Day: July 1, 2013

Sterling Ranch gets another chance in front of the Douglas County Commissioners

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From The Denver Post (Carlos Illescas):

A special hearing is scheduled for next month, when Douglas County commissioners will hear from Sterling Ranch and the public to see whether the county will give a thumbs-up to the project, which includes up to 12,050 new homes in the Chatfield Basin.

The hearing comes after a judge blocked the project in August. Citing state law, the judge argued that Sterling Ranch had not lined up enough water and needed to prove it had enough water secured though build-out.

Douglas County appealed that ruling, and then sought and received a change in state law this legislative session. Now, Sterling Ranch officials believe the project can finally move forward.

More 2013 Colorado Legislation coverage here.

More than two dozen Colorado craft brewers appeal to Governor Hickenlooper better regulate hydraulic fracturing

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From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Charles Ashby):

More than two dozen craft brewers from around the state, including several on the Western Slope, are asking Gov. John Hickenlooper to be more beer friendly and less oil-and-gas friendly. The brewers, including 13 from such Western Slope places as Paonia, Telluride and Montrose, sent a letter to the former-brewer-turned governor Friday asking him to be more concerned about the environmental impacts the oil-and-gas industry has on the state and less interested in the industry itself.

Before becoming governor and mayor of Denver, Hickenlooper was one of the state’s first microbrewers, starting the Wynkoop Brewing Co. in Denver’s lower downtown in the late 1980s that later became part of a small restaurant/pub empire. He did that, however, after he was laid off from his job as a petroleum geologist for the oil and gas industry.

The brewers say Hickenlooper has been too lenient with production companies, citing as examples the recent lawsuits his administration has filed against local communities over water and environmental ordinances they’ve enacted in recent months. “I think there is a natural concern from brewers about the oil and gas industry since good, clean Colorado water is our most important ingredient in beer,” said Gretchen King, co-owner of Revolution Brewing in Paonia.

“We want to be known as a state of natural beauty, pristine natural resources, outdoor activities and great beer, not just a state that promotes drilling and the gas industry,” added Chip Holland, head brewer at Glenwood Canyon Brewery in Glenwood Springs. “We need to strike a balance between this type of energy development and conservation for our economy’s sake.”

The brewers have requested a face-to-face meeting with the governor to discuss the matter — over beers, of course.

Hickenlooper’s office had only just received the letter, but his press secretary, Eric Brown, said the governor would respond. “The craft brewing industry is a great economic driver for Colorado, and we value our relationship with brewers across the state,” Brown said.

More coverage of water and oil and gas from (David Persons):

Oil and gas industry officials who oversee operations in shale plays — like the Niobrara in Weld County — have lots of things on their minds these days. They are concerned about HAPs (hazardous air pollutants), VOCs (volatile organic compounds), TDS (total dissolved solids), and TSS (total suspended solids).

However, the one concern that supercedes all others is H2O — water. Without it, the current shale oil boom would be nothing more than a big bust. Fortunately for the oil and gas industry, Colorado has enough water and the industry consumes only a tiny percentage of the water consumed in the state. Obtaining that water, however, can be time-consuming and, in some cases, costly. But, that is only the beginning of a series of water-related challenges, say industry officials who took part in the recent Water Management For Shale Plays 2013 Summit in Denver.

Besides obtaining the necessary water, industry officials say they face challenges in transporting water, storing water, the use of flowback and produced water, water treatment, recycling/ reuse, meeting air quality standards related to water storage, and eventually water disposal.

Despite those challenges, there’s no second-guessing the enthusiasm of shale industry officials about the potential of the industry in northeastern Colorado. “It’s an exciting time because we have, thanks to the shale plays, an abundance of oil and gas,” said Ken Burris, vice president of Water/Geosciences for WorleyParsons. “Isn’t it nice that we can thumb our nose at OPEC and tell them we don’t need them?”

Burris also pointed out the potential of the shale plays in the U.S. is tremendous and promises to be long-term. “The person who drills the last hole in shale play has not been born yet,” Burris said. “We’ll be in this for a long time.”

Acquiring water

Colorado, unlike most shale play states, has an abundance of surface water that starts on the snowy slopes of the Rocky Mountains and ends up in our streams, rivers and reservoirs. Colorado produces so much water, that what’s left (after farm draws, municipal draws, and manufacturing/industrial draws) flows out of state and is covered by nine separate compacts for downstream users. “Water today (in Colorado) is not a limiting factor (for oil and gas operations),” said Dick Wolfe, the state engineer for the Colorado Division of Water Resources.

While many might suspect that oil and gas companies are using a lot of Colorado’s produced water, that is not the case. The largest users of Colorado’s water are farmers. “About 86 percent of the water used in Colorado is used for agriculture,” Wolfe said. “Less than one-tenth of one percent is used for oil and gas wells.”

Many oil and gas companies prefer using fresh water for their drilling operations. However, it’s not the only water source available, Wolfe said. He pointed out that besides the available surface water, oil and gas companies can use ground water (below the surface) and produced water (water returned through drilling after flowback water has been retrieved). “All oil and gas wells produce water,” Wolfe said.

The problem with ground water or produced water is that it must be determined if the water is tributary or nontributary. All groundwater is considered tributary to natural surface streams except when it is determined to be isolated and has no effect on a surface stream. In that case, it is determined to be nontributary, Wolfe said. If the groundwater is tributary, it requires a well permit which can take time. If it’s nontributary, it doesn’t require a permit. Wolfe said nearly all the groundwater and produced water in the Niobrara is nontributary and varies from clean to salty.

While fresh water is still highly preferred, it’s not the only source of water for drillers. Water can also be obtained from nearby municipal/industrial firms in the form of waste water. And some drillers are learning to recycle flowback water and treat and use produced water.

Transporting water

One of the big headaches for oil and gas companies is transporting water to the drill site and then hauling water that can’t be recycled to a water disposal well site. By and large, there are just two options for bring water to the site: trucking or piping. Each has its advantages and drawbacks, said Drew Poeckes, the director of engineering for West Dakota Water LLC. Trucks are inefficient, create dust, destroy roads (an overloaded truck can destroy a road 20 times faster than a normally loaded truck) and have a safety impact on roads. However, they are cheaper and more cost-effective.

Pipes take years to build. Right-of-way acquisition can be costly and also take time. It has a high upfront cost.

Because of the economics, most oil and gas companies prefer trucking, Poeckes said.

Storing water

One way to limit truck trips and reduce wear and tear on roads is to store fresh water on site. It has been done in a variety of ways over the years: earthen tanks, above ground tanks, burial tanks, port-a-dams, and lined tanks. Storing flowback water, on the other hand, requires enclosed storage tanks.

Jonathan Hoopes, the president and COO of GreenHunter Water LLC, said his company has developed a MAG tank — a modular above ground tank — for storing fresh water. “Our goal is to reduce truck time since that is about 75 percent of the cost of handling fluids,” Hoopes said. He says his company’s MAG tank can hold about 60,000 barrels of water and takes only two days to set up.

Use of flowback and produced water

One way to reduce the demand for fresh water at drilling sites is to reuse flowback water and to use produced water. Halliburton, one of several oil and gas companies operating in the Niobrara, is rapidly becoming a leader in this area. Flowback water generally is defined as a water-based solution that flows back to the surface during and after the completion of hydraulic fracturing. It consists of the fluid used to fracture wells in the shale formation. Produced water is naturally occurring water found in shale formations that flows to the surface throughout the entire life span of the gas well. “One of the oldest problems we have in drilling is produced water,” said Walter Dale, the strategic business manager for Halliburton. “We actually make more water than oil and gas. We have about 111 billion barrels of water produced annually.”

Dale said Halliburton, long known for its insistence for fresh water, is now looking to maximize the reuse of water (flowback and produced) to reduce water sent for disposal. At the same time, this would minimize the waste stream and reduce trucking. “Our focus is to virtually eliminate fresh water from fracking and use alternative water sources,” Dale said. “When you make fracking fluid, you do not need fresh water. You can do it with impaired waters. “It’s a paradigm shift … and it will take time (to be widely accepted).”

More oil and gas coverage here and here.

Drought news: June among the driest on record for Grand Junction #COdrought #ColoradoRiver

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From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Paul Shockley):

Coming off one of the driest Junes on record for Grand Junction, there are dim prospects for change for the beginning of July, according to the National Weather Service in Grand Junction. As measured at Grand Junction Regional Airport, the city recorded 0.01 inch of rain for the month just ended, well below a normal value for June of 0.45 inch, National Weather Service senior forecaster Chris Cuoco said. “We’re certainly down there for one of the driest June’s on record,” Cuoco said. “(Saturday) had some of the first raindrops I’ve felt in the valley in quite a long time.”

As dry as the past month registered, June 2012 recorded trace amounts of rain, he said. Don’t look for change anytime soon. “We have the slightest hint of precipitation for July 7 and July 8, but certainly it’s not something we’re banking on yet,” Cuoco said. “We’ll be watching it and hopefully we may see a little bit of moisture coming out of the south.”

Despite the dry June, Grand Junction is still wetter year to date compared with last year. The city has recorded 3.42 inches so far of the year, still below the normal value of 4.29 inches. At the same point in 2012, Grand Junction was almost 3 inches below normal. “April helped us out quite a bit,” Cuoco said of this year’s total.

From the Pikes Peak Courier-View (Pat Hill):

Owner of Becky’s Bovines and Brews in Highland Meadows in southern Teller County, [Becky Sandefur] runs a dairy business that offers fresh milk and homemade cheese from the 80-acre ranch. For the past several years, the enterprise has been self-sustaining. Until now. With one of two wells going dry, in addition to a dry pond and another gradually evaporating, Sandefur has reduced the herd to five cows and a bull. Nonetheless, she has her fingers crossed that the five will produce calves in January. The well supplies water for the household but the pond nourishes the livestock that includes five horses. “If something happens to the pond, I’m finished,” she said.

Say hello to the new General Manager of the Grand Valley Water Users’ Association — Mark Harris #ColoradoRiver

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From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Sam Waters):

Water is an essential part of life, especially in the high desert of the Grand Valley. One man who understands that is Mark Harris, the newly selected general manager for the Grand Valley Water Users’ Association. “Right here in the valley, everything that we do is made largely possible by the fact that we have this huge benefit of good water,” Harris said.

Dick Proctor stepped down from the position in March, leaving association board members with the task of finding a new general manager. The board selected Harris for the position after weeks of deliberation. “I consider myself very lucky. There’s not that many jobs of this nature anymore,” Harris said. The first few weeks have gone well, he said, crediting interim manager Kevin Conrad and officer manager Shirley Joslin in helping ease the transition.

A resident of the Grand Valley since 1958, Harris has been involved in agriculture for most of his life. He worked in the farm building business for 17 years and helped build many of the grain bins throughout the valley. Harris later became co-owner of Grand Valley Hybrids farm, working mainly on the commercial side of things, he said. The company sold the commercial division of the business to Dow AgroSciences in 2010, so he began to look for another job.

Knowing that the job market would look different than it did years ago, Harris made the decision to go back to school and earn his master’s degree in agricultural development through Texas A&M University. He completed that degree in December 2012 and said it has already helped him in his new position. “This job is an ideal venue for me,” Harris said. “I wanted to remain involved with natural resources, particularly water. I wanted to be involved with the ag and rural community along with the broader community.”

And reaching out to the broader community is something he plans to do more as general manager. “One of the things we want to make sure we focus on is that there is appreciation on the part of the greater community of the economic engine that these conveyance systems and everything that has to do with them provides for the community,” Harris said.

While he said he is confident in the position, he no doubt realized the significance of taking on the job as water chief of this “complicated bathtub” that is the Grand Valley. Harris said he intends to maintain good relationships with rest of the state and other water users downstream but plans to keep Grand Valley water users a top priority. “We want to be good stewards of this resource but we also need to protect our access to it. We need to protect our water rights,” Harris said.

More Colorado River Basin coverage here and here.

ARCADIS Grant to Establish Center at Colorado State University to Support Groundwater Research

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Here’s the release from Colorado State University (Tony Phifer):

Colorado State University and ARCADIS are partnering to establish the ARCADIS-CSU Center for Excellence in Remediation Hydrogeology, which will focus on groundwater restoration research that will have application in mining, the oil and gas industry, and other critical areas.

The $200,000 unrestricted, renewable gift from ARCADIS, a 125-year-old company whose U.S. headquarters is in Highlands Ranch, Colo., will allow CSU’s renowned College of Engineering to enhance a decade-long collaboration with the company. The gift will be used to fund several aspects of the Center for Excellence in Remediation Hydrogeology, including graduate students, technical support, research, and an adjunct faculty position within the college.

“Over the past decade, a remarkable collaboration has developed between ARCADIS, an international engineering services company, and Dr. Tom Sale in CSU’s Center for Contaminant Hydrology,” said Wade Troxell, Interim Dean in the College of Engineering. “We are extremely grateful for this gift.”

The gift will also support the annual Steven B. Blake Water Resources Lecture Series. Blake, a 1978 graduate of CSU in Watershed Science and recently retired CEO of ARCADIS, was central in expanding the relationship between the company and the College of Engineering.

“We are tremendously grateful and pleased to welcome ARCADIS as a partner with Colorado State as we create the Center for Excellence in Remediation Hydrogeology,” said Brett Anderson, vice president for University Advancement. “The incredible reputation of ARCADIS in engineering and water resource development paired with Colorado State’s world-class research and expertise in environment and groundwater restoration is a formula for extraordinary success for our students, our communities, and the world.”

The ARCADIS-CSU Center of Excellence will be directed by Sale and Fred Payne of ARCADIS. “The research done here will provide new ideas and solutions that will have application in mining, the oil and gas industry, environmental remediation and even water supply,” Payne said.

Highlights of the CSU-ARCADIS relationship include:

  • ARCADIS was an early adopter of patented CSU technologies, providing royalty revenue on three CSU technologies.
  • ARCADIS has provided numerous career opportunities for CSU students.
  • CSU has trained ARCADIS staff in the use of CSU’s cutting-edge remediation and site characterization technologies.
  • CSU was the first university to use ARCADIS’s text, Remediation Hydraulics, as a course textbook.
  • CSU has provided ARCADIS with new employees with cutting-edge knowledge in modern contaminant hydrology, and collaborated on advancing transformational ideas in the fields of contaminant transport and water resources.

    • More groundwater coverage here and here.

    The North American Monsoon and August rain in Colorado

    Above is a post from 2010 with details about the North American Monsoon. Many of Colorado’s biggest rain events historically have come during the monsoon season (usually the last two weeks of July and first two weeks of August).

    Late 20th century increase in ENSO activity tied to global warming #COdrought

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    From the Summit County Citizens Voice (Bob Berwyn):

    scientists working at the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa say a new tree ring record extending back about 700 years has helped decipher long-term trends. The tree ring samples from both the tropics and mid-latitudes in both hemispheres support the idea that the unusually high ENSO activity in the late 20th century is a footprint of global warming said Jinbao Li, lead author of the study published online in the journal Nature Climate Change.

    “Many climate models do not reflect the strong ENSO response to global warming that we found,” said co-author Shang-Ping Xie, meteorology professor at the International Pacific Research Center. “This suggests that many models underestimate the sensitivity to radiative perturbations in greenhouse gases. Our results now provide a guide to improve the accuracy of climate models and their projections of future ENSO activity. If this trend of increasing ENSO activity continues, we expect to see more weather extremes such as floods and droughts.”

    The inclusion of tropical tree-ring records enabled the team to generate an accurate archive of ENSO activity, matched with records from equatorial Pacific corals and with an independent Northern Hemisphere temperature reconstruction that captures well-known teleconnection climate patterns.

    These proxy records all indicate that ENSO was unusually active in the late 20th century compared to the past seven centuries, implying that this climate phenomenon is responding to ongoing global warming.

    State Sen. Gail Schwartz plans legislation to change ‘use or lose it’ features of water law #COleg

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    From the Aspen Daily News (Nelson Harvey):

    It seems obvious…that making agriculture more efficient is a surefire way to preserve Colorado’s dwindling water supply. And yet, state water law often encourages farmers and ranchers to use as much water as they legally can, just to keep their water rights intact.

    This summer, Democratic state Sen. Gail Schwartz of Snowmass Village plans to draft legislation that will remove the usage incentive from the law. Her bill would allow Western Slope irrigators who adopt more efficient watering systems to get credit for the water they save. Schwartz is chairing the Water Resources Review Committee, a state body made up of lawmakers who meet every summer to draft legislation on water issues. Several Roaring Fork Valley water lawyers, ranchers and activists also participate. The group will hold eight meetings throughout the summer, beginning July 17 in Gunnison, and Schwartz said she plans to reintroduce an irrigation efficiency measure that was stripped from a bill she carried, partly because of opposition from Front Range water interests, during the 2013 legislative session.

    When an irrigator makes improvements to their water delivery system by replacing flood irrigation with sprinkler irrigation, improving a head gate or piping a ditch, for instance, they wind up diverting less water from a river, Schwartz explained.

    Under Colorado’s “use it or lose it” water law, an irrigator who isn’t diverting the maximum amount of water that their right allows is at risk of losing some of it when they go to court to change its use or sell it. In court, judges examine a water right owner’s “historic consumptive use,” the amount that’s put to work irrigating crops. If that historic use is less than what a water right allows, a judge can strip the unused water from its owner and put it up for sale.

    People sometimes go to extraordinary lengths to avoid this fate: Bill Fales of Cold Mountain Ranch, south of Carbondale, said some ranchers in Colorado install sprinkler systems but leave their flood irrigation systems in place as well, to allow for the possibility of boosting their water use on short notice to preserve their rights.

    More 2014 Colorado legislation coverage here.

    Southern Delivery System: Colorado Springs Utilities has spent $58 million in Pueblo County so far

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    From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

    About $58 million of the $337.8 million spent on Southern Delivery System so far has gone to contractors in Pueblo County, according to the latest accounting of the project. Now estimated to cost about $940 million, SDS would build a 50-mile raw water pipeline from Pueblo Dam to El Paso County. There are three pump stations along the way and a new water treatment plant in northeast Colorado Springs. The project benefits Colorado Springs, Security, Fountain and Pueblo West.

    Allison Moser, a Colorado Springs Utilities engineer, gave the Fountain Creek Watershed Flood Control and Greenway District an update on SDS Friday.

    So far, 38 of the 50 miles of underground pipeline — most of it 66 inches in diameter — have been placed. The North Outlet Works at Pueblo Dam has been completed and construction work on the Juniper Pump Station below the dam will begin this fall. The treatment plant in Colorado Springs is under construction, and contracts have been awarded for all three pump stations.

    Most of the money for the project has been spent within Colorado, with $165 million in El Paso County, $800,000 in Fremont County and $48 million in the rest of the state. Another $66 million has been spent outside the state, mostly for specialized equipment not manufactured in Colorado, Moser said.

    The Fountain Creek district has authority of some parts of SDS that cross the flood plain in El Paso County. That will change, however, because of new 1041 regulation in El Paso County that give county commissioners authority over all utility projects under a 1974 law. The major portion of Fountain Creek affected by SDS is the underground crossing of the pipeline several miles south of Fountain, which would be about 40 feet below the surface. That portion has been redesigned to avoid any disturbance of wetlands, Moser said.

    More Southern Delivery System coverage here and here.