers become too good at conservation, the water fund will be impacted.

More infrastructure coverage here.

Craig: EPA recognizes safe drinking water efforts

Here’s a release from the EPA:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded the City of Craig, Colo., with the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) Award for Sustainable Public Health Protection. The City is being recognized for significant investments in safe drinking water, including updating its drinking water treatment technologies.

The City of Craig received a DWSRF loan in 2008 to fund the improvement of its under-sized and antiquated drinking water treatment facilities. This project includes the replacement of a chlorine gas disinfection system and inadequate contact basin with an ultraviolet/sodium hypochlorite on-site generation system. These upgrades will help the City meet future safe drinking water requirements to reduce illness linked with the contaminant Cryptosporidium and other disease-causing microorganisms. Craig participated in the development of the required design criteria for the UV treatment technique, which is a prototype for future systems in Colorado. “The City of Craig offers a potent example of the type of investments that will help our nation’s communities provide safe drinking water for decades to come,” said Carol Rushin, EPA’s Acting Regional Administrator in Denver. “The effort that has been made to improve drinking water treatment capabilities in Craig is a clear investment in the future health of the community.”

Since the first Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) loan was made in 1997, assistance recipients have shown exceptional creativity in designing projects that promote sustainability and protect public health. The 2008 DWSRF Awards for Sustainable Public Health Protection recognize the most innovative and effective projects that further the goal of clean and safe water through exceptional planning, management, and finance.

The projects had to meet three mandatory criteria to qualify for the Awards, including compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act, financial integrity and public health benefits. Each nominee had to demonstrate leadership in at least one or more of the following criteria: better management practices, full-cost pricing/affordability, efficient water use, watershed approach, innovation in financing, innovative approach to planning and/or project implementation, and creative use of partnerships.

The Safe Drinking Water Act, as amended in 1996, established the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund program to make funds available to drinking water systems to finance infrastructure improvements. The program also emphasizes providing funds to small and disadvantaged communities and to programs that encourage pollution prevention as a tool for ensuring safe drinking water.

For more, visit EPA’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund web site.

More water treatment coverage here.

CDOT: Pave the Poudre?

Bump and Update: From the Fort Collins Coloradoan (Trevor Hughes):

On Friday, CDOT spokeswoman Stacey Stegman said LaFarge plans to require tanker subcontractor Transtank of Greeley to sign papers committing to using alternative routes. Some of the tankers have been delivering asphalt to the project up the canyon on Colorado Highway 14, while others have dropped down through Walden from Wyoming, Stegman said.

More coverage of the cleanup from Trevor Hughes writing for the Fort Collins Coloradoan:

On Friday, Environmental Protection Agency on-scene coordinator Paul Peronard said heavy equipment likely will speed removal of the asphalt from Thursday’s spill. In the most recent spill, the asphalt largely settled into a pool of water like a thick, sticky black carpet…

On Friday, Belfor workers brought in an excavator. Early indications suggested the excavator would be able to roll up the edge of the spill, pulling out large chunks. “If this works out well, it should go a lot faster, and with a lot less labor having guys in the river,” [Environmental Protection Agency on-scene coordinator Paul Peronard] said in a news briefing Friday…

Peronard said the asphalt has little “innate toxicity.” He said floating booms appeared to have soaked up most of the spilled diesel.

The second asphalt tanker in 9 days went into the Poudre River yesterday. The tanker was ferrying cargo up Colorado 14 to a CDOT project on Cameron Pass. Here’s a report from Trevor Hughes writing for the Fort Collins Coloradoan. From the article:

The crash came the same day the EPA and other officials were preparing to declare complete the cleanup from a similar Aug. 25 crash. Alexander, who witnessed Thursday’s crash, is a senior chemist with URS Operating Services, an EPA contractor overseeing the first crash cleanup…

Thursday’s spill left a thick black blanket of asphalt on the river bottom right downstream of the crash. The Aug. 25 spill seemed to have run downstream a little further. Test results from that crash have revealed no significant water pollution, but officials on Thursday said the diesel spill might pose more of a risk. Capt. Patrick Love, a spokesman for Poudre Fire Authority, said the river levels on Thursday morning were low because river managers were withholding irrigation flows while the Aug. 25 cleanup wrapped up. Love said the lower levels meant Thursday’s spill had a chance to settle instead of being washed downstream. Major Justin Smith of the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office said the river would likely be closed to recreational use between mile markers 113 and 119, and he urged downstream anglers to release any fish they catch, just in case.

This morning, EPA officials were planning to begin cleanup efforts in earnest. They planned to build a temporary rock dike across the Poudre, drive an excavator to the other side and use the machine to pull the congealed mass toward the shore, where it could be cut up. EPA on-scene coordinator Paul Peronard said the water where the asphalt mass settled is about 10 feet deep. The prior spill happened in a much shallower area, allowing workers to simply stand in the river and cut the mass apart. In this case, Peronard said, workers will use the excavator to draw the material to shallower waters, cut it apart and send the bagged chunks back across for removal. Peronard said the EPA and the local fire and law enforcement agencies that responded to the crash will seek to recover their costs from the load’s insurer. Peronard said the cleanup itself would likely cost about $60,000. And he said the spill, which violates the federal Clean Water Act, could draw additional fines of up to $25,000 per day until cleaned up.

More Poudre River watershed coverage here.

Aspinall Unit operations meeting summary

From email from Reclamation (Dan Crabtree):

The August 27, 2009 meeting to coordinate Reclamation’s operation of the Aspinall Unit was held at the Blue Mesa Elk Creek Visitor Center. The meeting summary and associated handouts can be found at: http://www.usbr.gov/uc/wcao/water/rsvrs/mtgs/amcurrnt.html

Highlights of the operation meeting include:

April through July inflow to Blue Mesa was 772,000 af which is considered an average wet year. (The May 1 April – July forecasted inflow was 690,000 af.) The 31-year average is 720,000 af. 2008 inflow was 1,006,000 af.

Runoff was early and forecasted inflow increased significantly after May 15.

The Black Canyon water right has been quantified and this year’s average daily spring peak of 6,730 cfs in the Black Canyon exceeded the water right, which varies based on Blue Mesa Reservoir May 1 forecasted inflow. At Delta, flows peaked at 12,500 cfs with no significant problems reported. Flows in critical habitat peaked at 12,900 cfs as measured at Whitewater and there were 13 days above 8,070 cfs (half-bankfull). Endangered fish flow recommendations, based on May 1 forecast, would call for 10 days above 8,070 cfs and a peak of 8,070 cfs.

Ramping rates steeper than planned occurred as flows reached their peak causing safety and fishery concerns.

Blue Mesa filled and summer flows through the Black Canyon finally settled at around 1,000 cfs. Flows will decrease gradually in September to the 600-700 cfs range and then increase in late November and December to around 2,000 cfs for hydropower production.

If you have any suggestions on improving the operation meetings or summaries, please let us know. The next operation meeting will be on Thursday, January 21, 2010 in Montrose; location to be announced later.

More Aspinall Unit coverage here.

Middle Fork of the South Platte River: Gravel mine sediment spill

From The Fairplay Flume (Lynda James):

According to Tom Eisenman, Park County Development Services coordinator, the pond was full and water washed over the edge, creating a groove at the top of the pond’s edge. The water then flowed into a lower area filled with boulders and cobbles that is not part of the mining operations. It traveled underneath the boulders and then flowed into the Middle Fork of the South Platte River. Mary Burns, mine office manager, told The Flume on Monday that as soon as the mine management realized the settling pond was overflowing on Thursday, Aug. 27, they stopped the mine from washing gravel and began repairs. She said that no chemicals are used at the mine, so nothing but silt entered the river.

More South Platte Basin coverage here.

Surface Creek Watershed: Source Water Protection Plan

Folks are organizing to protect the Surface Creek Watershed. Here’s a report from the Delta County Independent (Hank Lohmeyer):

The Colorado Rural Water Association (CRWA), a non-profit group located in Pueblo West, has signed on with drinking water interests in the Surface Creek Valley area to advance the government-funded Source Water Protection Plan (SWPP) project.
Thirty people responded to 60 written invitations that went out for the meeting held at the Cedaredge Community Center. Colleen Williams, a facilitator with the non-profit group, said $5,000 grants are available to groups participating in the program. “We might be able to get $10,000 easy with this (size) group,” she told those at the meeting.

The SWPP project is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, by the Environmental Protection Agency, and by the Colorado Health Department, Williams said. The grants require a 50 percent local match which can be provided by local attendance at meetings credited toward the match at the rate of $30 per hour. “Specialists” who attend meetings qualify for a $100-per-hour grant match credit…

The Source Water Protection Plan is aimed at “keeping contaminants off the land and out of water treatment plants,” Williams said. Williams said that other communities, including the Plateau Valley area and Rangely, are participating in the SWPP project. Groundwork for the SWPP effort was laid in 1996 with passage of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. The initiative was advanced in 2004 with the compiling of local “Source Water Assessments” (SWA)…

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment website explains the statewide Source Water program as follows: Colorado Source Water Assessment and Protection (SWAP) is a program designed to provide information about your drinking water, as well as provide you and your community a way to get involved in protecting the quality of your drinking water. The program encourages community-based protection and preventive management strategies to ensure that all public drinking water resources are kept safe from future contamination.”

More Surface Creek watershed coverage here.

Montrose: Water master plan complete

From the Montrose Daily Press (Kati O’Hare):

The plan will be presented to Montrose City Council during its work session Thursday evening. It includes modeling of the inter-water distribution in the city, determines where the city needs to make capital improvements to make the system work more effectively, and provides a schedule for those improvements based on projected growth. [city engineer Jason Ullmann] said the city would start on some of the “no-cost” improvements as soon as the plan is presented to council.

More infrastructure coverage here.

Max Schmidt — ‘Two things are for sure with water: gravity and greed’

From the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Le Roy Standish):

The 15 acres at 2962 A 1/2 Road cost $1.25 million, according to a news release from the district. When the reservoir is built, it will serve the Orchard Mesa Irrigation District. The new reservoir and other Orchard Mesa Irrigation District improvements will reduce the amount of water needed to operate the system, according to the release. “The saved water could be used in late summer to improve endangered fish habitat … and to help Western Colorado irrigators in dry years,” according to the release. The reservoir should help preserve Colorado River water levels through a 15-mile stretch of the river during dry parts of the year. The 15-mile stretch is between the point where Orchard Mesa Irrigation takes its water to where the Gunnison River flows into the Colorado. When water demand is high, water levels for fish can become critical in this stretch…

The reservoir, which [Brent Uilenberg, technical service division manager for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation] calls “more of a pond,” will hold 100 acre-feet of water…

The cost of construction is $15.25 million, Uilenberg said. The price tag includes pumping plants, pipelines, an automation system and placing structures in the canals…

Max Schmidt, manager of the Orchard Mesa Irrigation District, said the project will help maintain river flows on the Western Slope even as a thirsty Front Range pulls thousands of acre-feet of water each year up and over the Continental Divide. “We are right in the middle of a great rubber band. Denver pulls one way, California pulls the other, and this is one of the very few chances to put more water into the 15-mile reach,” Schmidt said. “Two things are for sure with water: gravity and greed.”

More Gunnison Basin coverage here.

University of Nebraska – Lincoln: New spreadsheet for evaluating irrigation efficiency

From The Fence Post:

The new tool will help irrigators calculate the amount of money they could save by improving the efficiency of their system, said Tom Dorn, Lancaster County Extension educator, who developed the tool. Irrigators need to determine whether the pumping plant uses more energy than the Nebraska pumping plant performance criteria suggest it should, Dorn said. “To do that, all irrigators need to do is enter data from irrigation records into the online spreadsheet,” Dorn said. The spreadsheet is available at http://lancaster.unl.edu/ag/crops/Long_Term_Pump.xls.

More infrastructure coverage here.

Peru Basin: Dye test starting September 9

From the Summit Daily News (Bob Berwyn):

State and federal experts will use three types of dye to trace water flowing through the abandoned Pennsylvania Mine, above Keystone near the headwaters of the Snake River…The Sept. 9 study will try to pinpoint underground pollution sources and identify ground water flow pathways that may be sources of water in contact with polluted…The study is expected to last approximately two years or until the dye has been observed in subsequent samplings from the monitoring locations.

More Peru Creek watershed coverage here and here.

Drought Monitor

Wow. Click on the thumbnail from the US Drought Monitor and look at Texas.

National Ecological Observatory Network may build two climate monitoring stations in Rocky Mountain National Park

From the Fort Collins Coloradoan (Bobby Magill):

The National Ecological Observatory Network, or NEON, is proposing to build two climate monitoring stations at the park. One may be built on the west side of Colorado Highway 7 south of Goblins Castle Road, and the other is being considered for a site in Glacier Creek near the Sprague Lake Picnic Area. At the Goblins Castle site, a 59-foot tower would be built to house monitoring equipment, while water sampling equipment would be installed in Glacier Creek.

More Rocky Mountain National Park coverage here.

South Platte: Water quality concerns to be aired September 16 in Sterling

From The Greeley Tribune:

The meeting is open to the public and is scheduled for 6:30-8:30 p.m. Sept. 16 at the Gary DeSoto Community Center, 1120 Pawnee Ave. in Sterling. Landowners, agencies, organizations, businesses and residents are invited to discuss water quality concerns and priorities for managing natural and agricultural resources in the Lower South Platte basin. State Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, has been invited to speak on the importance of water quality to the economic viability of the entire watershed. Dick Parchini, watershed program manager with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Water Quality Control Division, and Cindy Lair, Colorado State Conservation Board program manager, also will be in attendance…

The watershed planning project, funded by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Water Quality Control Division through the Colorado Nonpoint Source Program, will encompass an estimated 3.45 million acres from Greeley north and east to the Colorado-Nebraska state line and all or portions of nine smaller tributary watersheds within the planning area.

For more information check out the Lower South Platte Watershed Plan website.

More South Platte Basin coverage here.

Energy policy — hydroelectric generation: Morley’s and J-Power hope to get South Slope Project on Xcel’s preferred project plan

Here’s an update on the proposed hydroelectric pumpback project near Penrose, from Chris Woodka writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

The project, which would include two small reservoirs near Brush Hollow Reservoir, is still awaiting approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Construction is still seven or eight years down the road, Thome said. The project would require about 7,000 acre-feet of water, which would be obtained in a one-time purchase and replenished for evaporation. Water would be pumped to the upper reservoir when energy demand on the grid is lower and run downhill through generators during peak load periods. A total of 320 megawatts would be generated. While the system would be about 76 percent efficient, it would act as a battery to balance power transmission for other renewable technologies when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining, [Steve Thome, spokesman for J-Power USA] said…

The South Slope Project was one of 113 vendors who submitted proposals for Xcel’s plan to meet goals to shift at least 20 percent of its power from coal to wind, solar and other renewable sources. The plan is being evaluated by the Public Utilities Commission, which is expected to make a decision in November, said spokesman Mark Stutz…

The South Slope partners would be looking at a long-term contract that would allow Xcel to operate the hydro plant as needed, rather than simply selling the power on a spot basis…

Natural gas plants are called “peakers” within the industry and are valuable because they can meet peak demand needs, or in the case of renewable sources, supply energy when wind and solar sources go off-line. With a pumpback plant, there would be continued demand for power at night to move the water uphill, Thome explained. “The wind blows day and night in Colorado,” Thome said.

More hydroelectric coverage here and here.

U.S.G.S. to present findings from E. coli study of 12 mile stretch of Fountain Creek September 9

Meeting federal and state standards for E. coli in surface water is very difficult. Sources of contamination need to be identified in order to devise a strategy. The U.S. Geological Survey plans to present their findings from a study of Fountain Creek next week, according to a report from Chris Woodka writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

The U.S. Geological Survey will host a meeting at 6 p.m. Sept. 9 at the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments, 14 S. Chestnut St., Colorado Springs. The study, begun in 2007, focuses on a 12-mile segment of Upper Fountain Creek, from Green Mountain Falls to the confluence of Fountain Creek and Monument Creek.

Possible sources of E. coli that were investigated included cracked sewer pipes, open pipes from wastewater sources, septic systems and animals such as horses, cows, dogs, geese and cats. USGS researchers used molecular microbiology methods known as fecal source tracking to determine whether humans or animals were responsible for contamination.

More Fountain Creek coverage here and here.

The Colorado Geological survey is planning study of the effects of coalbed methane production on water quality and streamflow

From The Trinidad Times Independent (Randy Woock):

The study, which is to be conducted beginning this month and stretch through June 2010, will seek to compile current and historic stream flow levels; characterize the quality of ground and surface waters in the river basin; determine the relationship between coalbed methane (CBM) “producing intervals” – a given time period when a production wellhead is working – aquifers and surface formations, and create a groundwater-level monitoring system and determine the hydraulic storage capacities of the bedrock (how much water it can hold) and alluvial aquifers (those formed by deposits of things such as sand and silt).

“This is really a follow-up to a stream depletion analysis that was done by multiple state agencies – the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), the Division of Water Resources and our own agency,” Colorado Geological Survey (CGS) Senior Hydrologist Ralf Topper said in an Aug. 21 interview. “That was a first look at trying to answer the question, is there an impact from CBM production on water rights? That study indicated that, yes, there was an impact to stream depletion.”

More coalbed methane coverage here and here.

Next Colorado Water Conservation Board meeting in Steamboat September 15-16

From email from the Colorado Water Conservation Board:

The Colorado Water Conservation Board is meeting on September 15-16, 2009, at the Steamboat Grand Hotel, 2305 Mt. Werner Circle, Steamboat Springs, CO 80487. The agenda (pdf) is available on the CWCB website

More CWCB coverage here.

Florence: Council approves $3 million loan for water system

From the Cañon City Daily Record (Charlotte Burrous):

Recently, the Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority offered to loan the city an amount not to exceed $3,025,930 at a 0 percent interest to improve two clear wells with the loan maturing in not more than 40 years from the date the bond is issued. The money will be used to install transmission lines and controls as well as any other items permitted by the loan, the ordinance said.

More infrastructure coverage here.

Green Mountain update

From email from Reclamation (Kara Lamb):

…we dropped releases from Green Mountain Reservoir to the Lower Blue by 100 cfs earlier today. The Lower Blue is now flowing at about 850 cfs.

More Blue River watershed coverage here

Colorado Foundation for Water Education

Say hello to the shiny new Colorado Foundation for Water Education website. Nicole and the staff have done a good job updating the format and website in general. Don’t forget to join up.

Disclaimer: CFWE links to Coyote Gulch.

Cache la Poudre asphalt cleanup

From the Loveland Reporter Herald:

A test for toxic chemicals in the Poudre River west of Fort Collins came up negative Monday, according to local officials. A test for poly-aromatic hydrocarbons did not find any. However, the city of Fort Collins is continuing to take its drinking water from Horsetooth Reservoir. Crews have hauled away all of the debris from the immediate site of the Aug. 25 crash of a tanker hauling liquid asphalt into the river, and about 70 percent of the asphalt in the river has been removed as well. Work should be completed by the weekend, officials said.

More Cache la Poudre coverage here.

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