Investment in water infrastructure means jobs for Americans. Adequate investment in water infrastructure ensures safe and reliable water and wastewater systems to attract and retain industry, business, and qualified workers, which are essential to economic vitality and growth. As the gap between needs and investment grows, the impacts on jobs, lost business sales and GDP worsens. Unless the investment gap is addressed by 2040, 1.4 million jobs could be at risk. Postponing needed infrastructure investment raises the overall cost and increases the likelihood of water main breaks and other infrastructure failures.
Here’s a list of things you can do to celebrate from the Environmental Protection Agency. Here’s an excerpt:
Volunteer in your community
Find a watershed or wellhead protection organization in your community and volunteer to help. If there are no active groups, consider starting one. Use EPA’s Adopt Your Watershed to locate groups in your community, or visit the Watershed Information Network’s How to Start a Watershed Team.
Here’s the latest installment of the Valley Courier’s Colorado Water 2012 series. Jim Pokrandt (Colorado River District) gives an update on the efforts of the Colorado Basin Roundtable. Here’s an excerpt:
the Colorado Basin Roundtable is watching and waiting for the results of the Colorado Water Availability Study, and for that matter, the Bureau of Reclamation’s Colorado Basin Study, the state’s compact administration study and the multi-party study of a West Slope Water Bank.
Basin leaders hope they create an understanding of:
• the range of water left to develop,
• the variables that could be caused by climate change and long-term drought,
• what methods that could be employed to forestall the day of compact administration and
• what compact administration might look like.
Leaders believe that if they can develop this body of knowledge, they can develop a better understanding of the risks associated with future water development…
Denver Water and 39 West Slope entities in the Colorado River mainstem negotiated the Colorado River Cooperative Agreement to open the door for the Moffat Project, which still must be permitted. In return for taking more water from the peak of the hydrograph, Denver offered significant funding for environmental projects, environmental water during low-flow times and consumptive water for the West Slope.
Northern Water (through its Municipal Subdistrict) is attempting to reach a similarly styled agreement with the West Slope to facilitate its project. Nothing is final, but it is worth noting that there could be a new paradigm being developed that goes a long way toward balancing consumptive and nonconsumptive needs.
Northern Colorado’s drought may be downgraded from “severe” to “moderate” this week, based on Colorado Climate Center recommendations issued Tuesday.
“I would say there was a fairly big improvement,” said Colorado Climate Center drought specialist Rebecca Smith. “We had one of our wetter Septembers. I don’t think that the drought was completely eliminated. That might take a little bit more time and a little bit more precipitation.”
City of Fort Collins rain gauges show the city has received between 1.1 inches and 2.6 inches of wet precipitation in the past 30 days, depending on location.
Friday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 68. Breezy, with a light and variable wind becoming south southeast 11 to 16 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 23 mph.
Friday night: Rain and snow showers likely, becoming all snow after midnight. Some thunder is also possible. Cloudy, with a low around 31. Breezy, with a west wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.
Storm system heading our way will likely bring accumulating snow to mountains & chance of showers/storms plains #COwxhttp://t.co/W61AmEs6
