Month: December 2011

The Piedra River Protection Workgroup will meet December 6

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From the Piedra River Protection Workgroup via the Pagosa Sun:

The Piedra River Protection Workgroup will meet on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Ross Aragon Community Center in Pagosa Springs.

The Piedra River Protection Workgroup is a diverse group of stakeholders exploring protection tools on the Piedra River north of U.S. 160.

Everyone is invited to participate.

For more information, contact Tami Graham at 759-9716 or go to http://ocs.fortlewis.edu/river protection/. [ed. I could not get the link to work]

More San Juan River basin coverage here and here.

NIDIS Weekly Climate, Water and Drought Assessment Summary of the Upper Colorado River Basin

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Here are the summaries for this week, from the Colorado Climate Center. Click on the thumbnail graphic to the right for the precipitation summary.

Clean Water Action is asking the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to eliminate the ‘trade secret’ loophole in their proposed hydraulic fracturing regulations

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From the Northern Colorado Business Report:

“Fracking is racing across Northern Colorado – the entire region is being used as a huge guinea pig,” said Gary Wockner, program director for Clean Water Action’s Colorado chapter based in Fort Collins. “At a minimum, we need to close the trade secret loophole, find out how much water is being used in fracking, and mark fracking fluids so that polluters can be held accountable.”[…]

The new proposed fracking regulations will be heard at a public meeting by COGCC on Dec. 5. The rules are aimed at providing more public disclosure of fracking fluids, but critics have noted that the rules as currently proposed allow oil and gas companies to keep some trade secrets regarding the chemical formulas they use…

Public comments on the proposed rules can be made at http://cogcc.state.co.us/.

More oil and gas coverage here and here.

The USGS is gearing up for a $500,000 Fountain Creek flood control dam study

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From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

The $500,000 study will look at up to 14 scenarios and develop a draft report by late 2012. A final report won’t be done until September 2013, said David Mau, head of the Pueblo USGS office. The study is funded in part by $300,000 from Colorado Springs as payment under Pueblo County 1041 conditions for Southern Delivery System. When SDS goes on line in 2016, the Fountain Creek district will receive the balance of $50 million in payments over a five-year period. Some of that money could go toward dams…

The technical committee will work with the USGS to identify where dams might be placed, and which type of flood events should be studied. The USGS also will attempt to predict how much erosion occurs and sediment is deposited in certain types of storms. The scenarios will be identified in February or March, after the USGS finishes calibrating existing data…

“We have a lot of information for smaller storm events, but where are you going to get information for the big storms?” asked Dennis Maroney, who represents Pueblo on the committee. Large floods in 1999 and 1965 may have provided enough data to make reasonable assumptions of the impact, said Karl Winters, a hydrologist from Austin, Texas, who specializes in stream hydrology.

More Fountain Creek watershed coverage here and here.