Proposed new state nitrogen and phosphorus standards for wastewater plants are under attack

Here’s a report from Barbara Cotter writing for The Colorado Springs Independent. Click through and read the whole article. Here’s an excerpt:

The proposed regulations are meant to address a stronger nationwide push from the Environmental Protection Agency to cut the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus discharged from wastewater treatment plants into rivers, streams, lakes and reservoirs. But opponents question the science used to support the need for the regulations, and warn that water bills could double or even triple for some Colorado ratepayers if municipalities are forced to upgrade their facilities.

Earlier this month, the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments sent a letter to Gov. John Hickenlooper urging him to block the proposed regulations. The same day, Republican state Sen. Steve King of Grand Junction introduced a bill that would essentially place a moratorium on the adoption of regulations.

“This action is not mandated by federal law, nor is it based on any demonstrated adverse environmental impacts occurring in Colorado waters from our facilities,” the PPACG wrote to Hickenlooper. “The cost of implementing such regulations on small and medium-sized communities will be staggering, and we ask for your intervention to stop this regulatory mandate.

Steve Gunderson, director of the Water Quality Control Division at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, defends the science, but acknowledges that compliance could be costly. However, he notes, only about 30 percent of wastewater plants in Colorado would be affected by the regulations, which are, at the outset, more lenient than what some environmentalists might consider ideal.

Mostly, he says, the state needs to act before the EPA steps in. “We continue to believe that is to Colorado’s benefit to start addressing the nutrients so it’s not forced on us by means of a lawsuit of the EPA dictating to us what needs to be done,” Gunderson says…

To [Tad Foster, a Colorado Springs environmental attorney specializing in water quality issues], the site-specific approach is ideal, but given the reality of the situation, he and the Colorado Nutrient Coalition are proposing that limits be imposed on phosphorus, not nitrogen, at least for the time being. “Why? Because the cost of doing total nitrogen is six times the cost of doing total phosphorus,” Foster says.

He estimates the cost to wastewater plants to control just phosphorus would be $635 million, compared with $2.46 billion to regulate both nitrogen and phosphorus. And that’s just to meet less restrictive standards. To go whole-hog with the “ultimate set” of restrictions for nitrogen and phosphorus would, according to varying estimates, cost from $20 billion to $25 billion.

Gunderson says the state is proposing regulations on both nitrogen and phosphorus for a reason. “Our science, and what we assert, is, you really have to address both of them,” he says. “If you address one and not the other, you’re not going to see a lot of progress. They’re both fertilizers; if you put nitrogen on your lawn and not phosphorous, your lawn will still turn green.”

But the proposed regulations do not impose the most restrictive limits, he says. “It starts knocking it down. We’re trying to find a way to start putting a dent in this thing,” Gunderson says…

Still, there’s fear among many communities that they’ll be socked with a massive bill. Like the PPACG, the Colorado Rural Community Coalition wrote a letter to Hickenlooper that was signed by 12 wastewater dischargers in El Paso County, expressing concern about the regulations. Gunderson says that about half of the opponents who have signed letters wouldn’t be affected by the current proposal.

Gunderson understands the opposition to the regulations, but says doing nothing is not an option. “I continue to believe that it makes sense to do this here, rather than having it forced upon us, which one day it will.”

From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Charles Ashby):

Officials with the Colorado Water Quality Control Division say the new rules are needed to prevent even stricter ones from being imposed on the state by the federal government. At the same time, local wastewater experts say the proposed rules, known as Regulations 31 and 85, will do little to nothing to clean the state’s waterways. The issue centers on the amount of nutrients that end up in the state’s rivers and lakes. Having too many nutrients — nitrogen and phosphorus — causes algae to grow. That, in turn, saps oxygen from the water, creating so-called dead zones, places where nothing can grow and fish can live, said Steve Gunderson, executive director of the water division.

While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency isn’t mandating what Colorado is considering, the federal agency ultimately will impose something even more stringent if the state doesn’t act on its own, he said. “The EPA has been pushing for states to do something for quite a few years,” Gunderson said. “It is one of the nation’s biggest water quality challenges. (The nutrients) causes a water body to get choked. It will rob the water body of oxygen, and it will raise the pH, the level of corrosivity, in the water. It can adversely impact aquatic life.”[…]

The division has filed about 600 pages worth of rules and other accompanying documents with the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission that call for lowering phosphorus and nitrogen levels to virtually zero over the next 10 years. The commission is holding a public hearing on the rules in the spring, with an expectation of having them go into effect by June 1…

Eileen List, industrial pretreatment supervisor for the Persigo Wastewater Treatment Plant in Grand Junction, said the city still is studying the proposed rules, but that it could cost as much as $24 million to comply with just with one portion of them. “When you get into Reg 85, there are impacts not just to wastewater facilities, but there are impacts to stormwater facilities as well as drinking water facilities,” List said. “This is where the city is still in the process of understanding the regulation.”[…]

So far, officials from 32 local entities have signed a letter complaining about the proposed rules, including the Clifton and Orchard Mesa sanitation districts, the Grand Valley Drainage District, the Battlement Mesa Metropolitan District and the towns of Rangely, Cedaredge, De Beque and Nucla. In the letter that is to be sent to Gov. John Hickenlooper by the end of the week, the officials say the regulations will cost all of them about $2 billion to be in compliance, and ask that he delay it until more scientific research can be done. “The state has not been able to show us that Colorado has a problem with nutrients,” said Michael Wicklund, manager of the Monument Sanitation District, who started the letter. “There is no funding from the state for any of this, or the federal government.”[…]

Eric Brown, the governor’s press secretary, said Hickenlooper will allow the public hearing process to run its course, and doesn’t plan to intercede.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, said he plans to introduce a bill when the Legislature reconvenes next month calling for a five-year moratorium on the rule, to give local communities more time to study its impact. King said the proposed regulation is contrary to an executive order issued by the governor earlier this year to limit state regulations that prove too onerous while the state is recovering from the recession.

More wastewater coverage here.

Sand Creek: Benzene laden flows from the Suncor refinery are still discharging into the surface water

From The Denver Post (Bruce Finley):

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment data — from samples taken by Suncor — showed benzene concentrations at 720 parts per billion on Jan. 9 at the point where Sand Creek meets the South Platte, up from 190 on Jan. 6, and 144 times higher than the 5 ppb national drinking-water standard. Benzene is a chemical found in crude oil that is classified as cancer-causing, especially affecting blood. Downriver on the South Platte, the data show benzene at 240 ppb on Jan. 9, a decrease from 590 on Jan. 6 but still 48 times higher than the standard…

Spilled contaminants from decades of refinery operations at the site have seeped underground, “and it is snaking through. The pressures change. It finds the path of least resistance, and that’s apparently what has happened: It has found the path of least resistance to get into Sand Creek,” Colorado health department environmental-programs director Martha Rudolph said in an interview last week…

Suncor officials Friday said blood tests were done on 675 employees and contractors. Suncor cannot comment on results, spokeswoman Lisha Burnett said. “Any retesting that may be required is handled between the individual and a doctor.” Refinery crews are excavating water pipelines and have not found any breaks or cracks, Burnett said. “One theory that we’re investigating is the permeation of hydrocarbons through plastic pipe.”

Suncor will build a large slurry wall made of claylike material along Sand Creek and collector trenches to protect waterways — as well as a trench system and wall on Suncor’s property to prevent the spread of hydrocarbons, she said.

More Sand Creek coverage here.

Pueblo Dam: The proposal for a hydroelectric generation facility at the north outlet works is moving through the bureaucracy

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

The Bureau of Reclamation in December accepted a lease of power privilege proposal by the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, Colorado Springs and the Pueblo Board of Water Works. “This is a big deal that will give us broader options for power in the Arkansas River basin,” said Jim Broderick, executive director of the Southeastern District.

The next step is for the partners to sign an agreement and gain approval from Reclamation for its plan to build hydropower at Pueblo Dam. The generation facilities would be built in the next 10 years, Broderick said. The cost estimates and timeline for the agreement are slated to be discussed by the Southeastern board in February.

More hydroelectric coverage here and here.

Southeastern Board Meeting recap: Reclamation stands to get $3 million for Arkansas Valley Conduit EIS

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

The Bureau of Reclamation is working on an environmental impact statement for the conduit that will identify the preferred option for the conduit. It will be allocated nearly $3 million to complete the study in the next year, said Christine Arbogast, a lobbyist for the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District…

In the 2013 fiscal year, relatively little funding would be needed as the EIS is completed, but in the following year the district will have to push for federal funds to begin building the conduit.

More coverage from Chris Woodka Writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

Colorado has accrued 44,000 acre-feet of credits under an accounting system of deliveries of Arkansas River water to Kansas. There are two reasons for the surplus, Witte explained:

– The Lower Arkansas Water Management Association has been delivering about 8,000 acre-feet annually for six years from the Kessee Ditch below John Martin Reservoir.

– The state has been using a presumptive depletion factor of 39 percent, rather than 30 percent as required by the compact lawsuit.

The Division of Water Resources will re-evaluate the depletion factor in June, and it likely will be lowered to some midpoint between the two extremes, Witte said. That means well owners would be required to replace less water on an annual basis, but the change would not go into effect until April 2013 at the earliest.

More coverage from Chris Woodka writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

“The Arkansas Basin Roundtable is overseeing this pilot program [for the Arkansas Valley Super Ditch] as well as the Lower district,” Jay Winner, general manager of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, told the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District board Thursday. “We’re trying to be as transparent as we can.”

Winner and engineer Heath Kuntz reviewed Super Ditch plans at the board’s monthly meeting. The information was the same as longer presentations to a group of about 200 people earlier this month in Rocky Ford. That meeting was held at the suggestion of State Engineer Dick Wolfe to give those who could be affected by Super Ditch the opportunity to look at the potential impacts of a pilot program. The Rocky Ford meeting led to a technical meeting in Colorado Springs Thursday to work out issues raised at the first meeting. The Lower Ark district will file its substitute water supply plan for the pilot program after attempting to settle those issues, Winner said.

More Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District coverage here.

A request to move water out of basin for the Republican River compliance pipeline will be in front of the Sandhills Ground Water Management District January 24

From The Yuma Pioneer (Tony Rayl):

The hearing will be held Tuesday, January 24, at 10 a.m. at the Wauneta Fire Hall, located north of Wray, at 50002 U.S. Highway 385. The [Republican River Water Conservation District] is seeking to send water from the Sandhills district down a pipeline to the North Fork of the Republican River, where it will flow east into Nebraska and then into Kansas. It part of Colorado’s efforts to come into compliance with the 1942 Republican River Compact.

More Republican River coverage here and here.

Water Division 1 Ditch and Reservoir Symposium March 14 and 15

From email from Water Division 1:

The attached document [click here to download the document] describes a conference Water Division 1 is sponsoring on water related topics in mid-March in Loveland, Colorado. As you can see from this document, the presentations are on a wide variety of topics that cover both South Platte specific issues and topics that apply statewide as well. The demonstrations of water related products also provide a unique opportunity to see a variety of products at a single location. (Note that there is a $10 registration discount for registrations received before March 1.)

More South Platte River basin coverage here.

More than half the speakers at Longmont City Council’s annual open forum addressed hydraulic fracturing concerns

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From the Longmont Times-Call (Scott Rochat):

They praised the city’s 120-day moratorium on drilling applications, urged the adoption of tough regulations such as a 1,000-foot separation between wells and occupied buildings, and deplored the amount of water used in hydraulically fracturing a well to get at hard-to-reach deposits — an estimated 5 million gallons to start the well, and still more when a well is “re-fracked.”[…]

Asked for their own comments on drilling, both [Councilwoman Sarah Levison] and Councilwoman Witt said they didn’t consider the moratorium — which runs through April 17 — to be enough time for the city to revise regulations. Witt said that what the city really needed was an energy master plan, but she could see that taking two years: far longer, she said, than any moratorium the city could practically issue…

[Councilman Brian Bagley], in turn, urged the audience to go to the Legislature with the same passion. With wells in Firestone and unincorporated Boulder and Weld County, he said, the city just doesn’t have the jurisdiction to solve the problem by itself. “It’s like being in court and saying ‘I want a divorce’ and being told ‘Sorry, this is municipal court — we do traffic tickets, you need to go to district court,'” Bagley said. “I wish I had a better answer for people. But we’ll do the best we can.”

Rain Bird is funding ‘Intelligent use of water awards’

From email from the Pollack PR Marketing Group (Sara Nazarian):

The Intelligent Use of Water Awards is an interactive grant program that awards funds to water conservation and environmental sustainability projects that promote green spaces. Developed and managed by the leading manufacturer and provider of irrigation products and services, Rain Bird Corporation, the Intelligent Use of Water Awards is a global initiative that invites anyone with access to the Internet to submit a water conservation project and/or vote on other projects to receive more than $50,000 in funding.

Anyone can submit a project via the Intelligent Use of Water Awards website at http://www.iuowawards.com and promote it within their community. All projects are anonymously voted upon by visitors (one vote a day per project, per individual user), and the projects with the most votes will receive funding from Rain Bird according to their funding category.

Rain Bird will award four $1,500 projects, three $5,000 projects, and three $10,000 projects.

The process for submitting a project is fast, simple, and open to the global public. If you or your readers have any current or upcoming projects that contribute to water conservation and/or green spaces and need funding for them, I strongly encourage them to submit entries to qualify for one of the grants and vote.

More infrastructure coverage here.

Colorado Water Congress Annual Convention (January 25-27) Program Descriptions

From email from the Colorado Water Congress (Doug Kemper):

At long last, the near final program descriptions are completed for our 2012 Colorado Water Congress Annual Convention, The Year of Water Celebration and the Wednesday Workshops. I am pleased to announce that registrations are currently running ahead of last year’s record setting convention.

Advance registration will continue through next week. So there is still time for you to reserve your seat at what promises to be a very exciting convention. For the first time in several decades, the entire convention will be in plenary session. For those of you that love to make choices, we have a diverse array of concurrent sessions during our Wednesday Workshops – easily our richest selection of learning opportunities that we have ever had.

The San Luis Valley unconfined aquifer depleted to lowest level since record keeping started in 1976

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Matt Hildner):

High commodity prices and a below-average snowpack prevented the normal recharge of the shallower of the valley’s two major groundwater bodies from bouncing back during runoff as it customarily does. “This last year has been pretty brutal,” Allen Davey, an engineer who monitors groundwater for the Rio Grande Water Conservation District, said at the district’s quarterly meeting Tuesday…

From January of last year pumping has reduced the aquifer by 200,000 acre-feet, according to the district’s monitoring wells that are clustered in the north-central part of the valley. It’s down 740,000 acre feet from when officials started charting the aquifer’s levels in 1976…

“I’ve talked to several users who have indicated they’re having trouble with their wells at this level, which is really no surprise,” Davey said.

More San Luis Valley groundwater coverage here and here.

Snowpack news: Storms over the next week or so bring hope of building towards average

Klaus Wolter (Climate Prediction Center) told the CWCB’s Water Availability Task Force yesterday (from my Twitter Feed @coyotegulch), beyond next week — temperatures warm, storm tonight, next weekend and probably one after that. We may exceed normal precipitation.

Here’s a report from Bobby Magill writing for the Fort Collins Coloradoan. From the article:

The U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service reported the water content of the snowpack in the Upper Colorado River Basin was 70 percent of normal Jan. 17, 2002. On the same date this year, the snowpack was worse there: 61 percent of normal.

The Laramie and North Platte river basins had a snowpack 62 percent of normal on that day in 2002. In 2012, the snowpack was exactly the same. In the South Platte Basin, which includes the Poudre River, the snowpack was 54 percent of normal. This year, it was a bit better: 73 percent of normal…

“The sense of optimism we have right now, that is the forecasts are strongly indicating a weather pattern change that’s imminent,” said Colorado State Climatologist Nolan Doesken. The shift already has started as the jet stream is beginning to drop south now that arctic air has moved into the Gulf of Alaska, pushing a hefty dose of snow to the Rockies this weekend, said meteorologist Mark Heuer of DayWeather in Cheyenne, Wyo. “The Rockies are starting to see consistent and heavy snow,” he said…

There’s another big difference between the winter conditions of 2012 and those of 2002. “We’re going in well ahead above average in (water) storage,” said Brian Werner, spokesman for the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District in Berthoud.

From the Valley Courier (Ruth Heide):

The annual index flow for the Rio Grande is normally about 650,000 acre feet, but the initial projection is for 505,000 acre feet, Hardesty reported. The Conejos River system, which ended the year with more water than expected, is initially forecast to produce 258,000 acre feet or about 90 percent of the average 280,000 acre feet. Both the Rio Grande and Conejos Rivers ended the calendar year with a credit on the Rio Grande Compact, Hardesty added…

Hardesty said although the current basinwide snowpack is 82 percent, “the numbers are all over the place.” The SNOTEL site at Wolf Creek Summit, for example, registered 104 percent of average as of Tuesday, Jan. 17, while the Lily Pond site was only registering 53 percent of average.

From USA Today (Doyle Rice):

“There are quite a few storms lined up over the Pacific that will be coming onshore over the next several days,” Weather Channel meteorologist Frank Giannasca said…

The storm dumped almost a foot of snow on Washington’s capital, Olympia, the National Weather Service reported. That amount was close to the city’s 24-hour record of 14 inches. Seattle saw about 4-6 inches of snow.

Mike King (DNR): ‘We have seen our water projects not being developed at a rate necessary to meet our future demand’

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Patrick Malone):

“We have seen our water projects not being developed at a rate necessary to meet our future demand,” said Mike King, executive director of the Department of Natural Resources.
Dating back to 2008, the state has filled holes in its budget with severance tax money derived from drilling and mining. Funding pools that support construction of water projects have been raided to the tune of $173 million to balance the budget, and Gov. John Hickenlooper has proposed to move another $30 million from water projects to the general fund in the 2012-13 budget. The Department of Natural Resources has identified $100 million in potential projects, but most will have to wait until sunnier budget times to complete them because a meager $22 million remains in the funding pool for projects.

A handful of projects will receive enough funding for partial completion this year. The Rio Grande Reservoir in the San Luis Valley is one of them. Water is seeping through its permeable base and needs reinforcement. Adding capacity to the reservoir also is on the wish list…

Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village, represents the San Luis Valley. She said the budget wrangling of recent years has ignored state law that dictates how severance tax funds are to be used. “We are paying a price, ultimately, by not addressing the state’s water concerns,” she said. “This has been a choice of all of us (in the General Assembly) that we have just created different priorities. The question is: How do we realign ourselves with this priority long-term?”

More infrastructure coverage here.

Alan Hamel is retiring from the Pueblo Board of Water Works after more than 51 years

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

Hamel plans to announce his retirement as executive director today, and will step down from the job at the end of August…

“I turn 70 in March,” Hamel said Wednesday. “It will be a good time for me to step down and allow (wife) Mary Kay and I to spend more time together.”

Hamel, who was recognized by the Colorado Water Congress with its top award in 2010, will continue as a member of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, as an advisory member with the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, as a director of the Colorado Foundation for Water Education and as state appointee to the Arkansas Basin Roundtable.

More Pueblo Board of Water Works coverage here and here.

A look back at the drought of 1976-1977 from The Aspen Times

Click through and read the whole article, there is a lot of good detail there. Here’s the report from Scott Condon writing for The Aspen Times. Here’s an excerpt:

An article in the Thanksgiving Day edition of the Times in 1976 provided a bleak forecast for the start of the season. The Aspen Skiing Corp. would lose $400,000 in gross revenues if it could not open Aspen Mountain, Buttermilk, Snowmass and Breckenridge — which it owned back then — over Thanksgiving weekend, an article said.

The Ski Corp., as today’s Aspen Skiing Co. was known back then, had only missed a Thanksgiving Day opening on “six or seven” years since it started operating on Jan. 1, 1946. Company President D.R.C. Brown was philosophical about conditions.

“It won’t be the first, and it won’t be the last,” he said of the prospect of not firing up the chairlifts for Thanksgiving. There was only a 10-inch base at the top of Aspen Mountain, and snowmaking didn’t exist to any degree.

San Luis Valley: First groundwater sub-district grappling with replacing surface water depletions this spring

From the Valley Courier (Ruth Heide):

The board of managers for Special Improvement District No. 1 of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District (RGWCD) held a special meeting on Monday to wade through some of the complicated issues facing the sub-district as it navigates the waters ahead. The Valley’s first sub-district affects 175,000 irrigated acres and 500 or more individual property owners in Alamosa, Rio Grande and Saguache Counties north of the Rio Grande. Its goals include replacing injurious depletions from well pumping to surface water users, restoring the Valley’s aquifer levels and ensuring compliance with the Rio Grande Compact. By court order, the sub-district must begin replacing depletions to surface water rights this spring…

Water district attorney David Robbins said the judge required any wells not originally in the sub-district to go to the peer review committee to make sure any depletions they were causing would be accounted for in the groundwater model and replaced by the sub-district…

The board on Monday decided to extend to February 15 the deadline for applications from those wishing to enter fallowing contracts with the sub-district this year. The initial deadline was January 31. The board said by extending the deadline into February they could give farmers one last push during the potato grain conference in early February.

In addition, the board is still working out rules that will govern fallowing contracts and plans to review a draft of those rules on Monday morning, Jan. 30, at 8:30 a.m. in the Bureau of Reclamation office just east of Alamosa. The sub-district board will meet again at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 8.

More Rio Grande River basin coverage here.

Snowpack news: Statewide snowpack — 66% of average, the South Platte Basin — 75%

Click on the thumbnail graphic to the right for the current snowpack map. There is a Water Availability Task Force meeting today so there should be some good stuff to report from there later on.

Water 2012: The Valley Courier is running a primer on prior appropriation

From the Valley Courier (Judy Lopez):

Colorado administers water under the Prior Appropriation Doctrine. This means that those who put the water to beneficial use first are entitled to get their water first during times of shortage.

The Colorado Constitution declared that all water in every stream belonged to the people of the state and was subject to appropriation. In 1879, Colorado established the Water Commissioner to distribute water rights in priority based upon the principle of “First in Time… First in Right”.

Sooo… “Priority of right to water by priority of appropriation is older than the state constitution itself, and has existed from the date of the earliest appropriations of water within the boundaries of Colorado,” (Farmers Highline Canal& Reservoir Co) which was established way back on April 10, 1852, with the San Luis Peoples Ditch.

What this means in water lingo is that those with earlier decreed rights “prior” have senior rights and can divert their water before later decreed rights. It is a matter of timing, at least as far as acquiring the right goes.

The second part of the “appropriation” system requires the agency (private person or business) put the water to beneficial use according to the procedures of the law. This requires the appropriator to have a plan to divert, store, capture, control or posses the water in order to put it to beneficial use.

What is beneficial use? This is a moving target and can depend on the economy, the community, and the values and ethics of the users. There are, however, recognized beneficial uses: augmentation, CWCB in-stream flows, commercial, domestic, dust suppression, evaporation from a gravel pit, fire protection, fish and wildlife, flood control, industrial, irrigation, mined land reclamation, municipal, nature centers, power generation, water and gas production, recreation reservoirs and in-stream flows, release of storage for boating and fishing, snowmaking and stock watering.

More Colorado Water 2012 coverage here.

The Pueblo Board of Water Works hopes to finalize policy for large water users at their February meeting

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

The revised policy would charge large water users $16,200 per acre-foot for water use above 520 acre-feet annually either for potable or raw water. The charge up to the first 520 acre-feet is $1,233 per acre-foot. The difference in the rates reflects the cost of acquiring and developing new water determined in a study that was done about five years ago. The previous rate was based on a study from the 1980s, said Terry Book, deputy executive director. The new policy would also give the water board the opportunity to waive part of the fees, based on the economic benefits such as jobs that new customers would bring to the community. The water board now routinely approves a moratorium on fees for new industries, and board members had concerns about whether there would be flexibility in applying the new rates…

While the Pueblo water board has acquired additional water through the purchase of Bessemer Ditch shares, those are set aside for long-range growth. A new, extreme demand could require additional purchases of water rights either by the new customer or the water board…

The city of Pueblo, Evraz Pueblo and the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo are the largest users on the city water system.

Here’s a look at Black Hills Energy’s water use from Christopher Burke writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

When water is removed from a natural stream system, such as the Arkansas River, it is either returned to that source in the same quantity in which it was removed, or it is not. The former is known as non-consumptive use and typically includes things such as hydroelectric power production and cooling water for steam power plants. Our W.N. Clark Plant and Pueblo 5 and 6 plants are of this type and use river water only for once-through cooling before returning the same water back to the Arkansas River. The latter is known as consumptive use and includes water that has been evaporated such that it is not available for immediate reuse. The new Pueblo Generation Facilities operate this way and will consume, on average, a total of 400 gallons per minute, according to 2012 estimates. Additionally, these facilities minimize any potential burden they might otherwise place on the municipal water treatment system through the use of zero-discharge technologies, which process all wastewater on site without discharging it back to the municipal sewage system for reprocessing…

As a matter of contingency, Black Hills Energy has alternative access to a contracted water supply. If water were to become scarce due to drought, we have the capability, both operationally and technologically, to use air-cooling technology originally pioneered by Black Hills Energy’s sister company, Black Hills Power, in Gillette, Wyo. Such technology reduces or eliminates the need for large-volume cooling water in exchange for slightly diminished plant efficiency performance. The new location of the Pueblo Generation Facilities, away from the Arkansas River Basin and flood plain, also mitigates any potential risks to our operations in the event of flooding

Finally, the board finished 2011 in a strong financial position. Here’s a report from Chris Woodka writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. Here’s an excerpt:

The Pueblo Board of Water Works finished 2011 with $1.39 million more in revenues than were projected in the budget…

Most of the increase in revenue, more than $1 million, came because of increased sales to water customers trying to keep lawns green through a hot, dry summer. Consumption totalled 8.8 billion gallons in 2011, about 7 percent above the five-year average. Customers paid $21.6 million for the water, about 69 percent of total revenues of $31.2 million…

Sales of water on the spot market also exceeded expectations, generating $1.6 million, more than twice the amount projected. The water board also made $144,000 more on miscellaneous revenues, primarily the sale of scrap.

More Pueblo Board of Water Works coverage here.

Colorado Water 2012 Book Club: Peter McBride took us on a trip down the river tonight

The river that matters to many that is.

Tonight Peter McBride was first up for the Water 2012 Book Club series. He took us down the Colorado River from the headwaters to the delta, showing his photos and a little bit of video. He pointed out that the river is under stress having to support 30 million people, including the Gulch clan, large industries and most of the winter vegetables you eat.

“Love the river,” he says.

Water2012 has a new blog. Check it out.

More Colorado Water 2012 coverage here.

Snowpack news: The northern Colorado plains are doing fairly well so far this winter season

Soil moisture is doing well with the abundance of upslope storms so far this winter. The snowpack chart on the right reflects only Snotel sites and was generated before the beautiful snow over the weekend.

Here’s a report about conditions on the plains from Eric Brown writing for The Greeley Tribune. From the article:

The 10-year average for snowfall in Greeley and the surrounding area is about 36 inches per year, and already this year, some parts of Weld County have received nearly 40 inches — a total of 39.4 inches of snow has been reported just outside of Greeley. Even the lowest snowfall amount on record in Weld County so far this winter — 22 inches in Fort Lupton — is more than what was recorded in all of last year…

Bruce Bosley — a crop systems specialist with Colorado State University Extension services, who serves all of northeastern Colorado — agreed that this year’s winter wheat is off to a much better start, but conditions locally haven’t been perfect. Early-on moisture was beneficial, but warm and windy weather since then might have been harmful in some fields, Bosley explained. Warm weather at this time of year can cause some wheat to break out of dormancy too early. Wheat is supposed to remain dormant through late February, and Bosley said he’s concerned that some of the area’s wheat has already emerged from its dormancy. Freezing conditions can cause serious damage to a crop that emerges from dormancy prematurely…

What Cooksey, Bosley and wheat farmers across the region are hoping for now is a cold and wet finish to the winter that will last through early spring…

“It’s really kind of a crapshoot right now,” [Scott Entrekin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boulder] said. “With a La Niña pattern like the one we have now, dry conditions are common. But that certainly hasn’t been the case around here, considering all of the snow we’ve seen.” On the other hand, snowpack in the mountains is well behind where it should be. It’s just been an interesting year so far.”

San Luis Valley: Area growers try to assess the potential impact of withdrawing acreage irrigated by groundwater pumping

From The Denver Post (Bruce Finley):

…the commercial agriculture that built up the valley is large-scale and competitive, and relies on center-pivot irrigation devices that pump heavily from underground aquifers. Commercial production of potatoes and hay — using 6,000 wells and 2,700 center-pivots to irrigate 120-acre crop circles — exploded after the 1950s. The pumping has depleted aquifers by more than 1 million acre-feet since 1976 and now is affecting surface streams…

By May, center-pivot farmers must activate a plan to reduce the water pulled from the aquifer by about 30,000 acre-feet a year. “They’ve got to start to restore it,” state engineer Dick Wolfe said. To avoid state shutdowns of wells — as happened in 2009 in northeastern Colorado — commercial farmers propose to pay to pump or purchase new surface-water rights and use these to offset pumping from aquifers…

“These communities, and no doubt other communities around the world, are coming to the realization that business as usual has to change,” said Mike Gibson, manager of the San Luis Valley Water Conservancy District and chairman of the Rio Grande roundtable that participates in statewide planning…

But the time has come for commercial farms “to pay for the impacts they are causing to the river,” said Steve Vandiver, manager of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District and the leader of efforts to find water to replace water pumped from wells.

More Rio Grande River basin coverage here.

2012 Colorado November election: Congressman Gardner talks water at Berthoud town hall meeting

From the Loveland Reporter-Herald (Pamela Dickman):

“Conditions at the beginning of 2012 are similar to the beginning of 2002,” Colorado Congressman Cory Gardner said at a town meeting in Berthoud on Monday…

“We must have the water that is necessary to thrive and grow,” Gardner said. That includes water storage, such as the proposed Northern Integrated Supply Project, as well as water conservation, Gardner said…

Decreasing business regulations, supporting water storage projects, protecting Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid are all in his purview this session, he said. So is supporting collaborations between private industry and the public sector — such as the Rocky Mountain Center for Innovation and Technology project in Loveland, which will bring jobs to the region — protecting agriculture from federal legislation that could harm the industry and urging renewable and traditional energy development.

More coverage from Bobby Magill writing for the Fort Collins Coloradoan. From the article:

Alarmed that the NRCS warned him this year’s mountain snowpack conditions are dangerously similar to those of 2002 – the year of the Hayman Fire and one of the Rockies’ worst droughts in recent memory – Gardner said these kinds of conditions will hurt Colorado farmers and the economy if more water storage isn’t available during dry years. “If we are going to have a long-term outlook for economic growth, we must have the water that is necessary to survive and grow,” he said. “That’s not only to meet the needs of the population, that’s to meet the needs of agriculture and industry. That’s why I think we need to go forward with projects like NISP, and we need to go look for other new projects.”[…]

Gardner said EPA regulations imposed by other federal agencies should not be used to stall new water storage projects, including NISP. The EPA criticized an environmental review of NISP for insufficiently addressing the project’s impacts on water quality and other issues. “The numbers speak for themselves: 69 percent-of-average snowpack,” he said. “Two-thirds of the value of the state’s agricultural production occurs in the South Platte Basin. Last year, a million acre-feet of water left the state that we could have stored right up here (in Glade).” Monday’s NRCS snowpack data show the South Platte River Basin, which includes the Poudre River, has a snowpack 72 percent of average, while the Laramie-North Platte River Basin, which includes Cameron Pass west of Fort Collins, has a snowpack 61 percent of normal. The driest river basins in the state are the Gunnison and Colorado river basins, which are at 56 and 57 percent of normal, respectively.

From the Greeley Gazette (Craig Masters):

The location at Northern Colorado Water was symbolic of what may well become a critical issue this coming year in much of rural Colorado; water for agriculture and industry. In his opening remarks, Congressman Gardner reviewed the current snowpack statistics, since snow on the ground in the winter is critical to water in the rivers during spring and summer growing seasons…

The 4th U.S. Congressional District, Gardner’s district, is only one of the several U.S. congressional districts spanning several states dependent on the flow of Rocky Mountain snowmelt feeding into the Platte River system.In response to audience questions about their concerns over the storage of Colorado River water for Mexico being considered by the Obama administration, Gardner stated he supports strong state control over water usage within the state. But he emphasized that to minimize federal intervention, it is important to establish workable cooperative agreements with downstream states. He further assured the resident, who identified himself as a local rancher, that no agreement for storage beyond 2013 had yet been worked out with Mexico. (The concerns were over a Dec. 2010 agreement to store 260,000 acre feet of Mexico’s Colorado River water in Lake Mead until 2013. This was to allow Mexico time to repair earthquake damage to water delivery infastructure in northern Mexico.)

More 2012 Colorado November election coverage here.

San Miguel River: Nathaniel P. Turner’s hanging flume on the canyon wall is slowly being stabilized and preserved

Click on the thumbnail graphics to the right for photos of the canyon wall and the flume.

Here’s the link to HangingFlume.org for the history. Here’s an excerpt:

The Flume was constructed using earthen and wooden canals, wooden bents and a wooden box that were secured together by iron rods and fasteners. Without photographs, engineered drawings or written accounts of the Flume’s construction, experts can only speculate on how it was built. In 2004, a group of scientists set out to unravel a complex and fascinating story with dimensions that went far beyond ordinary technical questions. It is estimated that 25 men worked on the flume and used local materials. The iron rods were custom shaped on-site by hand. The wood for the beams and trestles was logged from nearby Pine Flats in Utah and Carpenter Ridge in Colorado.

To reach the water pressure necessary to adequately mine the placer deposits, the Hanging Flume had to achieve a .17% grade – that’s only a 90 foot drop over the near 10 mile long Flume. Without today’s sophisticated equipment, we can only speculate that they used triangulation to stay on track. Many mysteries remain, and investigation continues into the wonder that is the Hanging Flume.

Here’s a report about a January 24 slideshow and lecture about the flume, from the Telluride Watch. From the article:

The Hanging Flume once carried 23 million gallons of water a day to a placer mining operation on Mesa Creek Flats between Gateway and Uravan, along what is now Hwy 141. It took three years to build, starting in 1889, and only functioned for three more years, when eastern investors gave up on the fine alluvial gold, and the flume, an engineering marvel for that (or any other) time, was left to history.

Flume expert Jerald Reid will try to the put the historical pieces together Tuesday night Jan. 24 (at 7 p.m.) with a talk and slide show at the KAFM Radio Room in Grand Junction.

Reid was born in Oklahoma and lived most of his life on the Western Slope. He was a machinist for 40 years in the Grand Valley. He and his wife Margaret, both outdoor enthusiasts, became interested in the Hanging Flume but found frustratingly little information about it. That started them researching and documenting it.

More San Miguel River watershed coverage here and here.

Colorado Springs Utilities, the Pikes Peak Library District and twelve non-profits plan Water 2012 kickoff on January 26

From the Colorado Springs Independent (Pam Zubeck):

“Colorado Springs Utilities – in partnership with the Pikes Peak Library District and twelve other non-profits – is holding a local kickoff event for Colorado Water 2012 on Jan. 26, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Citadel Mall, Imagination Celebration space (between Dillard’s and Burlington Coat Factory).

“Colorado Water 2012 is a statewide celebration and recognition of water; a resource of huge importance nationally, but even more so in states like Colorado, and cities like Colorado Springs where there is no local river or waterway. State population is projected to double by 2050, causing municipal water demands to increase dramatically, and putting an even greater emphasis on conservation and the infrastructure required to bring water to Colorado communities. “

More Colorado Water 2012 coverage here.

The Fountain Creek Watershed Flood Control and Greenway District has plans to spend $15 million on the stream corridor

From The Colorado Springs Gazette (R. Scott Rappold) via OutThereColorado.com. From the article:

Local officials will apply for $8 million in grants from state lottery funds, to be matched by $7 million in local money, for trails, open space, bridges, tubing and other amenities along the creek between Colorado Springs and Pueblo.

“What we want to do is get people to the creek,” said Larry Small, executive director of the Fountain Creek Watershed District, formed in 2009 to address environmental issues. “We decided it’s important to get people to the creek so they can get an appreciation for it and an understanding of what we’re trying to do and get an attachment to the creek.”

(Take a look at the Fountain Creek Watershed Master Plan.)

Long regarded as an urban drainage channel, unnaturally straightened and eroded by runoff from development in Colorado Springs, Fountain Creek received renewed attention when Colorado Springs Utilities sought approval to build the Southern Delivery System pipeline from Pueblo Reservoir. The city-owned utility agreed to pay for a host of measures to restore the creek’s natural state, to ease concerns in Pueblo about downstream flooding and water quality.

Some of these, such as $3 million for wetland and wildlife habitat in southern El Paso County, are incorporated into the grant proposal.

More Fountain Creek watershed coverage here and here.

Mage Skordhal (NRCS): ‘We still have a lot of season left, but it’s not a good start’

From KUNC (Kirk Siegler):

“In the western states, about 75% of our water comes from the snowpack,” Skordhal says. “That’s a lot.”

So when the snowpack measured here at the headwaters of an arid region is at just over half of normal? It’s time to take notice. “We still have a lot of season left, but it’s not a good start,” Skordhal says…

[Northern Water] officials and their counterparts at other agencies in the region aren’t worried yet because last winter was so snowy. “But if this year lags, and next year lags, yeah, we can lose levels in our reservoirs and get a little concerned,” Strongin says. “A good portion of the 2000s was pretty rough on our storage.”

So it’s not a crisis yet if you’re in the water business.

New Mexico and Texas have a stake in watching the Colorado snowpack. Colorado’s deliveries under the Rio Grande Compact are determined by the snowpack each season. Here’s a report from KTSM.com. Here’s an excerpt:

Estimates of the size of the snow pack in the areas that flow into Rio Grande by the Bureau of Reclamation are for 86% of average snowmelt to flow into the Elephant Butte reservoir. But the actual amount that ends up in the reservoir could be much lower. Last year, the Bureau estimated 91% of normal water into the reservoir, but the percentage of normal runoff from the snowmelt ended up being only around 14%. Weather patterns last year produced many days of high winds that dried large amounts snow before it could flow into Elephant Butte. This year, long range forecasts for the spring season look very similar to last year, with warm and dry weather.

From the Summit County Citizens Voice (Bob Berwyn):

Discussing the link between rapid climate changes in the Arctic and weather patterns in mid-latitudes, [Jennifer Francis, with Rutgers University Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences] said her most recent research points to a direct link between changes over the Arctic and mid-latitude weather patterns driven by the jet stream. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as other parts of the Earth and essentially, that heat is changing air pressure gradients and reducing the speed of circumpolar winds. That leads to a greater amplification of the high pressure ridges and low pressure troughs in mid-latitudes. As those kinks in the atmospheric circulation grow more pronounced, it slows the progression of weather systems moving from west to east around the northern hemisphere, allowing weather systems to get stuck over certain regions.

Speaking to an audience of TV meteorologists, Francis called it the “revenge of the atmosphere,” then explained some of the recent changes in the Arctic. “When the ice was thick in the good old days … the variations we saw were caused by wind, moving the ice around a bit. The winds would change, the ice didn’t respond so much … now that it’s thinner, it moves around more,” she said.

Click through to this article about precipitation over the western U.S. from Bob Berwyn writing for the Summit County Citizens Voice. He’s running all the precip maps. Here’s an excerpt:

Much of the West, with the exception of a few pockets in Arizona and New Mexico, have been exceptionally dry so far this fall and early winter, with precipitation in California tracking toward all-time record low levels.

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The Rio Grande Basin Roundtable ponies up $407,000 to increase SCADA installations along the Conejos River to facilitate streamflow monitoring

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Matt Hildner):

While the move still requires approval of state water officials, the Conejos Water Conservancy District hopes the proposal will return some water to its users while allowing for a more accurate accounting of delivery requirements under the Rio Grande Compact. The district, which has 86,000 acres of irrigable land in the southwestern corner of the San Luis Valley, wants to add 72 electronic gauging stations and automate four of the most-used headgates in the river basin. The district and ditch companies inside its boundaries would put up $92,000 in matching funds.

The Conejos, like the Rio Grande, is subject to the Rio Grande Compact, which has fluctuating requirements for how much water must be sent downstream to New Mexico and Texas, depending on the amount of snowpack in a given year. As much as 70 percent of the river’s flow is allowed to head downstream in a wet year and as little as 25 percent in a dry year…

The added gauges may also help the district pin down return flows from diversions, a task that’s complicated by a jumble of river channels and irrigation ditches near the junction of the Conejos with the Rio Grande. The district also hopes the gauges would allow for a more accurate tracking of releases from Platoro Reservoir, which has a capacity of 59,000 acre-feet.

More IBCC — basin roundtables coverage here.

Climax Mine to re-open this year, plans in place to protect water quality in reservoirs used for augmentation and supply

From the Vail Daily (Laura Glendenning):

The Eagle Park Reservoir wasn’t always so beautiful, though — it was once a pond that collected highly acidic tailings from the nearby molybdenum mining and milling operation known as the Climax Mine. Molybdenum is a metal used as an addition to steels, irons and nonferrous alloys…

A Colorado Division of Minerals and Geology report, “Mined Land Reclamation in Colorado,” cites a 1993 agreement between Vail Associates and the Climax Molybdenum Co. to complete a tailing-removal project and reclamation of the Oxide Pond to a fresh-water reservoir. Water attorney Glenn Porzak said Vail Associates later paid a total of $6 million for the cleanup, with another $6 million paid by the Eagle River Water & Sanitation District, the Upper Eagle Regional Water Authority and the Colorado River Water Conservation District. Those groups make up the Eagle Park Reservoir Co., formed in 1998. The reservoir is now the major in-basin water supply for augmentation water — basically water that is used to replenish stream water — for all of those water entities, Porzak said — “it’s the motherlode.”[…]

Fast forward to 2012, and the Climax Mine, now owned by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, is reopening its molybdenum-mining operation, except this time around, the Eagle Park Reservoir is off limits as a tailings dumping site. The Eagle Park Reservoir Co., which includes board members from Vail Resorts and the local water authorities, came to an agreement with Climax outlining a water-quality-monitoring plan that was recently reviewed and approved by the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety…

[Eric Kinneberg, spokesman for Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold] said the Climax Mine plans to start production this year, but he couldn’t release an exact date just yet. He said there will be more information on the scheduled start released with the Freeport-McMoRan fourth-quarter financial results announcement Thursday. Production from the Climax molybdenum mine is expected to ramp up to a rate of 20 million pounds per year during 2013, Kinneberg said, and depending on market conditions, may be increased to 30 million pounds per year. The company is currently in the process of hiring about 70 more employees, for a total of 350 employees, to work at the mine, he said.

More Eagle River watershed coverage here and here.

NSAA litigates USFS water rights clause

From the Vail Daily (Laura Glendenning):

[Boulder-based attorney Glenn Porzak] said he’s been to Washington four times in the last three months to try to work out a solution with the Forest Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to no avail, which is why the association filed the lawsuit against the Forest Service in federal court Monday.

“The Forest Service does not have the authority to take the ski industry water rights they’re seeking,” Porzak said. “Vail Resorts is closely monitoring this entire lawsuit and the whole issue that is being raised.”

Vail Resorts, a member of the National Ski Areas Association, has private water rights at both Vail and Beaver Creek, as well as the company’s other mountain resorts. The Forest Service’s new regulations are to take back private water rights from the resorts and tie those water rights to the land, but Porzak said the association wants the 2004 water rights clause to remain in effect.

In that clause, any on-mountain water rights acquired after 2004 have to have a joint ownership between the ski resort and the Forest Service, however the ownership of water rights obtained before 2004 would remain solely with the entity that initially obtained those rights. The off-mountain water rights — which for Vail Resorts includes off-site reservoirs such as the Eagle Park Reservoir, among others — remain in the hands of the ski resorts that obtained them under the 2004 clause, however the new regulations would change that.

There was a lot of negotiation done before the 2004 clause went into effect, Porzak said, to protect those off-site water rights. The new Forest Service rules would give those off-site water rights — rights that ski resorts have paid millions for — to the Forest Service without any compensation to the ski resorts, Porzak said.

More water law coverage here.

The Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments comes out strongly against proposed state nutrient standards for wastewater discharged to surface streams

From The Teller County News (Pat Hill):

At issue is the commission’s proposal to mandate regulations that would decrease the amount of nutrients that flow into Colorado’s stream beds. The regulations govern the operation of wastewater treatment facilities and would require significant reduction in the amount of phosphorous and nitrogen discharged from the facilities. “We took a position against it; this could cost up to $2 billion just to the small water providers but could go as high as $20 billion annually,” said Jim Ignatius, PPACG treasurer and Teller County commission chair. “They are basing their policy decision on speculative numbers. It was very discouraging to learn that the state might want to do this.”

The proposed regulations are at odds with Hickenlooper’s executive order which directs state agencies not to adopt requirements more restrictive than federal law, or, if so, ensure that state funding is available to cover the costs, states the letter in part.

Calling into question the evidence, the letter states that the PPACG does not object to improved treatment when there is rational scientific basis to conclude that nitrogen discharge is, in fact, causing an impairment to a water body.

More wastewater coverage here.

Arkansas Basin roundtable: Preserving agriculture is the goal of new committee

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

The Arkansas Basin Roundtable has formed a committee to work on moving state water leaders to embrace that sentiment, but still is wrestling with what’s needed to convince others in the state that farm water is important, too. “We need to fortify our arguments and work on a grant request,” said Reeves Brown, a Beulah rancher who is pushing for the idea that ag water needs to be given high-level state consideration. “Even after we get the data, it’s going to be a long road. I hope to get the ball rolling.”[…]

The committee is working with faculty at Colorado State University in Fort Collins to come up with research criteria. It will meet again on Jan. 24.

More Arkansas River basin coverage here.

Flaming Gorge task force meeting recap

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

The task force met Thursday at Silverthorne to organize its work over the next six months. Members from the Arkansas River basin include Gary Barber, chairman of the roundtable; Betty Konarski, former mayor of Monument; and Reed Dils, who is representing environmental and recreation interests. Other members represent roundtables from throughout the state, as well as various water interests. “Today, we went through a lengthy discussion of protocols and got to know each other,” Barber said. “We decided which documents, reports and studies we need to look at.”

The group agreed to review preliminary findings with the roundtables before hosting larger public meetings, and to invite the project’s proponents and Wyoming water interests to address the task force.

More Flaming Gorge task force coverage here.

The EPA is seeking volunteer scientists for peer review of their draft report on the Pavillion Oil Field

From The Hill (Ben German):

The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking scientists to volunteer for what promises to be a closely watched job: reviewing its politically explosive report about groundwater contamination from hydraulic fracturing in a Wyoming natural-gas field. The agency plans to publish a Federal Register notice Tuesday seeking nominations for scientists to peer review the draft study released in December about contamination near Pavillion, Wyo…

The upcoming Federal Register notice seeks scientists and engineers with expertise in petroleum geology, hydrology, geophysics and other fields.

More oil and gas coverage here and here.

Over 100 Public Leaders, Business Owners, Local Farmers Call for Protections for Colorado’s Rivers

Here’s the release from Environment Colorado (Patrick Stelmach):

State Senator Lucia Guzman, Commerce City Mayor Pro Tem Dominick Moreno, Dvorak Expeditions owner Bill Dvorak, and Confluence Kayaks owner Alex Manzo joined Environment Colorado at the Colorado State Capitol to call on President Barack Obama to restore Clean Water Act protections to the Colorado River and waterways across Colorado and the country.

Together, they delivered to James Martin, EPA Regional Administrator of Region 8, letters signed by 117 elected officials, farmers, and outdoor recreation businesses across Colorado who strongly support moving forward to permanently restore protections to these waterways, for the 40th anniversary of the landmark Clean Water Act.

“To be able to truly celebrate forty years of cleaner water, we need to protect all our treasured rivers – the Colorado, the South Platte, the Arkansas and the Cache la Poudre – by restoring the Clean Water Act,” said Patrick Stelmach, Field Organizer with Environment Colorado. “The good news is that President Obama has started taking us down the road to cleaner water. Now he needs to tie a bow on the clean water present for all Americans.”

The South Platte River is cherished by millions in Denver and across Colorado. Coloradans depend on it as a major source of drinking water for the Eastern part of the state, and for kayaking and fishing. Furthermore, all Coloradans need clean water for drinking water, fishing, swimming, agriculture, and recreation.

As the Clean Water Act turns forty, it faces severe limitations. In fact, due to several poor Supreme Court decisions over the past decade, 62% percent of Colorado’s streams and 3.7 million Coloradans’ drinking water are at risk of pollution.

“As a Colorado State Senator, I know that my constituents need clean water for drinking water, fishing, swimming, agriculture, recreation, and the wellbeing of their communities,” said Senator Lucía Guzmán, Senate District 34.

The event comes at another key moment for the Clean Water Act: President Obama has proposed guidelines to restore critical Clean Water Act protections to these waters and now is considering finalizing them and making them permanent.

“The time is now for President Obama to restore Clean Water Act protections,” Commerce City Mayor Pro Tem Dominick Moreno said. “The people standing with me today and who signed these letters show that people in Colorado want their water clean, and they want all of Colorado’s rivers, streams and creeks protected from pollution for many years to come.

Environment Colorado also rallied in Colorado Springs yesterday. Here’s a release from the organization via The Pueblo Chieftain:

Environment Colorado staged a rally Thursday at Colorado Springs City Hall to encourage President Barack Obama to restore permanent protection of rivers under the Clean Water Act.

The group has presented 117 letters to Obama, signed by elected officials, farmers, and recreational business owners across Colorado who support moving forward to permanently restore protections to these waterways, for the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act.

Several Arkansas River outfitters and former Pueblo City Councilman Ray Aguilera were among those signing a letter to Obama.

“To be able to truly celebrate 40 years of cleaner water, we need to protect the Arkansas River by restoring the Clean Water Act,” said Virginia Shannon, field organizer with Environment Colorado.

Environment Colorado believes the act faces severe limitations, due to U.S. Supreme Court decisions over the past decade, and claims 68 percent of Colorado’s streams and 3.7 million Coloradans’ drinking water are at risk of pollution.

Obama has proposed guidelines to restore critical Clean Water Act protections, Shannon said.

Flaming Gorge pipeline: Conservations groups urge the IBCC to suspend their evaluation effort

Here’s the release from Western Resource Advocates (Jason Bane):

Conservation leaders from across the West today encouraged the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) to suspend examination of the so-called ‘Flaming Gorge Pipeline’ and focus its efforts on water supply and conservation efforts that are both more realistic and cost-effective.

“The Flaming Gorge Pipeline is a bad idea that is never going to make sense for Colorado, and no amount of debate is going to change this very basic fact,” said Bart Miller, Water Program Director at Western Resource Advocates. “There isn’t enough lipstick in the world to make this pig more presentable.”

Today [Thursday, January 12] is the first meeting of ‘The Flaming Gorge Pipeline Task Force,” which was convened by the CWCB to further discuss a proposal to pump water more than five hundred (500) miles from the Green River in Wyoming to the Front Range of Colorado. Western Resource Advocates (WRA) is just one of numerous conservation groups that declined invitations to take part in the ‘task force’ to study a project that CWCB estimates would cost some $9 billion to complete.

“We declined invitations to participate in further discussions about the pipeline project because it distracts from realistic proposals that Colorado can undertake now,” said Miller. “The public doesn’t want the pipeline, elected officials don’t like it, and we can’t afford it. We need to move on to other ideas.”

The pipeline proposal has already encountered widespread opposition. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead has formally objected to the proposal, as have cities and counties across Colorado and Wyoming (from Rock Springs, Green River and Sweetwater County in Wyoming, to Mesa County and the City of Grand Junction in Colorado). A survey conducted by the sportsmen’s group Trout Unlimited in Fall 2011 showed that nearly 80% of Wyoming residents opposed the pipeline.

“Like most conservation groups, we encourage cooperative decision making for Colorado’s water needs,” said Becky Long of the Colorado Environmental Coalition, which also declined to participate in the ‘task force’. “At the same time, it is incumbent of any responsible organization to recognize when an idea has run its course. Nobody should spend any more time or money beating their heads against this particular wall.”

Many regional conservation groups are already supporting existing proposals for water availability, such as ‘Prairie Waters’ in Aurora; Chatfield Reservoir re-allocation; the WISE water project; and the ‘Super Ditch’ in Southern Colorado. These projects represent just a partial list of water plans that can be pursued now and in the near future – projects that should be prioritized over pipe(line) dreams.

Aaron Million, President of Wyco Power and Water, Inc., is seeking a federal permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to review his proposal for a pipeline project, which has become something of a test case for any similar proposals in the future. More than 5,000 comments from citizens, governments and non-profit organizations were formally submitted to FERC in December 2011; out of more than 5,000 submissions1, only 1 (one) was supportive of the idea.

For More Information on the Flaming Gorge Pipeline, go to:
http://www.westernresourceadvocates.org/water/pipeline/million.php

More Basin Roundtable Project Exploration Committee: Flaming Gorge process coverage here. More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

DNR is evaluating the impact of oil and gas exploration and production on water supplies

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From 9News.com (Jessica Zartler):

Some water conservation districts and environmental groups have expressed concern over the sustained use of water in hydraulic fracturing operations and now, the Department of Natural Resources is doing its own analysis to crunch the numbers and address questions from across the state about the short and long-term impacts on Colorado’s water resources. The report is set to be released sometime this month.

Individual water districts are not waiting to start looking at the issue, including the district where residents in the Reunion Subdivision have seen the latest hydrant-hook-up. The South Adams County Water and Sanitation District has already held board meetings and accepted public comment to set its guidelines for when and how much water it will allow oil and gas companies to use.

The water district says at this point is has only issued one construction hydrant permit for water use to Select Energy Services, the company that recently reactivated a fracking operation near the Reunion subdivision.

Under the permit, the company is paying $4.87 per thousand gallons for its water, $1.10 more than the average residential customer. By the end of December, the fracking operation had used 453,700 gallons of water – more than three times the average use of a South Adams Water household for an entire year.

The water district says although it is still working out the details on the limits it will set for leasing water, it does see some potential benefits to leasing water to fracking operations. South Adams County Water and Sanitation District spokesman Jim Jones cites the possibility of lower utility bills for residential customers due to increased profits and less impact on local roads because companies can pump the water direct instead of trucking it in from an outside source.

Meanwhile, here’s a report about waterless hydraulic fracturing from Matt Goodman writing for CBSDFW.com. From the article:

What if it was possible to frack without water?

In 2008, Calgary-based energy company GasFrac did just that: it used a thick propane gel in place of treated water. The method, called liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) fracturing –– or simply gas fracking –– pumps a mix of the gel and sand into the shale formations more than a mile underground.

That mixture is the fracking fluid. It’s used to break up the rock, releasing natural gas bubbles trapped inside. While facing extreme pressure deep inside the earth, the propane gel turns into a vapor and returns to the surface with the natural gas, where it can be recaptured.

“We don’t do any water with the frack,” said Emmett Capt, GasFrac’s vice president of U.S. operations. “We use what actually comes out of the ground.”

Since 2008, GasFrac has successfully harvested natural gas using its method about 1,000 times, Capt said. Nine hundred of those were at wells in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and New Brunswick.

Finally, Governor Hickenlooper wants local government to tread cautiously in the area of oil and gas regulation. Here’s a report from David O. Williams writing for the Colorado Independent. From the article:

“When the Environmental Defense Fund and Halliburton stood together in Colorado in support of the state’s new ‘fracking’ disclosure rule, other states took notice,” Hickenlooper said during his State of the State address. “It’s another reason why we believe so passionately in the power of partnership and collaboration.”

State Rep. Matt Jones, D-Louisville, said last month he was working on a bill with Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins, that would give local governments greater control over drilling operations, including hydraulic fracturing. They’ll be fighting an uphill battle with Hickenlooper, however.

“In that same spirit [of collaboration], we intend to work with counties and municipalities to make sure we have appropriate regulation on oil and gas development, but recognize the state can’t have 64 or even more different sets of rules,” Hickenlooper said, referring to the number of counties in the state…

“My focus has been actually getting the oil and gas commission to move ahead on the rules we have already given them the authority for,” state Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass, said. “Some of the issues are reclamation, setbacks, and the other issue is air quality.”

Schwartz said the COGCC can go ahead with a rulemaking on those issues without the legislature getting involved.

“They have the authority to do it; we’ve already done it legislatively,” Schwartz said. “We’ve already had that fight. We have the battle scars from that. We need to have the commission stepping up and really using their authority as opposed to providing more legislation, and if they don’t, it will call for more legislation.”

More oil and gas coverage here and here.

Governor Hickenlooper: ‘By 1906, Mr. Stetson was selling 2 million hats a year’

Here’s the State of the State address from Governor Hickenlooper’s office (Eric Brown). Here’s an excerpt:

John B. Stetson left Pennsylvania in the early 1860s, suffering from tuberculosis, and came west. He soon found himself panning for gold in the Colorado Rockies. Fierce storms, without warning, would come up over the mountains and drench the mining camp. Mr. Stetson saw a problem in need of a solution, and he had a unique skill. His father had taught him hatting as a kid, and he made a felt hat that could protect him from wind and cold. The other miners were envious. One fellow bought the hat right off his head for a $5 gold coin. A business was born. By 1906, Mr. Stetson was selling 2 million hats a year. Cowboys would sleep on their Stetson or bend it to provide better visibility. They would fill the hat up with water – ever heard of the 10 gallon hat? – because it was water proof on the inside. Cowboys still do this … and even a smattering of our legislators…

…costly litigation and endless court battles have characterized the state’s water policy over many years – the Interbasin Water Roundtable Process represents a better way forward. The process created a historic agreement announced last year between Denver and the Western Slope…

We must preserve Colorado’s great landscapes, protect the state’s water and keep the air clean. Not just because this will attract businesses, but also because it is part of our moral obligation to future generations.

More 2012 Colorado legislation coverage here.

San Luis Valley: Steve Vandiver — ‘The commodity markets are going to drive this (retiring acreage irrigated by groundwater)’

Farmers and the Rio Grande Water Conservation District have been working for a number of years now on rules for groundwater sub-districts that will incent farmers to remove land irrigated from the Valley’s aquifers. The Colorado Supreme Court recently blessed their work so all is well, right?

The short answer is nope. Senior surface irrigators are still claiming injury and now, it appears, high commodity prices are affecting farmers decision process when it comes to removing acreage from production.

Here’s a report from Brett Walton writing for Circle of Blue. Click through and read the whole article. Here’s an excerpt:

Simply put, the San Luis Valley no longer has enough water to support the abundant farm production that is becoming increasingly supercharged by rising prices for the crops grown here.

There may be a way out. Water officials in the region’s six counties are working with the federal government on a voluntary plan that would pay farmers to take land out of production. If things turn out as planned, up to 16,000 hectares (40,000 acres) of the valley’s roughly 240,000 irrigated hectares (600,000 acres) will not be farmed.

Though it is still being negotiated, the plan has a significant obstacle: the explosive rise in food prices, which are making the sums offered by the water-conservation program less enticing. Prices for the valley’s mainstay — potatoes — have increased 25 percent in the last five years. Wheat, alfalfa, and barley prices have done even better, more or less doubling over the same period.

“The commodity markets are going to drive this,” said Steve Vandiver, the general manager of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District, in an interview with Circle of Blue. “If prices stay high, it’s going to be harder to get farmers to sign up.”

If the voluntary program does not work, Vandiver went on to say, the result would be worst for farmers. The state, he said, would then step in — like it did in not long ago in the nearby South Platte Basin — and force well owners to shut down, without compensation. “We’re trying to keep that from happening here,” he said. “We’re trying to provide a soft landing.”[…]

Climate change plays a role in the new river patterns, Gibson told Circle of Blue. Wind storms from the deserts in Arizona and New Mexico are more frequent, and they drop dust on the mountain snowpack, which is the primary water source for the valley’s rivers. The warming effect of the dust, combined with higher temperatures, means that the spring melt has moved several weeks earlier in the year. With a longer dry period in the summer, more groundwater is required to balance the changes in the river.

New reservoirs to store the altered flows are prohibited under a compact between Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, Gibson told Circle of Blue, but existing reservoirs are being renovated to maximize their storage capacity.

More San Luis Valley groundwater coverage here and here.

The Evergreen Metro District plans to install an aeration system in Evergreen Lake

From the Canyon Courier (Vicky Gits):

Aerating the lake during the summer months is expected to increase dissolved oxygen at the bottom of the lake, help lower the lake’s water temperature, produce cooler water going downstream over the dam and help reduce the amount of lakeweed or elodea in the water.

“The biggest concern we have is dissolved oxygen at the bottom of the lake,” said Gerry Schulte, executive director of the [Evergreen Metro District]. “If there isn’t enough (oxygen), the fish have a hard time, and it results in a process that releases iron and manganese into the water, and that creates a bigger treatment problem,” Schulte said.

The diffused aeration system is expected to increase dissolved oxygen concentrations. The new system is projected to run 10 hours at night only and recirculate the entire body of water every two days. The only visual effect will be bubbles on the lake.

Similar systems are currently at the wastewater plant in Kittredge and the Bear Creek reservoir east of Morrison. The Cherry Creek Water Authority is installing one in the Cherry Creek reservoir as well.

Aqua Sierra Inc. of Morrison will provide and install the equipment, which consists of eight underwater diffuser modules placed at an average depth of 20 feet or more. Modules will be placed 100 to 700 feet from the edge of the dam in the deepest part of the lake.

In addition to increasing the amount of dissolved oxygen, aeration is expected to counteract the heat-related water quality issues that occur in the summer months by creating a more constant temperature from top to bottom of the lake. So when the sun is out, it heats the top layer of water. The top layer goes over the dam and contributes to higher downstream temperatures.

More Bear Creek watershed coverage here.

Snowpack news: The Rio Grande basin is at approximately 86% of average

From the Valley Courier (Ruth Heide):

Currently snowpack in the Rio Grande Basin (the Valley) is at [86] percent of normal according to Colorado Division of Water Resources Assistant Division Engineer Matt Hardesty who gave an update on water issues to the Rio Grande Roundtable on Tuesday. He said early snows in November and December brought the basin-wide snowpack to more than 100 percent in December, but the trend did not continue, so the snowpack is only [86] percent of normal at this time. He added that the 90-day forecast would not likely affect that percentage much, either. “We are in a weak La Niña they predict to last a couple of months so I don’t expect much difference,” Hardesty said.

On a brighter note, however, he said Colorado appears to have ended the 2011 year with a slight over delivery of Rio Grande Compact water to downstream states, “which is where we like to finish the year.” Both the Rio Grande and Conejos River systems appear to have over delivered to the compact by a slight margin, he said. He particularly commended the Conejos River water users for cooperating with the state water division in making sure compact obligations to downstream states were met.

From the Summit County Citizens Voice (Bob Berwyn):

Right now, for example, the buzz is about a shift in the storm track, which sometime next week is supposed to start moving across the country in a zonal west to east flow. Out in California, where they need the moisture even more than we do, there is some anticipation that the realigned storm track may start to deliver some moisture. Here’s the official word from the National Weather Service forecasters in Grand Junction:

“SIGNIFICANT HEMISPHERIC PATTERN CHANGE AS WE SAY GOOD RIDDANCE TO THE BLOCKING HIGH PRESSURE THAT HAS DOMINATED THE PATTERN FOR SEVERAL WEEKS. THIS DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN THAT WINTER STORMS WILL BECOME FREQUENT OVER THE WESTERN SLOPE…BUT DOES IMPROVE OUR CHANCES OF RECEIVING SOME MOUNTAIN SNOW DURING THE EXTENDED PERIOD.”

The reality is that this winter has on the cusp of being one of the warmest and driest in recent memory. Snow cover is only present across about 19 percent of the U.S. (excluding Alaska); normal for this time of year would be 50 percent. Last week, more than 1,000 locations set high temperature records. Bellingham, Wash.hit 60 degrees in the first week of the year and Fargo reached 44 degrees. In some regions of the Midwest temperatures are 40 degrees higher than average.

Commerce City: Ban on hydraulic fracturing not in the cards

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Update: Barbara Green has posted a correction in the comments below.

From The Denver Post (Monte Whaley):

About 100 people wary of extraction operations near their homes listened quietly as they were told any effort to outlaw those procedures would likely be overturned by a judge. Attorney Barbara Green also said there is little a city can do to regulate the chemicals used during hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. But cities can have a say over the impacts a fracking well will have on local wildlife and other environmental concerns, Green said…

Green was part of a panel of experts who spoke on the issue of fracking, which is becoming more popular with energy companies as they try to nudge oil and gas out of shale rock deep underground…

Debbie Baldwin, environmental manager with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, told residents that oil and gas operations in Colorado are heavily regulated and that it’s highly unlikely fracking will contaminate groundwater. Jim Jones, general manager of the South Adams County Water and Sanitation District, said fracking operations in the east part of Commerce City likely won’t affect potable water on the west side of the city.

Meanwhile, residents packed an Erie town hall meeting about hydraulic fracturing recently. Here’s a report from John Aguilar writing for the Boulder Daily Camera. From the article:

Scientists and regulators from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, Encana Corp. and the Sierra Club took to the podium in front of a Town Hall board room packed to standing and spilling over into a side room.

Several town trustees mentioned the possibility of imposing a 120-day moratorium on new drilling applications so the town could further study the issue, but no action was taken by the end of the night. Instead the board said it would direct town staff to deal with future drilling applications on a well by well basis and ask for specific restrictions, such as larger setbacks or water and air monitoring, when necessary…

At the heart of Tuesday’s meeting was a proposal from Encana to drill eight wells and use hydraulic fracturing — or fracking — to extract gas at a site near Red Hawk Elementary and Erie Elementary…

[Angie] Nordstrum and other opponents of fracking — the practice of pumping fluid underground at high pressure to crack rock and release oil and natural gas — argue that the chemicals used and the pollutants emitted during the process are causing serious medical issues, such as asthma and gastrointestinal distress. She said an entire street of residents in her neighborhood have reported feeling ill, and the effects are particularly pronounced in children. Erie, she said, should demand that fracking chemicals, some of which have been cited as carcinogenic, be proven safe in third-party scientific studies before any more drilling is allowed. “This is a heinous science experiment unfolding outside our students’ classroom windows,” she said. “We don’t want our children to be the canaries in the natural gas mine.”[…]

Town Attorney Mark Shapiro explained that Erie’s hands are essentially tied with regard to regulating oil and gas drilling as the industry is under state jurisdiction. Municipal rule-making, he said, is limited to enforcing land use issues, like noise controls, lighting mitigation and operational appearance.

But April Beach, who counts herself a part of Erie Rising, said the town can pursue a ban on drilling, as has happened in other municipalities across the country. She said her group would remain active in the fight against drilling and fracking.

More oil and gas coverage here and here.

Arkansas Basin Roundtable: The Arkansas Valley Super Ditch was on everyone’s mind

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

The Arkansas Basin Roundtable agreed to seek another $76,000 toward an engineering tool that is expected to reduce water court costs related to Super Ditch. The Colorado Water Conservation Board has already approved a grant of $121,000 toward the study, while local water agencies are providing another $157,000 in in-kind services, said Terry Scanga, general manager of the Upper Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District. “This is a fallowing accounting and administration tool that is designed to reduce transaction costs in water court for objectors and proponents of a lease-fallowing program,” Scanga said. “Lease programs are different from applications to buy and dry. We need a way to assess historic use and impacts to the river.”

Conservancy districts, municipal users, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and state agencies are all interested in developing a common platform to assess the impacts. If a change of use application is filed by Super Ditch in water court, it would cut across as many as seven ditches and perhaps individual farms within those ditches, Scanga said…

The additional $76,000 is to compile documentation that could be used in water court…

One major hurdle will be accounting for winter water, while operating under a court decree to store water in valley reservoirs during winter months for use later, [Dan Henrichs, superintendent of the High Line Canal] said. Winter water can affect the timing of return flows because it is used in different ways — sometimes to start a crop, sometimes to finish one. In certain years, some of the winter water stored in Lake Pueblo is carried over for use in the next year. Much of the water is stored in ditch company reservoirs without a prescribed date of release.

More Arkansas Valley Super Ditch coverage here and here.

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

Click on the thumbnail graphic to the right for the precipitation map for the first week of 2012. Here’s the link to the summaries from the Colorado Climate Center.

Here’s an explanation of the uncharacteristic winter weather pattern from Discovery News (Emily Sohn):

Several forces are at work, experts say. To begin with, La Niña conditions have pushed warm water toward Australia in the western Pacific, leaving ocean waters off the American West coast about 5 degrees F colder than usual. As a result, moisture levels are currently low in the atmosphere from California to Washington State.

To understand why, you can think of a La Niña-dominated Pacific like a cold bathtub, said Jeff Weber, a climatologist at the University Corp for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. Compared to a hotter and steamier vat, water is less likely to evaporate from a chilly ocean. And since weather patterns generally move west to east, very little rain or snow is falling from the jet stream right now. La Niña also pushes the jet stream northward, so that it flows near the border between Canada and the United States.

A widespread lack of snow cover explains the recent spell of high temperatures, Weber said. Snow normally acts to reflect the sun’s energy, adding more moisture to the air and causing even cooler conditions. Without snow on the ground, though, exposed brown soils and green grasses are absorbing solar radiation, warming the ground, and feeding back into exceptionally warm temperatures from Michigan to California’s Sierra Nevada mountains.

But last winter was a La Niña year, too, and conditions couldn’t have been more different — with massive and relentless snow storms pounding much of the West and Midwest. It turns out that, even though La Niña and El Niño get all the press, they are not the only drivers of seasonal weather patterns.

“A few months ago, just about everyone was predicting colder and snowier for northern tier states based on La Niña,” Douglas said. “We are discovering that every La Niña is different. And there are larger forcings on the atmosphere that really transcend anything La Niña can do.”

There are two forces that have made the difference between last year’s relentless series of snowmaggedons and this year’s January blooms. They are the Arctic Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation, and they work together like gears to alter jet stream patterns across the U.S.

NRCS: January 1 Basin Outlook Report is hot of the press

It’s the time of the year when irrigators and water suppliers keep one eye on the sky, hoping for a copious snowpack everywhere across the state, so that conversation can center on how much water Colorado bypassed to other states rather than on allocating a short supply.

The January 1, 2012 Basin Outlook Report from the Natural Resources Conservation Service was made available for download today and many water wonks are not going to like what they see. Remember, the NRCS maintains that they can forecast runoff to within 10% based on the data they collect from selected snow courses around the high country so many rely on the forecast for planning purposes. It’s going to be a dry year, so far.

Click on the thumbnail graphic for the streamflow forecast map.

Here’s an excerpt from the report:

Summary

The water year got off to a good start with October posting 136 percent of average precipitation. Since the end of October, statewide year-to-date precipitation has fallen to 86 percent of average. January 1 snowpack totals for Colorado are also below average at 71 percent of average. This year the southern basins in Colorado have received more frequent storms than the rest of the state resulting in near average snowpack conditions in those basins. Reservoir storage remains in good condition across most of the state. The combined average for Colorado reservoir storage is 105 percent of average as of January 1. Early season runoff forecasts call for below average runoff for most of the state with the streamflow in the southern basins projected to be nearer to average. This month’s Water Supply Outlook Report is compiled using precipitation and snowpack data provided by SNOTEL sites only. With a little luck, the jet stream will shift and provide a more favorable storm track for the rest of the season.

Snowpack

Snowpack totals are below average in all major river basins in Colorado as of January 1. Statewide, snowfall has been below average each month since the start of the water year. While precipitation during the month of October was well above average, temperatures were too warm to allow that precipitation to be stored in the snowpack. In late November, concerns about lack of snowpack across Colorado increased as most of the storms tracked either north or south of the state. In general the jet stream has tracked to the north of the state which has allowed the weather to be dominated by high pressure. As of January 1 the snowpack was measured at 71 percent of average which is 52 percent of the snowpack measured this time last year. With 60 percent of the winter snowpack accumulation season remaining a lot can still happen. The state needs above average snowfall for the next three to four months to return conditions to normal before spring and summer runoff begins.

Precipitation

Precipitation across Colorado’s high county was well above average for the first month of the 2012 water year. Statewide total precipitation during October was 136 percent of average. November was a somewhat drier month across with 80 percent of average precipitation reported at SNOTEL sites across the state. Total precipitation amounts for the month of December were considerably lower than the previous months at just 52 percent of average. Only the Upper Rio Grande basin reported above average precipitation for December with totals at 101 percent of average. Northern basins reported notably below average precipitation for the month of December. The Yampa, White and North Platte basins received only 28 percent of their monthly precipitation average in December, and the Colorado River basin recorded just 32 percent of its average December precipitation. Despite December precipitation measuring well below average statewide, the above and near average precipitation totals during the previous two months has somewhat compensated; leaving year-to-date precipitation for Colorado at 86 percent of average. The Yampa, White and North Platte basins recorded 75 percent of average year-to-date precipitation as of January 1 and the Colorado basin was at 72 percent of the year-to-date average. The Arkansas, Upper Rio Grande, combined San Miguel, Dolores, Animas and San Juan basins all report year-to-date precipitation totals equal to or slightly above average as of January 1.

Reservoir Storage

Reservoir storage across Colorado continues to track near the mid-winter average. Statewide storage on January 1 was 105 percent of average and was 105 percent of last year’s storage volumes reported at this same time. Broken down by basin the Colorado, South Platte and combined Yampa, White and North Platte basins all reported above average reservoir storage on January 1. Likely a lingering effect of the above average streamflow volumes recorded in those basins last spring and summer. The Gunnison, Arkansas and combined San Juan, Animas, Dolores, and San Miguel basins all reported near or slightly above average storage for January 1. The only basin in the state reporting below average reservoir storage is the Rio Grande which was at 64 percent of average on January 1.

Streamflow

At this point in the water year streamflow volumes are forecast to be below average statewide. The only forecasts issued that predict average or above average conditions for this spring and summer are located in the Arkansas River basin. Forecasts for the Purgatoire and Huerfano Rivers located in the lower portion of the Arkansas basin were at 106 and 100 percent of average respectively as of January 1. April to September runoff forecasts for streams located in the Upper Rio Grande basin range from 73 percent to 99 percent of average. The forecasts for the Colorado, Gunnison, Yampa, White, and North Platte and the San Miguel, Dolores, Animas, and San Juan basins are all in the 60 to 85 percent of average range. The South Platte basin faired a little better with April to July forecasts ranging from 68 percent of average for Bear Creek at Morrison to 95 percent of average for the Inflow to Antero Reservoir. At this point above average snowfall is needed for the remaining winter months to improve runoff conditions for the state this spring and summer.

CO Farmers, Elected leaders, Business owners urge Obama to protect waterways

Here’s the release from Environment Colorado (Heather Kryczka/Patrick Stelmach):

Elected Leaders, Local Farmers, Business Owners Speak Out for Cleaner Colorado Waterways

WHAT: Environment Colorado will release letters of support from over 100 Colorado elected officials, farmers, and businesses who are urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to safeguard the Colorado River, the South Platte River and waters across Colorado and the country from pollution.

After more than a decade of risk for waterways such as the South Platte, the Colorado, the Arkansas and other rivers nationwide, Environment Colorado is urging President Obama to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act by restoring critical protections to these waters immediately through final guidelines and a new standard.

WHEN: Thursday, January 12th, 12:30 pm

WHERE: Colorado State Capitol, west side steps, Lincoln Street
between 14th and Colfax Avenues

Speakers:

James Martin, US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 8 Administrator

Dominick Moreno, Mayor pro tem, Commerce City

Bill Dvorak, Dvorak Expeditions, Owner

Alex Manzo, Confluence Kayaks, Owner

Patrick Stelmach, Environment Colorado, Field Organizer

Heather Kryczka, Environment Colorado, Field Organizer

More Colorado River basin coverage here.

NSAA Litigates Forest Service Water Rights Clause

Here’s the release from the National Ski Areas Association (Troy Hawks):

The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) filed a lawsuit in Federal court in the district of Colorado today against the U.S.D.A. Forest Service (USFS) to challenge a new water rights clause that results in an unconstitutional taking of property.

“We greatly value our longstanding and successful partnership with the United States Forest Service in delivering outdoor recreation experiences for millions of Americans that are unmatched in the world,” said NSAA President Michael Berry. “As always, we will continue to work positively and cooperatively with the agency to provide these opportunities on public land, but water rights are simply too critical and valuable to our operations not to defend ourselves against this outright taking of private property by the U.S. Government.”

The controversial water rights clause requires ski areas operating on Forest Service land to transfer ownership of many types of water rights to the United States government, including water rights that have been purchased with private dollars by ski areas for business operations. From NSAA’s view, requiring ski areas to transfer ownership or limit the sale of water rights without compensation is no different than the government forcing a transfer of ownership of gondolas or chairlifts, grooming machines, or snowmobiles without compensation—except for the fact that water rights are significantly more valuable than these other ski resort assets.

NSAA’s lawsuit should be a wake up call for cities and counties and other entities that have invested in the development of water rights that are in any way associated with National Forest System lands. Because of the significant percentage of water that originates on National Forest System lands, this change in policy could impact other water owners including cities and counties, owners of recreation residences, marinas and summer resorts, ranchers, mining interests and utilities.

The new water clause also poses a threat to the current system of state allocation and administration of water rights. The Forest Service acted unilaterally in changing its policy, and did not consult with states on its impacts on the state system of allocation and adjudication of water rights.

Prior to litigating the matter, NSAA urged the agency to set aside the controversial water clause and start over on a clause that was within the bounds of the law and protected all parties’ interests. NSAA was not alone in making this request, as Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), Sen. James Risch (R-ID), Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO), Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper (D), Colorado representatives Scott Tipton (R) and Jared Polis (D), Doc Hastings (R-WA), Chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, Frank Lucas (R-OK) Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, Mike Simpson (R-WY), Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and the Environment, and Jack Kingston (R-GA), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, also requested in writing that the agency issue a moratorium on implementation of the controversial clause.

When the agency refused to withdraw the clause, NSAA was forced to go to federal court to seek judicial review and injunctive relief and protect the rights and interests of its member ski areas. Three ski areas have already been required to accept the clause, effective November 8, 2011, as a term in their special use permit in order to operate. Those ski areas include Powderhorn in Colorado, Alpine Meadows in California, and Stevens Pass in Washington.

More coverage from the Summit County Citizens Voice (Bob Berwyn). From the article:

The water rights issue surfaced publicly in November, when the National Ski Areas Association, represented by attorney Glenn Porzak, complained in Congress that the Forest Service was trying to “take” privately held water rights by revising a ski area permit condition that was adopted in 2004. Since then, the ski industry has threatened to sue the Forest Service over the new water rights clause. But Ed Ryberg, who headed the agency’s ski area program from 1992 to 2005, says it’s the other way around. According to Ryberg, the ski industry used its political connections in the Bush administration to lobby for regulatory changes that were subsequently implemented without public input or review under federal environmental laws…

According to Ryberg, the latest move by the Forest Service to revise the language merely restores the balance that existed before 2004 and ensures that water that originates on national forest lands and has been developed for ski resort use remains with the ski areas.

Click through to read the text of a letter from Ryberg to U.S. Senator Udall.

More coverage from Troy Hooper writing for the Colorado Independent. From the article:

“Frankly, litigation may be the best way forward on this issue,” Ed Ryberg wrote in a letter last week to Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colorado, commending foresters for redressing “the abuses of crony capitalism.” In his letter, Ryberg, who coordinated the Forest Service’s ski area program from 1992 until his retirement in 2005, excoriates “the ‘bad actors’ in the ski industry who welshed on their agreements with the United States, and obtained water rights, justly belonging to the American people, through fraud and deception. These are the ski areas on who’s behalf NSAA has been lobbying.”

Asked for a response, Geraldine Link, the policy director for NSAA, emailed the Colorado Independent to say “the 2011 clause … is retroactive in nature. It resurrects old, invalid and replaced clauses that are no longer in effect. It resurrects them from the past even though at this time the ski area and the water rights could very well be owned by a different entity who was not a party to the permit from 3 decades ago. The 2011 clause also applies to water that originates on private land and other non-USFS lands. Talk about shifting political winds. The ski industry is frustrated with the pendulum swinging back and forth between administrations. It is not good for business.”

Ryberg has a much different perspective but he agrees with NSAA officials on at least one point when they say they are going to sue the Forest Service: Let the dispute play out in court. “It will be advantageous to the public’s interest to get the Justice Department involved in this matter,” Ryberg wrote in his letter to Udall, on which Bennet was copied. “It will provide them an opportunity to become familiar with the facts of the matter to help them determine if criminal prosecutions should be pursued, and to expedite acquiring title to water rights that justly belong to the American people.”

More coverage from Kevin Hoffman writing for The Mountain Mail. From the article:

The industry statement says the water rights clause enacted in November last year requires ski areas operating on forest service land to transfer ownership of many types of water rights to the United States government. The clause prohibits ski areas from selling or transferring ownership of some water rights acquired on private or non-federal land. Effectively the lawsuit is based on the association claim that the clause results in an unconstitutional taking of property without compensation and is a restriction that will have a significant and adverse effect on the value of water rights…

Monarch Mountain marketing director Greg Ralph said the lawsuit will not affect the local ski area much because it doesn’t use water rights to manufacture snow.

More coverage from Jason Blevins writing for The Denver Post. From the article:

The new water-rights regulation — already employed in three new ski-area permits in California, Washington and Colorado’s Powderhorn — revises a 2004 agreement that had the Forest Service and ski- area operators sharing ownership of some water rights. In an interview in late December, the Forest Service’s acting deputy chief, Jim Pena, said the revamped clause more closely mirrors the original 1986 permitting legislation and makes sure “we don’t sever the resource from the land.” The industry, however, argues the new clause prohibits ski areas from selling and trading a valuable commodity, reduces the value of the commodity and injures balance sheets. Vail Resorts reports water rights as intangible assets valued at $18.3 million…

Former Forest Service winter sports coordinator Ed Ryberg last week sent a letter to Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo. Ryberg said the 2004 water rights clause was a “radical change to Forest Service direction” that “was a direct result of the ski industry exploiting lax regulatory environment that characterized the Bush Administration.”[…]

Colorado attorney Glenn Porzak, who has represented several ski areas and helped negotiate the 2004 water-rights clause, sent a letter to Udall rebutting “numerous inaccuracies” in Ryberg’s letter. A major contention between the Forest Service and the ski industry is the agency’s assertion that the new water-rights clause does not impact water rights secured on private or non-federal lands. “The new clause impacts water rights on no ski area permit lands regardless of whether they are federal or private lands,” Porzak wrote in his Jan. 10 letter to Udall.

More water law coverage here.

The Valley Courier Water 2012 series: Water cycle explained

Here’s the second installment of Judy Lopez’s Water 2012 series running in the Valley Courier. Here’s an excerpt:

The water cycle is an important part of how all exist; everyone learned that little fact in fourth grade. The problem today is that many have forgotten it.

So let’s have a quick refresher course. Remember that water is needed to fall in the form of precipitation, and then it does one of a few things. It is stored in the form of snow or ice, infiltrates to groundwater, runs-off to streams lakes and rivers or is used by plants. Next, as the plot continues – it evaporates from the surface or transpires through plants and then condenses in the atmosphere and starts all over again.

The key is the process recharge. When water from the surface infiltrates the ground it recharges ground water supplies. With adequate precipitation rivers, streams and aquifers are recharged allowing surface areas to stay hydrated. Even the atmosphere stays hydrated. The system stays full. But this is in a perfect world without large cities, paved streets, concrete parking lots, malls, humans and such progress. It is in this world, recharge gets inhibited, because water doesn’t always go in, but instead it gets used up or runs overland and suddenly picks up a lot of other substances before going into streams and rivers.

More Colorado Water 2012 coverage here.

Southern Delivery System update: Construction of two Pueblo County sections of the pipeline are underway

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

A 6.4-mile pipeline section through Pueblo West and a 7.6-mile line through Walker Ranches are under way. Later this month, crews will begin construction on a 4.3-mile line from Pueblo Dam to Pueblo West. Construction on the entire 66-inch-diameter line through Pueblo County is expected to be complete by the end of this year. Pueblo City Council this week approved a $198,000 payment from Colorado Springs for an easement across the Honor Farm land. That will include about 27 acres of temporary easements, 16 acres of permanent easements and continuing access to the pipeline for maintenance and repairs. Work along the Pueblo West section has been going on for several weeks, although not all claims have been settled.

“They’ve already dug two big holes in my backyard,” said Dwain Maxwell, one of about seven property owners who are awaiting court action on how much they will be paid for SDS easements…

Construction has begun on Walker Ranches as well. Gary Walker has allowed access, and said he is working with contractors on construction details. But his lawyers are still negotiating the price of that access. Construction also has begun on the North Outlet Works connection at Pueblo Dam, 4.3 miles of raw pipeline in El Paso County and treated water pipelines in Colorado Springs. A contract for the Juniper Pumping Plant was recently awarded as well.

More Southern Delivery System coverage here and here.

Basin Roundtable Project Exploration Committee: Flaming Gorge process meeting Thursday in Silverthorne

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

The task force is scheduled to meet from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday at the Silverthorne Town Pavilion to identify interests, existing studies and priorities as it works to complete a report to the state by June. The task force was formed last year at the request of the Arkansas Basin and Metro roundtables to evaluate proposals to build the 500-mile pipeline. First proposed by Fort Collins entrepreneur Aaron Million, the idea is also being studied by the Colorado-Wyoming Coalition…

[John Stulp, Gov. John Hickenlooper’s water policy adviser] explained that the task force will not endorse a Flaming Gorge project, but will identify the issues that are associated with any large-scale diversion from the Colorado River to the Front Range…

“It is important that the idea for the task force came from two roundtables that thought they needed more information,” Stulp said. “While this task force is looking specifically at Flaming Gorge, the information gathered will be applicable to other transfers out of the Colorado River, and will work toward answering the question of how much is left for Colorado to develop.”

Here’s the draft agenda for the meeting. Here’s the December 13 meeting summary.

More Basin Roundtable Project Exploration Committee: Flaming Gorge process coverage here. More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Sand Creek: Suncor employees tested for benzene exposure

From TheDenverChannel.com (Lance Hernandez):

State health officials tested the water in December after an employee told them he thought it had a chemical smell. Company spokeswoman Lisha Burnett said trace amounts of benzene were found in two faucets at the sprawling facility and that “all other refinery locations have been confirmed to meet drinking water standards.”[…]

Dr. Chris Urbina, the state’s chief medical officer, told 7NEWS the longer one is exposed to benzene the greater the risk. “We could see an increased heart rate, confusion, lethargy, headaches, nausea and vomiting if they consume it,” the doctor said. “And of course, it can lead to death of you’re exposed to large quantities of benzene.” Urbina said one of the long-term impacts is leukemia…

Urbina said Suncor’s water system is a closed system. He said however the benzene is getting into the drinking water at Suncor, it is not contaminating the drinking water of any other Denver Water customers.

Thanks to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Twitter feed (@cdphe) for the link.

More oil and gas coverage here and here.