Day: July 19, 2010

Colorado-Big Thompson Project update

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From email from Reclamation (Kara Lamb):

With the recent heat, we are finally starting to see a dip in the elevations at Horsetooth and Carter reservoirs.

Today, Horsetooth is releasing about 360 cfs to water users (agricultural, city and industrial users). About 164 cfs is coming into the reservoir. It has started to go down and is at an elevation today of 5425. It will reach 5424 by tomorrow and will continue going down.

The pump to Carter went off in the middle of the night last night. Carter is approximately one foot below full at an elevation of 5758. With the heat, it is likely demand out of Carter will come up, too, and we’ll start to see the elevation there start to go down as well.

We are making deliveries down the Big Thompson River and along the canals. As we run water through the project, we are seeing regular fluctuation at both Pinewood and Flatiron reservoirs as we generate hydro-electric power at Pole Hill, Flatiron and the Big Thompson power plants. If you are visiting either Flatiron or Pinewood, please keep the fluctuating nature of the reservoirs in mind. In particular, please remember there is no boating, wading, swimming, etc. of any kind allowed in Flatiron. It goes up and down too much and has strong currents.

Those near Lake Estes will see the elevation creep up at Estes slightly. Releases from Olympus Dam to the Big Thompson River have remained around 125 cfs for the past week and are anticipated to stay at that rate for a while, weather depending, of course.

More Colorado-Big Thompson coverage here.

Rio Grande Basin: The objectors to the groundwater management Sub-district No. 1 rules have filed an appeal of Judge O. John Kuenhold’s recent approval of the plan

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From the Valley Courier (Ruth Heide):

The Rio Grande Water Conservation District, Rio Grande Water Users Association, Conejos Water Conservancy District, State Engineer, and Farming Technology Corporation filed Supporters’ Motion to Amend Decree on July 8. The following day, the senior water users filed notices of appeal to Colorado’s higher courts in two closely associated water and civil cases.

The senior water users’ attorneys contended in their appeals that the amended plan, and the judge’s conditions regarding its approval, still did not provide enough protections for senior water rights. They contended that injury would continue to occur to senior water rights as long as wells were allowed to pump within the sub-district area without state curtailment. They stated that such pumping constituted out of priority depletions. They also questioned whether the water management plan was complete, comprehensive and detailed enough and whether it complied with Senate Bill 04-222 and Colorado law…

Objectors also questioned whether the trial court erred in:

• determining that the plan of water management need not contain sufficient terms and conditions for the trial court to determine “no injury” to other water rights as a result;

• delegating to the sub-district and state and division engineers the authority to determine “annual replacement plans” to replace depletions from sub-district well pumping;

• deferring a finding regarding whether the plan of water management will result in injury to other water rights and instead relying on retained jurisdiction over the plan;

• approving the use of response function, a method for determining water injuries;

• determining that a plan of water management may use a reduction in the amount of water consumed by native vegetation to increase the quantity of water available to be pumped by sub-district wells;

• not requiring the sub-district to prove ownership or control over sufficient legally available replacement water to cover depletions from pumping sub-district wells;

• allowing the sub-district to utilize the water rights subject to the decrees referred to in Case Nos. 06CV64 and 07CW52 as the “recharge decrees” and in approving the quantification of fully consumable water in estimating ground water depletions;

• finding that the sub-district’s proposed use of Closed Basin Project water is not prohibited;

• allowing a 50 acre foot per year lower limit for the determination of injurious depletions and in allowing the replacement of injurious depletions in subsequent years;

• not adopting, rejecting, or referring back the plan of water management to the sub-district (the judge had referred the plan back to the sub-district board of managers once before);

• not affording objectors the opportunity to propose specific terms and conditions to the plan of water management;

• not requiring the sub-district to replace all injurious depletions, including ongoing depletions resulting from past pumping of sub-district wells, until the year 2012;

• approving Appendix 4 (budget and accounting plan) and Appendix 5 (operational timelines) of the plan of water management;

• determining the sub-district may contract with the owners of any non- sub-district wells.

• finding that individual plans of augmentation in Water Division 3 are not presently possible and cannot be completed with any engineering validity;

• finding that the calculation of the Surface Water Credit in Appendix 2 of the plan of water management is reasonable and supported by the record;

• finding that the amended plan of water management’s change in timing for removing land from irrigation to effectuate further recovery of the unconfined aquifer to a sustainable condition is lawful.

San Luis Valley groundwater coverage here and here.

Northern Integrated Supply Project: The Town of Frederick is solidly on board with the project

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From the Carbon Valley Farmer & Miner (Emily Dougherty):

The town’s sole source of water for potable water system is the Colorado Big Thompson (CB-T) project, which Frederick officials say they have outgrown, especially considering the projection that few CB-T units will be available on the open market beyond 2015…

“After studying many options and consulting true experts related to water issues, we firmly believe that NISP is the best choice available for Frederick and that it will prove to be a great benefit for all economic and social sectors of Northern Colorado,” Frederick mayor pro-term Tony Carey said in a letter in support of the NISP…

Carey went on to say that the town’s current water supplies are barely meeting the area’s needs and that if NISP is not approved, “Frederick and other participants will be forced to look at acquiring agricultural water rights to meet future demands,” he wrote…

the town strongly prefers to implement the NISP plans for Glade Reservoir and the South Platte Water Conservation Project, and to also work with the Larimer and Weld and the New Cache La Poudre irrigation companies to improve their operations rather than buying water rights that would negatively impact them.

Here’s a recap of last week’s rally by supporters of the project where 200 or so showed up, from Monte Whaley writing for The Denver Post. From the article:

At one point, Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway led the throng with shouts of “NISP now” before sending them out to spread the gospel of the Northern Integrated Supply Project.”You go and send that message about how much we need this,” Conway said, rallying the troops from inside a barn at Anderson Farms, northwest of Erie…

The go-ahead for NISP rests largely in the hands of the Army Corps of Engineers, which released a draft environmental-impact statement for the project in 2008. But the corps decided to do a supplemental study after critics said the original failed to answer critical questions, including the extent of the environmental damage the dams may cause. The supplemental report should be completed and released by next summer, said Brian Werner, spokesman for the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District…

Don Korrey — who works 800 acres of corn and alfalfa northeast of Sterling — said NISP is desperately needed to preserve water that otherwise would flow out of the plains and into cities. “Any storage anywhere will help farmers everywhere,” Korrey said. “It’s obvious cities are asking for more water rights, and if they keep doing that, our water will be depleted and their goes our livelihoods.”

More Northern Integrated Supply Project coverage here and here.

Middle Park Land Trust Fraser River restoration project protects a quarter-mile corridor

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From the Sky-Hi Daily News (Reid Armstrong):

The easement, which was recorded June 23, will protect for perpetuity some 17 riparian acres on property owned by Eric and Kathy Pietz. Another 70 acres on the neighboring Devil’s Thumb Ranch, which was placed into a conservation easement between 2007 and 2008, completes the corridor. “This is something we’d been working on for several years,” said Cindy Southway of Conservation Assistance who helped guide the project. The conservation easement wasn’t part of the original plan for the quarter-mile river corridor, which has been completely restored in the last two years through a wetlands mitigation project funded by Rendezvous…

The property didn’t always have a rich wetlands habitat. Two years ago, that 600 foot stretch of river was 75 feet wide, shallow, steep and was considered to be very poor fish habitat. In fact, said project manager Geoff Elliott of Grand Environmental Services, satellite photos indicate that section of river might have been straightened at some point to help transport logs through the Fraser Flats down to the lumber mill in Tabernash…

Elliott said that he spent three years studying the Fraser River in different places, determining what features helped create a healthy river. He took along a fishing guide who showed him the best fishing holes in the area, and Elliott studied their geometry and then recreated them in the restoration project. The project, which was funded entirely by Rendezvous as part of its development permit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, involved creating multiple bends in the river and adding features to improve fish habitat and water quality, such as pocket and shallow rapids and spots where the river will actually spill out of its banks and feed the wetlands…

The project more than doubled the length of the river, creating an ‘M’ out of what had once been an ‘I,’ and narrowed the channel down to 35-45 feet, allowing the water to flow deeper and cooler. Elliott said that two years after the completion of construction along that section of river, willow and other riparian plants along the river banks are thriving and the wetlands are growing. Within just one year, the river had been recolonized by the bugs that are the backbone of hearty fishery habitat — stone flies, water beetles and worms among other. And now, there are even signs of brown trout spawning in the new habitat.

More restoration coverage here and here.

2010 Colorado Elections: ‘Musings on Water’ – gate update

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Update: From The Denver Post (Karen Crummy):

Do I look like I’m going anywhere? These boots are made for walking, and I’m ready to fight,” [McInnis] said to The Post, looking down at his brown cowboy boots.

He also addressed again the controversy surrounding articles he submitted to the Hasan Foundation as original works but which included whole pages and passages that were similar to or copied directly from a 1984 essay by now-Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hobbs.

“It was an obvious mistake. I stood up, took responsibility and moved on,” McInnis said.

Update: From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Denny Herzog)

But there’s a seriousness to it, too. Plagiarism, particularly to those of us who have made careers out of dealing with the written word, is not to be taken lightly. Yet that’s exactly the way McInnis dealt with it, at least early on. Shortly after the story broke, he said if it were not an election year, it wouldn’t be an issue. The implication was that only in an election year would such a minor transgression be such a big deal. Sorry Scott, but theft, and that’s what plagiarism is, is a big deal, even in years when you’re not on the ballot.

From NewsFirst5.com (James Amos):

Dr. Malik Hasan, who helped establish the Hasan Family Foundation, says the board was hoping to get recommendations on how to deal with Colorado’s drought when it commissioned the essays from former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis in 2005. Hasan says he was disappointed when McInnis took a job in a law firm and turned in reports that were unpublishable, but there was nothing he could do about it.

From The Denver Post (Mike Littwin):

As I’m writing this column, the most relevant questions are all about the McInnis campaign death watch, now on high alert. The terms of the debate have changed from whether McInnis can still win after his “Musings on Water”-gate scandal to how long McInnis can survive. There’s an Aug. 10 primary date against Dan Maes — who, to this point, has offered up no known credentials for the job — and then there’s the November race against Democrat John Hickenlooper, who has pulled ahead in the latest polling. Still, I don’t expect McInnis to quit because he is Scott McInnis, who is far too stubborn to quit. Just look at the latest news. McInnis says he’s paying back the $300,000 that he took — and I mean took in the best way — from the Hasan Family Foundation for the plagiarized articles highlighting his water-law expertise. The real scandal is that he was paid that kind of money for his, uh, musings at all, original or otherwise. But if McInnis were going to quit the race, why wouldn’t he just keep the money, which is a lot of cash even by lawyer- lobbyist standards? The quitting, at this writing, has been limited to three McInnis senior staffers. You don’t have to wonder why they left the campaign. They were either shocked by McInnis’ behavior, particularly in regard to ex-pal Rolly Fischer, or they may have just noticed that the campaign bus, with its incriminating tire marks, has left the station.

More 2010 Colorado elections coverage here.

Arkansas Valley Conduit: Will Reclamation place too high a financial burden on the project?

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From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

The Southeastern Colorado Water Conservation District is watching the current proceedings with interest, and the implications of the [Southern Delivery System] outcome for the district were frequently mentioned during two days of negotiations last week.

“Do you remain comfortable charging less for out-of-district users than for those of us in the district?” David Robbins, an attorney for Colorado Springs, asked Mike Collins, area manager for Reclamation at one point. Robbins referred to a 2007 storage contract with Aurora that amounts to $46 per acre-foot in 2011 vs. proposals that have ranged from $50-100 per acre-foot for SDS.

Collins replied, after a barrage of questions and a day of banter, that Reclamation from now on would use a “negotiated market” method of determining contract prices in the Arkansas Valley. That is a change from past contracts based on cost of service that Collins discounted as “snapshots in time.”[…]

The rate Colorado Springs eventually reaches in SDS — right now, it’s expected to come down between $25 and $40 — will also provide revenues to repay the costs of the conduit under a 2009 law. Even the low end fits into the projections made by federal staff on the repayment strategy, Broderick said. “I’m not seeing this as having much impact on the funding of the conduit,” he said.

More Arkansas Valley Conduit coverage here and here.