Fountain Creek: Kansas is keeping a watchful eye on potential dams

Fountain Creek photo via the Fountain Creek Watershed Flood Control and Greenway District

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

Kansas has concerns that the effects of a large dam on Fountain Creek are not adequately modeled in a study of flood control and water rights that is nearing completion.

But comments from Kevin Salter of the Kansas Division of Water Resources indicate the modeling done by the Fountain Creek Watershed Flood Control and Greenway District is “reasonable” when it comes to side-detention ponds.

Kansas is an important player because its 1985 federal lawsuit over the Arkansas River Compact raised storage issues along with wells. The Supreme Court ruled in Colorado’s favor on the storage questions, but new dams would be untested waters.

“The methodology in this draft report appears reasonable to protect water rights below the confluence of Fountain Creek and the Arkansas River for the scenario involving side-detention facilities,” Salter said.

“As for the scenario to construct a multipurpose reservoir on Fountain Creek; Kansas is concerned.”

In an email to a committee looking at engineer Duane Helton’s draft report, Salter said more study is needed to look at the full impact of a 52,700 acre-foot reservoir that would include a 25,700 acre-foot pool for recreation and water supply and 27,000 acre-feet for temporary flood storage.

“Should the actual implementation of detained flood flows on Fountain Creek impact compact conservation storage Kansas would fully expect that those flows be restored,” Salter said.

Larry Small, executive director of the Fountain Creek district, said a more complete evaluation would be made of water rights if a large reservoir is pursued.

“The district will complete a full evaluation of alternatives and a feasibility study of the preferred alternative in the future before any decision is made on flood control facilities, to include multipurpose facilities,” Small said in an email reply.

Helton’s study shows there would be little impacts on water rights if flood control structures allowed a flow of 10,000 cubic feet per second to flow through Pueblo during large floods. Water would be released as quickly as possible following the peak flow.

The study discounted extremely high flows, such as the 1999 or 1965 floods, saying there would be little damage to water rights because the high volume would fill John Martin Reservoir, creating a free river.

Division Engineer Steve Witte said Kansas concerns must be treated carefully, so a new round of litigation isn’t triggered.

Witte would like the 2015 flooding to be studied. Flows on Fountain Creek exceeded the 10,000 cfs mark on three occasions during six weeks of elevated flows. John Martin Reservoir did not fill, so it would be an ideal opportunity to explore how flood storage could be administered, he said.

“I think we need to be careful in any scenario to make sure there isn’t some material depletion,” Witte said.

After the 1999 flood, when Kansas and Colorado were in litigation over the Arkansas River Compact, Kansas raised questions about how such large flows should be divided. Those issues have not been resolved, Witte said.

Another downstream party, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association which owns half of the Amity Canal in Prowers County, said more study is needed to determine the damage if water is detained at lower flows and how water would be allocated after a flood.

The committee looking at the report, which includes some downstream farmers, Kansas, Colorado Springs Utilities, Tri-State and others, will meet again at 10 a.m. Oct. 14 at the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District offices.

Why Colorado doesn’t create bold goals for greenhouse gas reductions — The Mountain Town News

From The Mountain Town News (Allen Best):

Colorado’s state government has produced an updated climate action plan, and it’s rich with detail about what Colorado has done in reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as in addressing the challenges of rising temperatures.

But what value does this information provide? The document, “Colorado Climate Plan: State Level Policies and Strategies to Mitigate and Adapt,” neither sets goals nor does it makes a strong case for a specific agenda. Instead, among several dozen strategies and recommendations are these:

Promote and encourage water efficiency and/or conservation at the local and state agency level.

Assist all electric utilities in incorporating all feasible efficiency activities into resource planning and the EPA air quality compliance plans, and

Partner with federal and local agencies to preserve and protect forest health and wildlife habitat and to reduce wildfire risk. This latter is under the tourism and recreation heading.

Taryn Finnessey, lead author of the document, says many of the specifics of these recommendations remain to be worked out. The next step, beginning late this fall, will be to begin having conversations with various water, business, and other interest groups.

When possible, she says, that outreach will be accomplished using existing events, such as when the Colorado Association of Conservation Districts meets. Climate change adaptation will be on the agenda when the state’s Department of Local Affairs holds sessions on land-use planning.

“We recognize this is the beginning of the conversation, not the end, and there needs to be more dialogue with stakeholders going forward about where we need to go from here,” she says.

“But this is a really good first step, the first time when we have pulled together all we have done about climate change adaptation and mitigation and put it in one document. And it is not be understated. There are a lot of really good efforts underway, and we don’t want to slow those efforts down.

“There’s much more to be done. That’s clear not only in our strategies and recommendations, but also in our efforts to reach out to stakeholders and the public to see how they want to take the next steps of climate change and adaptation in Colorado.”

Other states and some local jurisdictions have proclaimed bold, even brash goals. Colorado officials aren’t persuaded that’s the way to go.

“When you drill down into the programs they have in place to achieve those goals, you find sometimes that the math doesn’t add up,” says Finnessey.

The document makes the case that Colorado has done much since the first climate plan was released during the administration of Gov. Bill Ritter in 2007. Much of that work has been in reduction of greenhouse gases.

The climate plan speaks to both transportation and cooperation with local entities. Photo/Allen Best – See more at: http://mountaintownnews.net/2015/10/05/water-runs-through-colorados-climate-action-plan/#sthash.i7Y7Ea33.dpuf

State legislators have raised the bar of renewable portfolio standards for the investor-owned utilities and expanded the requirements to include the co-operatives and municipalities.

Already, the initiatives (including the first renewable mandate adopted by voters in 2004) have added up. Just 0.54 percent of electricity came from renewable sources in 2004 (excluding the big hydro sources); as of 2014, the percentage had grown to 14.36 percent.

Switching among fossil fuels has also reduced greenhouse gases. State legislation incentivized the replacement of coal by natural gas at power plants in Boulder and Denver. And, in 2014, Colorado became a national leader in instituting rules to limit emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from drilling operations.

Gov. John Hickenlooper has said Colorado will go forward with efforts to meet standards of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan for 2030. (Another statewide elected official, Cynthia Coffman, the attorney general, has a different idea. She has joined her counterparts from 22 other states in challenging legality of the Clean Power Plan).

And in its internal operations, the state government has completed measures to reduce petroleum use by fleets by 25 percent and, more broadly, cut energy use by 30 percent.

“We have taken an incredibly multi-pronged approach. We don’t just rely on legislative actions or just on administrative actions or actions we have taken in the past,” says Finnessey.

A chart of greenhouse gas emissions in the report shows a rapid increase in greenhouse gases from Colorado during the 1990s and until about a decade ago. Since then, the growth has moderated and, looking forward, the state report expects emissions to essentially flatline even as population and economic growth continue.

Climate Change in California Passes a Tipping Point — Huff Post Green

Yosemite National Park 2012 through 2015 via the Huffington Post

From Huff Post Green (Hunter Cutting):

With Californians crossing their fingers in hopes of a super El Niño to help end the state’s historic drought, California’s water agency just delivered some startling news: for the first time in 120 years of record keeping, the winter average minimum temperature in the Sierra Nevada was above freezing. And across the state, the last 12 months were the warmest on record. This explains why the Sierra Nevada snow pack that provides nearly 30% of the state’s water stood at its lowest level in at least 500 years this last winter despite precipitation levels that, while low, still came in above recent record lows. The few winter storms of the past two years were warmer than average and tended to produce rain, not snow. And what snow fell melted away almost immediately.

Thresholds matter when it comes to climate change. A small increase in temperature can have a huge impact on natural systems and human infrastructure designed to cope with current weather patterns and extremes. Only a few inches of extra rain can top a levee protecting against flood. Only a degree of warming can be the difference between ice-up and navigable water, between snow pack and bare ground.

Climate change has intensified the California drought by fueling record-breaking temperatures that evaporate critically important snowpack, convert snowfall into rain, and dry out soils. This last winter in California was the warmest in 119 years of record keeping, smashing the prior record by an unprecedented margin. Weather records tend to be broken when a temporary trend driven by natural variability runs in the same direction as the long-term trend driven by climate change, in this case towards warmer temperatures. Drought in California has increased significantly over the past 100 years due to rising temperatures. A recent paleoclimate study found that the current drought stands out as the worst to hit the state in 1,200 years largely due the remarkable, record-high temperatures.

#AnimasRiver: Water-treatment system announced for #GoldKing — The Durango Herald

New settlement ponds at Gold King Mine August 2015

From The Durango Herald (Peter Marcus):

The $1.78-million portable treatment facility will be located in Gladstone, according to EPA officials. It will be operational by Oct. 14 and operate during the coming winter. The contract provides for 42 weeks of treatment, with the option to start or stop treatment as needed…

Water continues to flow from the mine at approximately 550 gallons per minute. Without the plant, officials have had to rely on a series of settling ponds to capture the dirty water before being discharged to Cement Creek.

Authorities constructed four ponds at the mine site, which are treating water to remove as much metal loading as possible. The treatment plant will replace the ponds.

EPA officials estimate the plant will cost $20,000 per week to operate, with another $53,200 for demobilization and bonding. EPA will use money from its Superfund coffers to pay for the project. Superfund money is used to clean up blighted areas that could be toxic to humans. Gold King still has not officially been listed as a Superfund site.

The bidding process for the plant was conducted by St. Louis-based Environmental Restoration, LLC, the contractor that was working with the EPA when the spill occurred. The treatment-system contract was awarded to subcontractor Alexco Environmental Group Inc., which has an office in Denver.

Officials said the transition to the plant is necessary as winter temperatures at high elevations can reach well below zero, making it unsafe to manually treat water at the mine site. The system is designed to handle up to 1,200 gallons per minute.

“The objective of the treatment system is to neutralize the mine discharge and remove solids and metals,” stated an EPA news release announcing the facility. “Although the Gold King Mine discharge is just one of many into Cement Creek, the treatment will remove a portion of the metal loading to Cement Creek.”

Though the system is temporary, long-term treatment will be decided after further evaluation of mine discharge, said an EPA spokeswoman.

#AnimasRiver: A silver lining to a toxic orange legacy? — Environment America

Here’s a call to action from Environment America (Russell Bassett):

“Catastrophe!” read the local headlines after 3 million gallons of metal-laden muck spilled into Colorado’s Animas River earlier last month.

The spill forced the city of Durango to close its drinking water intake, and local business that depend on the river were shut down for weeks. The spill traveled through Colorado into New Mexico and Utah, creating concerns for drinking water, crops, and wildlife all along its path.

The orange river made international news, but it also helped highlight a problem that is long overdue for a solution. Hard rock metal mining is the most destructive industry in the world. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory, metal mining is the nation’s top toxic water polluter.

Mining in the western United States has contaminated headwaters of more than 40 percent of the watersheds in the West. Remediation of the half-million abandoned mines in 32 states may cost up to $35 billion or more.

The main reason for this wide-scale degradation of our waterways is an antiquated law that still governs hard rock mining throughout the country. The 1872 Mining Law allows foreign and domestic companies to take valuable minerals from our public lands without paying any royalties, and it still allows public land to be purchased and spoiled for mining at the 1872 price of less than $5 an acre — that’s the price of one mocha for an acre of public land.

Gold King Mine entrance after blowout August 2015

This outdated law contains no environmental provisions, allowing the mining industry to wreak havoc on water supplies, wildlife and landscapes. For example, abandoned mines are still leaking 540 to 740 gallons a MINUTE of acid drainage into the Animas River headwaters, degrading miles of the watershed. This was the case before the Gold King Mine spill and is still the case after the spill, and there are many more examples throughout much of the West. In fact, it’s estimated that there are half a million abandoned mines throughout the nation.

While the Animas River spill was a tragedy of the first order — and some polluters friends in Congress want to turn it into a witch-hunt of the Environmental Protection Agency — the spill should be the much-needed motivation to enact a solution to clean up after mining’s toxic legacy.

The Hardrock Mining Reform and Reclamation Act of 2015 (HR 963) would fix the problem, but, unfortunately, due to the current political situation in both houses of Congress, this bill has basically zero chance of getting passed. And we need action now because several proposed mines throughout the country could be approved before a real solution to mining’s toxic legacy is passed by Congress.

The Pebble Mine in the headwaters of Alaska’s Bristol Bay, Upper Peninsula Mine near Lake Michigan, Black Butte Mine on Montana’s Smith River, and the Canyon Mine near the Grand Canyon are just a few examples of proposed mines that could wreak havoc on local ecosystems and potentially contaminate watersheds for generations to come.

People from across the country travel to raft and fish in these rivers and lakes. It’s time to protect them from toxic mining pollution. Tax payers are bearing the brunt of cleaning up after the mining industry through superfund designation and other federal funding programs. Using public funds to clean up after a toxic industry, while at the same time allowing that industry to continue to create new mines, is unacceptable. Since Congress won’t do what’s needed, our president should act quickly and decisively.

President Obama has the authority to put a moratorium on all new mines near our waters on public lands. The mining industry should not be allowed to use our public lands to build new mines in and around our cherished waterways until it cleans up from past mining operations. Please tell President Obama to reject all new mine proposals near our rivers until the mining industry cleans up its act. Let’s find the silver lining to the toxic orange river. Please add your voice now.

From The Durango Herald (Peter Marcus):

U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton on Thursday [October 1, 2015] expressed concerns with the prospect of federal officials moving forward with a Superfund listing for Silverton near the inactive Gold King Mine.

A divide has emerged over the Superfund question, with some residents and officials of Silverton worried the listing would be a stain on the community. Silverton and San Juan County officials in August clarified their perspective, suggesting that they are open to a listing but that they have not “foreclosed any options.”

In comments before the U.S. Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, Tipton, a Cortez Republican, stated: “Designating Silverton a Superfund site … could severely damage the town’s reputation and prove costly to the local economy.”[…]

Andy Corra, owner of 4Corners Riversports in Durango, who spoke at the same hearing, pushed officials to pursue a Superfund listing.

“Right now, adding the Animas Basin’s offending mines to the EPA’s Superfund National Priorities List is really the only clear path forward,” Corra said.

Listening to the hearing was Colorado U.S. Sens. Cory Garner, a Republican, and Michael Bennet, a Democrat. They joined Tipton in pushing for good Samaritan legislation, which would allow private and state entities to restore inactive mines without the fear of liability. [ed. emphasis mine]

From the Associated Press via The Colorado Springs Gazette:

A rafting company owner, a county commissioner and a chamber of commerce official told the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee that they don’t yet know the full economic impact of the spill, but it has been devastating so far, scaring away visitors and triggering layoffs at travel-related businesses…

La Plata County Commissioner Bradford Blake said outdoor recreation companies, farms, greenhouses and other businesses that rely on the river and its water suffered immediate losses ranging from $8,600 to $100,000 each. “Clearly, we do not know yet what the long-term impact of the Gold King spill, and the publicity generated by it, might be,” he said.

From The Denver Post (Jesse Paul):

Navajo Nation leaders on Friday announced they are asking the federal government for a preliminary damage assessment in the wake of the August Gold King Mine spill upstream in Colorado.

Navajo President Russell Begaye on Thursday sent a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency seeking the estimation.

Begaye said it is the first step in the application process for public assistance for recovery from a disaster for eligible applicants.

“The spill caused damage to the water quality of the San Juan River to such a massive extent that a state of emergency was declared by the Navajo Nation,” Begaye in the letter. “All of the economic, health, cultural and other impacts to the Navajo people are not yet known.”

#COWaterPlan “…lays out a path by which we may start saving our rivers” — Ken Neubecker

Colorado transmountain diversions via the State Engineer's office — Colorado transmountain diversions via the State Engineer’s office

From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Ken Neubecker):

It has been pointed out several times that the recent mine spill into the Animas River was, in one sense, a good thing. It re-awoke the public to Colorado’s checkered mining heritage, and the damage done to our rivers for more than a century. But Colorado’s mining legacy is more than old mines polluting mountain streams. It also gave us the fundamental laws and traditions that govern our rivers and the water they hold.

In 1859, David Wall dug a small ditch from Clear Creek to irrigate his two-acre garden, from which he sold produce to the miners up stream in Gregory Gulch. People back east objected to Wall’s diversion to land not directly adjacent to Clear Creek. But the miners from California who had come to Colorado brought with them a new idea of water allocation called prior appropriation. On November 7, 1859, the territorial legislature passed a law making Wall’s and any other agricultural diversion legal under the “rules of the diggings.”*

For the next 114 years dams and diversion projects were built with no concern for rivers or the health of the ecosystems they support. Water left in the stream was considered a waste and many rivers were severely degraded from altered flows and lack of water. That began to change in 1973, with the passage of Colorado’s in-stream flow water rights program. While not perfect, and not as protective as some might want to think, it recognized the natural environment as a beneficial user of water.

Now Colorado is developing a coordinated plan for the growing water needs of farms, ranches, communities, and — for the first time — the environment and the recreational economy that supports so much in Colorado. Rather than a simple endorsement for more projects that could further harm rivers, this water plan lays out all of the anticipated needs and myriad ideas for meeting them. Indeed, it lays out a path by which we may start saving our rivers.

The Colorado Water Plan has been in the making for more than 10 years, crafted by water stakeholders and the public from all across the state through the Basin Roundtables. Ranchers, farmers, municipal water providers and utilities have worked closely with many from the environmental and recreational communities to make sure that the plan incorporates serious consideration of the health of rivers, including bringing them back from the damage caused by past projects.

This has not been an easy task, and completion of the Colorado Water Plan does not guarantee success. A lot of time has been spent simply building trust after a long history of distrust between people with competing needs and values, and there are still stark differences between competing water uses that must be overcome. Colorado faces a daunting future — balancing the needs of agriculture, cities and rivers will not be easy. Growth, climate change, new economies and values, the need to fulfill downstream compact obligations and the simple reality of living in an arid region where water supply is shrinking, all make the transition from the Colorado of Dave Wall’s irrigation ditch to 21st century water management complex and challenging. Solving the puzzle of our water needs and restoring rivers will take all of us, working together, looking to the future, not the past.

From the Boulder Daily Camera (Nick Payne):

As important as the Colorado Water Plan is to the future of our state and its hunting and angling heritage, we can’t lose sight of what is happening in Washington, D.C. Several pieces of legislation are working their way through Congress to respond to drought in California and throughout the West. Federal agencies are pumping millions of dollars into drought-relief efforts and scrambling to find ways to make our country more resilient to future droughts, too.

Lawmakers can help sportsmen by spurring and supporting state and local solutions that work for entire watersheds, making it less likely that we will reach a crisis point in future droughts. We can build in assurances by using federal water programs to create:

Flexibility. In an over-allocated system like the Colorado River, we need federal programs that allow the transfer of water voluntarily and temporarily to other users in times of need without jeopardizing property rights, sustainable farming and ranching, or healthy fish and wildlife populations.

Incentives. Watershed groups demonstrating successful drought solutions on the local level — where they work best — should be rewarded, and the federal government should encourage the development of similar groups in other watersheds.

Access. With dozens of programs available across multiple federal agencies to improve water resources, it is difficult for Coloradans to know where to turn for assistance or how to navigate the different bureaucracies. We can get more out of limited resources by making these programs more accessible and decreasing the transaction costs of working with the federal government.

Healthier watersheds, overall. It’s the most cost-effective means of increasing water supply, reducing wildfire threats, protecting against floods, and improving drought resilience, and improving watersheds is something we can start doing right now.

From the fisherman pulling trout out of a high mountain reservoir to the Front Range city responsible for providing drinking water to its residents, we are all in this together. Colorado’s representatives in Congress must advance widely-supported conservation and efficiency measures, along with creative financing mechanisms, to meet water demands while protecting and restoring healthy river flows. Sacrificing species or targeting agriculture are not lasting solutions.

Grizzly Reservoir update

From The Aspen Daily News (Chad Abraham):

The effort to repair the gate at Grizzly Reservoir that forced the lake to be drained, sending water laden with heavy metals into the Roaring Fork River in August, began Friday.

And there are now protocols in place so officials, residents and river users are not caught off guard, as they were when the river turned from its usual gin-clear shade to an ugly yellowish-brown on Aug. 11, if future reservoir work is expected to impact the Roaring Fork.

There could again be some discoloration in the Fork and Lincoln Creek from silt stirred up during the “dewatering” of the work site, according to a Roaring Fork Conservancy press release. The dewatering must occur so the gate can be fixed.

But crews with the Twin Lakes Reservoir and Canal Co., the owner and operator of the Independence Pass Transmountain Diversion System that has purview over Grizzly Reservoir, have set up a silt fence and straw bales and wattles (a formation involving stakes interlaced with slender tree branches) to trap sediment.

Grizzly Reservoir had to be drained because the nonfunctioning gate could have led to a much more serious incident in which the dam failed, said Scott Campbell, the reservoir company’s general manager, shortly after the drainage.

Tests of water and soil samples showed there were levels of iron and aluminum that exceeded state standards for aquatic life. But officials do not believe the material from the 19th-century Ruby Mine will have a long-term impact on the Roaring Fork ecosystem.

Still, the fact that the drainage and discoloration happened so soon after the Animas River pollution disaster alarmed many people, and Campbell has acknowledged that notification about the reservoir work should have been better.

More coverage from The Aspen Times (Jason Auslander):

Those who criticized Grizzly Reservoir officials for draining the lake in August and sending polluted water down the Roaring Fork River for days take note: You’ve been heard.

“I get it,” said Scott Campbell, general manager of the Twin Lakes Reservoir and Canal Co. “And I’m sorry I didn’t make those calls” in August warning downvalley communities of the impending drainage.

Now, as repair work is slated to begin on a broken reservoir gate — the reason for the drainage in the first place — officials from Twin Lakes and from downvalley governments and other organizations have established protocols designed to prevent similar surprises in the future.

The new protocols were laid out in a meeting Tuesday at Grizzly Reservoir. They call for government officials in Aspen and Pitkin County as well as those with the Roaring Fork Conservancy to be notified if any changes occur in the operation of Grizzly Reservoir that might affect the Roaring Fork Valley, said April Long, stormwater manager for the city of Aspen.

“They were apologetic and wanted to take the proper steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Long said.

Long said she’s satisfied that the new protocols will prevent another surprise discharge from occurring.

More coverage from Jason Auslander writing for The Aspen Times:

Grizzly Reservoir is a “toxic waste pond,” and if it is ever drained again, people and governments downstream need to know in advance.

That was the word Thursday from Healthy Rivers and Streams Board Chairman Andre Wille, though his fellow board members seemed to agree with the sentiment.

“This is the single biggest water-quality disaster we’ve ever seen in the Roaring Fork River,” Wille said during the board’s meeting Thursday evening. “I just don’t think it was thought through.”

Officials with the Twin Lakes Reservoir and Canal Co., which runs Grizzly Reservoir, decided to drain the lake around Aug. 8 in order to fix an outlet gate that was jammed by a tree, according to a report that analyzed water samples taken from the discharge.

Future of public lands fund in doubt after D.C. inaction — The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel #electionsmatter

Black Canyon via the National Park Service

From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Dennis Webb):

Outdoors advocates are lamenting the failure of Congress to extend the life of a program that has helped fund public-land projects for half a century, including many in western Colorado.

But some members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, say the Land and Water Conservation Fund program is in need of reform.

Congress failed to reauthorize the program before it expired on Wednesday, despite hopes from some in Congress, including U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., that reauthorization be included in a stopgap funding bill that was passed before that same deadline.

Bennet and U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., also signed a bipartisan letter from dozens of senators calling for permanent reauthorization of the fund. The letter calls it “America’s most successful conservation and recreation program.”

The letter adds, “Investments in LWCF support public land conservation and ensure access to the outdoors for all Americans, in rural communities and cities alike.”

The program uses no taxpayer dollars, and instead is funded primarily by royalties paid to the government by companies doing off-shore oil and gas development.

According to Bennet’s office, the fund “supports the conservation of parks, open spaces, and wildlife habitat for the benefit of hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation.”

Regionally, some of the program’s beneficiaries have included the Colorado and Dinosaur national monuments, Mesa Verde and Black Canyon of the Gunnison national parks, and White River and Uncompahgre national forests.

Will Roush, conservation director for the Carbondale-based Wilderness Workshop group, said that statewide the fund has paid for more than $250 million in conservation and recreation projects.

According to the Center for Western Priorities conservation group, more than half of members in the U.S. House of Representatives support the program. But it says U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, “is holding LWCF hostage,” having vowed to block the program unless reforms are made, but not introducing a bill or allowing consideration of the program’s renewal.

In a statement released Sept. 25, Bishop countered that it’s special interests who “seek to hijack LWCF to continue to expand the federal estate and divert even more monies away from localities.”

He said any reauthorization of the fund will prioritize funding for local communities as originally intended under the program.

Bishop has been an advocate of transferring federal lands to state control.

In a statement, Tipton said that the Land and Water Conservation Fund “is a valuable tool for conservation, but after 50 years, some reforms are needed to ensure it is still achieving its original mission and that the federal government is properly managing the lands it already has.

“Managing nearly 640 million acres in the United States, the federal government is by far the largest landowner in most Western states. Rather than increasing LWCF funding in order to obtain more federal property, land management agencies should focus on managing the lands they already have. LWCF reauthorization provides an opportunity for reforms that support addressing the growing maintenance backlogs for national parks, roads, trails and facilities.”

Building a new vision for the High Line Canal — The High Line Canal Conservancy

Here’s the release from the High Line Canal Conservancy:

High Line Canal Conservancy launches a public outreach planning process to create future visions for the High Line Canal, preserving the recreational and environmental amenity for generations to come.

With the support of Denver Water, Arapahoe County and other governmental organizations along the High Line Canal (Canal), The High Line Canal Conservancy (Conservancy) is building a strong coalition of community leaders and stakeholders to support region wide, long-term planning for the future of the Canal. Over the past several years, these organizations have discussed a vision for the long-term care of the entire Canal corridor, comprising 71 miles long and 100 feet wide, focusing on its critical importance as a recreational and natural amenity to the Denver metro region. The Canal is at a turning point in its future that calls for reassessment and planning that will preserve and protect the Canal for all people forever.

“The 71 miles of the High Line Canal urban trail surpasses the scale and impact of any similar existing or proposed initiative in the U.S. today. The High Line Canal is a unique opportunity to create a significant enduring recreation and cultural greenway legacy – celebrating the rich and diverse physical and social mosaic that we call Denver.” – Tony Pickett, Conservancy Board Member, Vice President, Master Site Development The Urban Land Conservancy.

The Conservancy has commenced the planning initiative through the release of a request for qualifications for a visioning process consisting of extensive public outreach. This broad visioning process will collect the interests, attitudes and needs of citizens – resulting in an exciting future vision for preserving and enhancing the Canal along its entire reach. The Conservancy recognizes the role of the Canal as an invaluable recreational and environmental resource for the Denver metro region and is committed to:

enhancing its recreational opportunities;

preserving the vegetation and wildlife along the corridor; and,

providing practical solutions for the water channel.

“Through the generosity of Denver Water and the stewardship of the Conservancy and its partners, we see a tremendous opportunity to fully realize the potential of the Canal as an extraordinary amenity for the metropolitan community. Much like the national Rails to Trails program, a historic utility shall be repurposed as a regional recreational treasure.” – Nina Itin, Conservancy Board Chair, Community Leader.

For information on the RFQ process, please visit the Conservancy blog: http://www.highlinecanalconservancy.wordpress.com. The Conservancy seeks planning teams to submit qualifications for the upcoming High Line Canal Outreach and Visioning Phase of the greater master planning process by October 12, 2015. A group of teams will be selected for a follow-up request for proposals process.
About the High Line Canal Conservancy

The Conservancy was formed in 2014 by a passionate coalition of private citizens to provide leadership and harness the region’s commitment to protecting the future of the High Line Canal. With multijurisdictional support and in partnership with Denver Water, the Conservancy is connecting stakeholders in support of comprehensive planning to ensure that the High Line Canal is protected and enhanced for future generations.

High Line Canal Regional Context map via the High Line Canal Conservancy

Ask The Towers

Progress restoring Tenmile Creek, Peru Creek and other streams in Summit County

From the Summit Daily News (Ali Langley):

Mining, logging and railroad and highway construction in generations past dumped sediment in the Tenmile Creek near Copper Mountain.

“It was just sort of 100 years of abuse,” said Jim Shaw, board treasurer for the nonprofit Blue River Watershed Group, which led the restoration effort.

Climax Molybdenum was the biggest offender. The mine’s dams, built to contain toxic drainage from waste rock, failed, and blowouts caused tons of sediment to rush down the steeper parts of the creek and settle in the flatter parts, destroying habitat and wiping out native flora and fauna.

The 1970 Clean Water Act forced Climax to improve its water treatment process, and the mine was no longer an issue, but the damage remained, Shaw said.

In 2013, a multi-year $800,000 effort began to restore the roughly 2,800 feet of stream impacted. Contributing partners included Climax, Copper Mountain Resort, the Forest Service, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the Colorado Water Conservation Board, CDOT, Friends of the Dillon Ranger District, the National Forest Foundation and the town of Frisco.

Now Shaw said the project is essentially done except for three days of re-vegetation work next week and some planting of shrubs and willows in June. The wetlands have been created, and the oxbows — or U-shaped river bends — have been completed…

PREVENTING ORANGE RIVERS

As the Tenmile closes on completion, so does another watershed improvement project across the county.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Colorado Department of Reclamation and Mining Safety (DRMS, pronounced dreams) have been leading a collaborative cleanup effort of the Pennsylvania Mine for the last few years.

In early September, the partners installed a second bulkhead deep inside the mine above Peru Creek east of Keystone. The two bulkheads, or giant concrete plugs, will greatly reduce or eliminate negative impacts from the mine’s acid drainage to water quality and fish habitat.

About eight years ago, the Penn Mine experienced a blowout and sent orange water down into the Snake River and Dillon Reservoir. It’s not the latest mine in Summit County to do so.

The Illinois Gulch Mine above the Stephen C. West Ice Arena blew out a couple years later, and the Blue River ran orange and red through Breckenridge and again into Dillon Reservoir.

Now the EPA and DRMS are doing preliminary investigative work in Illinois Gulch, in partnership with the private property owner who owns the land where the mine pollution is coming from, in hopes of starting a cleanup.

“That issue everybody understands, but there hasn’t been a group to take it on yet,” Shaw said. “The state has made it clear that they’ll find money to help.”

ONTO THE SWAN

For now, the water quality restoration focus in Summit is shifting to the Swan River.

The Colorado Water Conservation Board and Colorado Basin Roundtable together awarded a $975,000 grant to the county to support a large-scale restoration project on the Swan in March.

The restoration area includes about 3,500 feet of river along Tiger Road, 11 miles northeast of Breckenridge, on public land jointly managed by the county and the town of Breckenridge where dredge mining turned the riverbed upside down.

Over the last month or two, the same contractors who did the Tenmile project studied the first quarter of the Swan River project. Work on that section will start in 2016 and finish in 2017, said Brian Lorch, director of the county Open Space and Trails Department.

The county is leading the project with many of the same partners as the Tenmile stakeholders as well as the town of Breckenridge, Trout Unlimited and two private landowners. The $2 million project is also supported in part by a tax increase voters passed in 2014.

The plan for the rest of the Swan River restoration is less certain as the upper three-quarters is covered by rocks about 40 feet high.

Shaw said the project partners could tackle restoration over perhaps 15 years as an excavation company removes and sells the rock. The other option is to pursue larger grant funds and private donations that would expedite the effort but mean maybe 10 times higher costs and more complicated logistics…

Another restoration project in the works lies on the Blue River north of Breckenridge.

The town plans to start a restoration project in the coming years through a 128-acre town parcel known as the McCain property, which borders Highway 9 to the west, north of Coyne Valley Road.

Lorch said the collectives that have made local restoration projects possible deserve credit as do the various stakeholders, which include nearly every government agency and nonprofit concerned about water quality or fisheries in Summit County.

Blue River

Frozen mists over the Blue River Valley turn the sun into a diamond — Bob Berwyn

Pennsylvania Mine Upper Peru Creek Basin

Moon set over the Tenmile Range via The Summit County Citizens Voice

Stream gage Tenmile Creek — Bob Berwyn

North Tenmile Creek trail, Frisco Colorado

Ten Mile Creek via ColoradoFishing.net

Climax Mine

The West Salt Creek Landslide: A Catastrophic Rockslide and Rock/Debris Avalanche in Mesa County, Colorado

Grand Mesa mudslide before and after via The Denver Post

Grand Mesa mudslide May 2014 via The Denver Post

Click here to download the report from the Colorado Geological Survey. From the website:

On May 25th, 2014 the longest landslide in Colorado’s historical record occurred in west-central Colorado, 6 mi southeast of the small town of Collbran in Mesa County. Three local men perished during the catastrophic event. The landslide was 2.8 miles long, covered almost a square mile of the West Salt Creek valley and the net volume displacement was 38 million yd3. The fast-moving (40-85 MPH), high-mobility landslide was caused by an initial rotational slide of a half-mile-wide block of Eocene Green River Formation. The resultant rock failures, rockmass disaggregation, and mostly valley-constrained rock avalanche, dropped approximately 2,100 ft in elevation as a rapid series of cascading surges of chaotic rubble composed of fragments of pulverized rock, vegetation, topsoil, and mud. Local seismometers recorded a magnitude 2.8 earthquake from the event with a seismic wave train duration of approximately 3 minutes. The toe of the landslide came within 200 ft of active gas-production wellheads and loss of irrigation ditches and water impacted local ranches and residents.

From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Gary Harmon):

The West Salt Creek landslide changed over the summer, as a water course formed to drain much of a pond formed by the slide and as the slide itself compacted and settled into place, according to scientists who are studying the event.

“Continuing threats to nearby residents remain,” warns the Colorado Geological Survey in a new report on the landslide, which took the lives of three men on May 25, 2014.

Clancy and Dan Nichols — father and son — and Wes Hawkins died in the slide while they worked to clear an irrigation ditch. The Colorado Geological Survey report is dedicated to their memory.

Collbran, six miles below the slide, is in no danger, but ranchers and others in the area should be aware of the threat looming high above, especially in the spring, when the “sag pond” is most likely to refill, said Colorado State Geologist Karen Berry.

“The biggest unknown is what will happen when the sag pond fills and spills” into the West Salt Creek Valley, most likely with the spring thaw, Berry said.

The sag pond was formed when 35 million cubic yards of the Green River Formation faltered and slid down, the report said.

The slide covers nearly a square mile atop the West Salt Creek valley and in some cases is as much as 123 feet [deep], the report says.

The slide left a 65 million cubic-yard slump block tipped 15 degrees toward the mesa, creating a “V,” the bottom of which is the pond. according to the report.

The sag-pond water percolated through the slump block forming what geologists call a “pipe,” or conduit that lowered the level of the pond by about eight feet.

“At some point, the stream (West Salt Creek) is going to try to re-establish itself,” Berry said.

How that will work is still an unknown, said Jeff Coe, a U.S. Geological Survey geologist who has studied the slide.

“We don’t know where it will stop and we don’t know what the response will be” as snows melt and feed into the West Salt Creek drainage, Coe said. “That slump block continues to evolve. I’d like to get through a few more springs before I say we’re off the hook.”

Mesa County has built a sophisticated monitoring system intended to detect changes in the slide.

The most recent study cleared up a lingering question for Tim Hayashi, senior engineer for Mesa County, who has led the county’s monitoring of the landslide.

It wasn’t clear why the slide traveled three miles down West Salt Creek Valley, Hayashi said, until the study made it clear that more was going on than just a single slide.

“It wasn’t one enormous slide,” Hayashi said. “It was several large slides” that pulsed down the mountain, one after the other.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, also has been monitoring the north side of the Mesa with special radar, Coe said.

“Those data are still showing shifts, not real large ones,” Coe said. “The whole West Salt Creek slide is compacting and small areas on the slump block are changing.”

There is no evidence that a catastrophic change is imminent, Coe noted.

The USGS is preparing its own report on the landslide, he said.

The 2014 landslide took place at the same place as a slide that occurred in the Holocene period as it transitioned into the Eocene, at least 11,700 years ago, the report noted.

Studies of the slide could shed light on similar looming threats, Berry said.

“What we hope to do is, take what we’ve learned and look at landslide susceptibility for Grand Mesa and Mesa County in general,” Berry said.

From The Denver Post (Jesse Paul):

The 55-page Colorado Geological Survey study says risks remain specifically because of water that has collected in a depression near the slide’s head, creating a “sag pond.”

“A failure of the sag pond or the remaining rock slide could create a similar event to what happened,” Karen Berry, the state geologist, told The Denver Post on Thursday…

The report also highlights how there are areas throughout the Grand Mesa and Colorado that are also at risk for breaking away.

“Mesa County, and especially Grand Mesa, contain hundreds of active and inactive landslides,” the report says. “Fortunately, many of these features are in remote or underdeveloped areas and have caused little damage.”

CPW is restoring Greenbacks to Herman Gulch in Clear Creek County

From CBS Denver (Matt Kroschel):

Colorado Parks and Wildlife set up a camp with more than 20 people working around the clock along the banks of the Herman Gultch in Clear Creek County. They are working to kill all the fish that live in the waterway currently, and then restock that waterway with the greenback cutthroat trout, Colorado’s state fish.

Presumed to be extinct by 1937, several wild populations of what were thought to be greenback cutthroat trout were discovered in the South Platte and Arkansas river basins starting in the late 1950s. According to the CPW, those discoveries launched an aggressive conservation campaign that replicated those populations across the landscape so that they could be down-listed from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Momentum for preserving the native jewels continued to build, and in 1996 the greenback was designated as Colorado’s state fish. Efforts to establish new populations were proceeding along a track that suggested the recovery plan benchmarks might soon be met, and the subspecies could be delisted entirely.

Currently, biologists estimate there are less than 5,000 wild greenback cutthroat in the state, but once this project is complete, they hope to double or triple that number.

“We choose this creek in particular because once we clear out the invasive fish species that live in these waters it will be impossible they will be able to get back into the creek to compete with the greenback cutthroat once we stock them here,” Ken Kehmeier, senior aquatic biologist, South Platte River basin, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, said.

Biologists are using a substance called rotenone to kill the fish that currently call the creek home. They add the liquid upstream of a temporary water treatment and testing center at the bottom of the stream. Once the substance does its job they then dilute and consternate the deadly substance. The process turns the water a purple color for a few hundred yards downstream of the treatment center, but water samples taken downstream from that location show the water quality is back to safe levels as it enters Clear Creek.

Right now, biologists are raising thousands of greenback cutthroats in fish hatcheries in Lake and Chaffee counties.

Cutthroat trout historic range via Western Trout

CMU: Water Center renamed Ruth Powell Hutchins Water Center to honor west slope water rights activist

From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel:

Several members of the community came together Thursday at Colorado Mesa University to celebrate the renaming of the school’s water center in honor of Ruth Powell Hutchins, a longtime proponent of the preservation of water rights on the Western Slope.

The newly named Ruth Powell Hutchins Water Center at CMU performs and facilitates interdisciplinary and collaborative research, education, outreach and dialogue to address water issues facing the Upper Colorado River Basin.

Hutchins, who died in 1997, worked to protect the water rights of small farmers and other water users, according to the university. She was one of the founders of the Mesa County Water Association, which evolved into the Water Center at CMU.

Hutchins’ children recently established an endowment for the center in honor of their mother.

The unveiling of the center’s new name was held on the third floor terrace of Dominguez Hall to a full crowd, including three generations of the Hutchins family, members of the Colorado Mesa University Board of Trustees and CMU President Tim Foster.

Her son, Will Hutchins, spoke at the event about his mother’s work.

“I want to thank CMU for honoring our mother,” Will Hutchins said. “With respect to my mother, there are two things to keep in mind — she was a straight-laced Vermonter and her dream.”

He said his mother grew up in a community where the traditional New England town meeting was a way for people to get involved in their town government.

“Public service meant exactly that — not a way for a person to financially better themselves at the public trough,” he said.

He said his mother and father, John, met at a dude ranch and had a dream to own a “farm to raise their family on.”

In 1955, the Hutchinses bought a farm in Fruita, he said. There, Ruth Hutchins began to get involved in the community through volunteer work.

“Any time you have money in the public sector, there are a lot of people trying to get their hands on (it),” Will Hutchins said, referring to water rights issues. And, he added, the result was not necessarily for the benefit of the public.

He said his mother studied water rights issues and eventually was able to “go to the water buffaloes — people like politicians, prestigious lawyers, lobbyists, engineers — and talk to them on her own terms” about these issues and her concerns.

Foster said the university “gets to name” a number of its facilities after people in the community, but “few as iconic as Ruth.”

“Ruth Hutchins was one of my very favorite people. She was a combination of Annie Oakley, Margaret Thatcher and Mary Poppins,” Foster said in a news release issued by the university. “She truly cared about water issues, not only in the Grand Valley but statewide and nationally. She was committed to making the system work better and to the importance of meeting agricultural water needs. We are honored to have the water center carry her name and are deeply appreciative of her family’s generosity.”

Hutchins’ son, Tad, said he was honored to be at the naming.

“(It shows) that the good deeds you do will outlive you as an issue,” he said.

“I’d like to think Mom would be proud of this (center)” that provides information to anyone interested in water issues.

CMU spokeswoman Dana Nunn said the renaming of the center was not a condition of the endowment.

Land and Water Conservation Fund expires #electionsmatter

From The Aspen Daily News (Collin Szewczyk):

A long-running conservation fund that helped to fund the creation of numerous parks and trails in the Roaring Fork Valley was allowed to expire on Wednesday, a casualty of Congress’ inability to agree on a long-term budget.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund was not included in recently passed legislation that will only keep the government running until Dec. 11.

The fund’s expiration is a “significant loss for citizens across the country,” says a statement released Thursday by the Carbondale-based Wilderness Workshop.

“The LWCF pays for recreation and conservation projects at no cost to the American taxpayer,” the statement says. “Congressional inaction is unacceptable and is a disservice to the public.”

Will Roush, conservation director for WW, said the opposition to the fund’s continuance came from a small group of congressmen led by Utah Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee.

The fund typically receives bipartisan support in Congress and by itself would likely have been continued. But by being part of the larger bill, it was sacrificed…

At the state level, the LWCF subsidizes pools, parks, baseball diamonds and trail systems, WW’s statement says. Colorado has received close to $250 million in funding since the LWCF’s inception. On the federal level, it focuses on land acquisition, especially private inholdings located within national parks and forests.

The LWCF has long been in the crosshairs of Bishop, who would like to see ownership of federal lands be handed over to the states. The ideology stems from what has been coined a new “Sagebrush Rebellion,” a movement propped up by conservative nonprofit organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council and the American Lands Council.

Bishop has said he won’t support any proposal that looks to place more land under federal ownership.

“Both Republicans and Democrats support the original intent of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, but the program has drifted far from the original intent,” Bishop said last week in a press release. “Any reauthorization of LWCF will, among other improvements, prioritize local communities as originally intended.”

Colorado Sens. Cory Gardner and Michael Bennet, and U.S. Rep. Jared Polis have come out in support of the fund.

“The LWCF is one of the most critical tools we have for protecting our nation’s natural treasures,” said Gardner, a Republican, in a recent prepared statement. “Its permanent reauthorization is supported by sportsmen, hunters and many other Coloradans who appreciate the outdoors. It’s a responsible fiscal partnership and provides countless benefits. I’ve supported making the LWCF’s authorization permanent throughout my time in the Senate, and I will continue to work toward making that goal a reality.”

Bennet echoed Gardner’s call for reauthorization, saying urban and rural communities throughout Colorado benefit from the fund.

“This program is a crucial tool that has been used to help preserve dozens of landscapes across Colorado,” he said in a statement last week. “There is strong bipartisan support for the LWCF, and we’re extremely disappointed that reauthorization was not included in the funding bill.”

Bennet said the fund should have been renewed before it expired “to ensure that future generations of Coloradans will continue to enjoy these areas.”

In all, 214 congressional representatives of both parties have signed a letter in support of reauthorizing the LWCF, the WW statement says.

Roush said that while there are no current projects in the Roaring Fork Valley that will be affected by the fund’s expiration, two other projects in Colorado could be in jeopardy.

Those are one looking to attain conservation agreements in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to protect wildlife habitat and another on the Colorado-New Mexico border along the Continental Divide that seeks to acquire land for trail connections.

“This is a sad moment for conservation and recreation across the country,” Roush noted in the WW statement. “The Land and Water Conservation Fund is one of the country’s greatest conservation programs, protecting iconic landscapes and provided recreational opportunities in people’s back yards, all at no cost to the taxpayer.”

Enacted in 1965, the fund uses revenues from offshore oil and gas extraction to support conservation efforts protecting land and water. It’s supposed to claim around $900 million in revenues annually, but that figure varies greatly as Congress often reappropriates its funding elsewhere.

“The money is intended to create and protect national parks, areas around rivers and lakes, national forests and national wildlife refuges from development, and to provide matching grants for state and local parks and recreation projects,” the fund’s website says.

The LWCF has furthered projects in Rocky Mountain, Mesa Verde, Great Sand Dunes and Black Canyon of the Gunnison national parks. It also has provided funding for projects at Colorado National Monument, Ruby Canyon National Conservation Area, the White River National Forest, and the Arapahoe and Roosevelt National Forests.

Thirty-six percent of land in Colorado is under federal ownership, and managed by a combination of the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Department of Energy. Federal lands make up 83 percent of Pitkin County.

“It’s heartening to see Sens. Bennet and Gardner and Rep. Polis fight hard for this important program,” Roush said. “It’s clear they understand the value of conserving land to Coloradans and to our economies, which are so connected to public lands, recreation and wild places. I only hope that their colleagues in Congress will realize the importance of this program to all Americans and re-authorize the LWCF during the next budgeting process in December.”

The country’s second largest potato producing region, is in its 18th year of drought in 2020. The San Luis Valley in Colorado is known for its agriculture yet only has 6-7 inches of rainfall per year. San Luis Lake via the National Park Service

Fog-filled Black Canyon via the National Park Service

Big Thompson River near RMNP

Colorado National Monument from the Colorado River Trail near Fruita September 2014

Town watching Coal Creek study — The Crested Butte News

From The Crested Butte News (Mark Reaman):

Crested Butte will ask the state to allow the town to be directly involved in the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission’s proceedings dealing with Coal Creek and temporary modifications currently in place.

The request for so-called “Party Status” comes at the request of the Coal Creek Watershed Coalition (CCWC). Coalition board president Steve Glazer came to the council Monday, September 21 with the request.

Temporary modifications of in-stream water quality standards have been in place for Lower Coal Creek for more than 20 years. Those standards are reviewed every three years by the state.

At the 2012 hearing, the state required U.S. Energy, the mining company responsible for the potential molybdenum mine and current water treatment plant on Mt. Emmons, to develop a study plan to address uncertainty regarding pollution sources impacting Coal Creek. Data collection from the study will culminate this year.

The Water Quality Control Commission is set to review the temporary modifications and evaluate progress on the study. Glazer feels the process will likely be continued into 2016 and may include new rule-making involving new standards for Coal Creek.

Given the town’s inherent interest in the watershed, CCWC felt it appropriate to have the town participate.

#ColoradoRiver: Grand County rancher uses 2013 law to leave water in Willow Creek without penalty — Hannah Holm #COriver

From the Grand Junction Free Press (Hannah Holm):

A Grand County rancher has become the first person in Colorado to use a 2013 state law to intentionally leave water in a stream without fear of diminishing his water right. Working with the Colorado Water Trust , Witt Caruthers developed a plan to curtail diversions from Willow Creek when its flows drop to critical levels.

The additional flows will benefit half a mile of Willow Creek and then four and a half miles of the upper Colorado River before encountering the next downstream diversion, where another water user could potentially take the water. This stretch of the Colorado River has been heavily impacted for decades by upstream diversions across the Continental Divide to Front Range cities and farms.

The 2013 law, Senate Bill 13-019, allows some Western Slope water right holders to reduce their water use in up to five out of any consecutive ten years without having the use reductions count against them in water court calculations of “historic consumptive use.” This reduces the “use it or lose it” disincentive for conservation in Colorado water law.

The law applies only to water users in Colorado Division of Water Resources Divisions 4 (Gunnison River Basin), 5 (Colorado River Basin) and 6 (Yampa, White and North Platte River Basins). In order to qualify for the law’s protections, the water use reductions must be the result of enrolling land in a federal land conservation program or participating in an officially-sanctioned water conservation or banking program.

Jim Pokrandt of the Colorado River District, which approved Caruthers’s conservation program, told the Sky Hi Daily News that “we’re glad to be in the vanguard and helping the agricultural community protect their water rights when they want to lend the water rights to environmental purposes.” The same article quotes Caruthers as saying that he and his partners sought to “one, preserve our water rights but also to contribute to the overall maintenance of the ecosystem there by leaving water in the stream when it wasn’t needed.”

The Colorado Water Trust has also pioneered the use of other voluntary and market-based tools for landowners to share water with streams without diminishing their water rights. These include a 2003 law that created a streamlined process for water users to make short-term leases of water to the state for environmental purposes. The Trust first used this tool in 2012 by brokering a deal to support flows in the Yampa River. It has since been used in several other places.

Support and funding for such innovative water conservation efforts is rising as Colorado and the other states and cities that share the Colorado River are seeking ways to prop up water levels in Lakes Powell and Mead in the face of long-term drought.

This is part of a series of articles coordinated by the Water Center at Colorado Mesa University in cooperation with the Colorado and Gunnison Basin Roundtables to raise awareness about water needs, uses and policies in our region. To learn more, go to http://www.coloradomesa.edu/WaterCenter. You can also find the Water Center on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/WaterCenter.CMU or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/WaterCenterCMU.

#ColoradoRiver: Middle #Colorado Watershed Council Shoshone Power Plant Tour October 26 #COriver

Shoshone Hydroelectric Plant back in the days before I-70 via Aspen Journalism

Shoshone Falls hydroelectric generation station via USGenWeb

Shoshone hydroelectric generation plant Glenwood Canyon via the Colorado River District

From email from the Middle Colorado Watershed Council:

Come join the Middle Colorado Watershed Council for a tour of the Shoshone Hydroelectric Power Plant east of Glenwood Springs. The Plant plays a pivotal role in western water not because of the power it generates, but because it holds the one of the oldest, largest water rights on the river. The senior right to 1,250 CFS means that water must flow down the Colorado, and it’s a non-consumptive use, so that water is flowing right back into the river for later use. We will learn about the Plant’s legacy over the past century, and what the water right means to us on the Western Slope. Registration is only open through October 12, and all participants must submit a facility waiver form at registration.

Location: Shoshone Power Station, Glenwood Canyon, CO
Date: October 26, 2015
Registration Deadline: October 12, 5:00pm
Time: 9:00am – 12:00pm
Cost: Free
Registration: Online through Eventbrite
Contact: For more information, contact Dan at info@midcowatershed.org

Click here to register.

Link to waiver form.

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#Drought news: Abnormal dryness (D0) increased over eastern #Colorado in areas where 60-day <=50% of normal

US Drought Monitor September 29, 2015

West Drought Monitor September 29, 2015

Colorado Drought Monitor September 29, 2015

Click here to go to the US Drought Monitor website. Here’s an excerpt:

Summary

Although increasingly wet weather has been noted over parts of the East, any rain falling after Tuesday morning (8 a.m., EDT) will be incorporated into next week’s U.S. Drought Monitor. For this week’s analysis, above-normal temperatures prevailed across much of the country, though heavy rain and near-normal temperatures were observed over parts of the Gulf Coast and Southeast. In addition, moderate to heavy rain was noted in western portions of the Corn Belt. In contrast, protracted dryness prevailed over the Northeast, while seasonably dry weather continued over the western U.S…

Central Plains

Above-normal temperatures accompanied scattered showers, with little widespread change to this week’s drought depiction. Abnormal Dryness (D0) was increased over eastern portions of Colorado, coinciding with locales where 60-day rainfall has tallied 50 percent of normal or less. There were no changes to the Moderate Drought (D1) in Kansas, where this week’s light shower activity (generally 0.5 inch or less) was insufficient for drought reduction…

Northern Plains

Hot, dry conditions prevailed, with temperatures averaging more than 10°F above normal. Despite the 90-degree readings and a lack of rain during the period, changes to this week’s drought designation were generally minor. Abnormal Dryness (D0) was expanded over southeastern Wyoming into northwestern Nebraska, where pronounced short-term precipitation deficits (60-day rainfall totaling 30 to 50 percent of normal) has led to locally pronounced topsoil shortages…

Southern Plains and Texas

Despite areas of beneficial rain in the west and along the Gulf Coast, the overall trend toward intensifying “flash drought” continued. The intensity and coverage of Abnormal Dryness (D0) to Extreme Drought (D3) increased from southern Oklahoma southwestward across central Texas to the Big Bend. Daytime highs reaching into the upper 90s coupled with another dry week continued to accelerate soil moisture losses, with 90-day rainfall tallying a paltry 5 to 20 percent of normal over many of the Lone Star State’s central drought areas. Pronounced short-term dryness has also intensified over central and southern Oklahoma, where 60-day rainfall has totaled mostly less than 30 percent of normal. Meanwhile, widespread showers and thunderstorms (0.4 to 2 inches, locally more) boosted soil moisture for winter crops and pastures on the southern High Plains and eased D0 along the Texas-New Mexico border. Likewise, 1 to 4 inches of rain reduced D0 to D3 in southern and southeastern Texas, though the heaviest rain largely bypassed the core Texas drought areas…

Western U.S.

The overall trend toward drought persistence continued, though isolated showers were noted in the Pacific Northwest and lower Four Corners. After last week’s cool down, much-above-normal temperatures returned to California and the Great Basin. In the north, most of the region’s core Extreme Drought (D3) areas were dry. However, light to moderate showers on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula (mostly an inch or less) coupled with last week’s heavier rain continued to stave off D3 expansion. Across the California and the Great Basin, drought remained unchanged as the region continued through its climatologically dry summer season. However, heat exacerbated the impacts of the region’s historic drought, with daytime highs reaching or eclipsing 100°F from central California into the southern Great Basin. In the Four Corners States, additional assessment from the field in the wake of last week’s locally heavy rain resulted in further reductions of Abnormal Dryness (D0) and Moderate (D1) in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico…

Looking Ahead

The complex interaction between a blocking high over eastern Canada, a stationary upper-air low over the Southeast, and Hurricane Joaquin (or the remnants of) will bring the threat of heavy rain to the eastern third of the nation. Rainfall may total 3 to 4 inches (locally much more) across the Southeast, Mid Atlantic, and Northeast, pending the final track of Joaquin. Meanwhile, dry weather is expected from Texas into the upper Midwest. Farther west, a Pacific storm system will move ashore, bringing the potential for locally heavy showers from central and northern California into the northern Rockies. Dry weather is expected over the Southwest, though some late-season showers may arrive in the Four Corners at the end of the period. The NWS 6- to 10-day outlook for October 6 – 10 calls for above-normal precipitation and near- to above-normal temperatures nationwide, with drier-than-normal conditions confined to the lower Southeast.

Just for grins here’s a slideshow of late September early October US Drought Monitor maps for the past few years:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

NASA to test [snowpack] data technique in upper Rio Grande Basin — The Santa Fe New Mexican

From the Associated Press (Dan Elliott) via the Santa Fe New Mexican:

NASA is providing drought-stricken California with valuable data about how much water is locked up in the scant Sierra Nevada snow, and now Colorado is trying the technique in the mountains where the Rio Grande begins its journey to New Mexico and Texas.

An airplane called the Airborne Snow Observatory flies over California’s Tuolumne River Basin east of San Francisco during peak snow months, using scanners to collect data on how deep the snow is and how much of the sun’s warming rays are bouncing off. That helps project when the snow will melt and how much water it will release into rivers for cities, farms and wildlife…

“Once the water managers get a look at the data, they say, ‘I like that,’ ” said Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program. NASA has been providing California with snow data from the Tuolumne Basin since 2013, and flights will resume there next spring.

Colorado signed up for three flights over the Rio Grande Basin in the south-central part of the state. The first were in March and September of this year. The third will be next spring…

Estimating how much Colorado snow will melt into the Rio Grande is difficult. The mountains block weather radars that could help gauge how much precipitation is falling, said Joe Busto of the Colorado Water Conservation Board.

Colorado will use the NASA data to improve computer modeling for runoff forecasts…

The Airborne Snow Observatory, a propeller-driven plane, sweeps back and forth over mountain snowfields scanning with lidar — the term combines “light” and “radar” — and an imaging spectrometer.

Lidar measures snow depth by bouncing a laser off the surface and comparing that to an aerial survey done without snow. Coupled with snow density data from ground sites and computer modeling, researchers can project how much water is in the snow.

The spectrometer measures how much sunlight the snow is reflecting and absorbing. That allows researchers to project when it will melt.

The ground sites, scattered across the West, are the primary source of data for most snowmelt projections. U.S. Department of Agriculture employees trek to some sites to measure and weigh the snow. Other sites are automated.

Painter said the airborne survey won’t eliminate ground sites, but he foresees a day when aerial surveys become the standard. Satellites might also play a role, but airplanes can provide a level of detail and frequency that spacecraft cannot, Painter said.

“At least not yet. Maybe in 50 years,” he said.

#COWaterPlan: “There is a lot of misunderstanding on water issues” — Leroy Garcia

Colorado Water Plan website screen shot November 1, 2013

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

One of the outcomes of the Colorado water plan has been to draw new voices to talk about a question that’s older than the state itself: How can a sparse resource be used to meet the needs of a growing population?

So, a group primarily concerned with the Colorado River recently reached out to Pueblo to gather perspective.

Nuestro Rio — “our river” in Spanish — invited Puebloans to talk about water on the last day for comments on the final plan recently.

“My concern was that people could become more familiar with it and to make sure Southern Colorado knew it has a voice,” said state Sen. Leroy Garcia, D-Pueblo, who helped set up the meeting.

About 50 people, ranging from elected o_cials to farmers, attended. Also present was state Rep. Ed Vigil, D-Fort Garland, a member of the Interim Water Resources Review Committee.

“One of the goals of Nuestro Rio is to remind people of the importance of the river but to also involve more young people,” Garcia said.

While Nuestro Rio formed to emphasize the importance of the Colorado River to Latinos, a series of statewide outreach meetings showed there are concerns common to all rivers in the state, said Nita Gonzales, Colorado director for the organization.

“The main thing we heard was that diverting water cannot be the only solution,” Gonzales said. “Rivers are critical to Latino families, and before we move to big projects, we have to ask how do you protect the rivers.”

That includes maintaining agricultural uses that are the foundation for the economic wellbeing of many Latinos, Gonzales said.

“The other thing we heard is that elected officials are not as involved in water, but it is so important to the communities to make sure it is addressed in policy and budgets,” she said.

Garcia agreed.

“My own colleagues have to see this as one of the most important issues in the state,” he said. “We talk about transportation, education and economic development, but none of those things happens without water.”

On the state water plan, Garcia said he favors some of its openended approaches.
“There is a lot of misunderstanding on water issues,” he said. “The plan is very basin specific.”

@NWSPueblo: The September 2015 Climate Review and October Preview across Southern Colorado

From the National Weather Service Pueblo office:

September of 2015 was very warm and mainly dry across much of Colorado. A moist Pacifc weather system brought some rain to southwest and central portions of the state through the first couple days of month, with another Pacific weather system moving across the state on September 22nd and 23rd, bringing beneficial rain to portiions of the southeast Plains. The following graphics depict monthly temperature and precipitation departures from normal across the state for the month of September.

The preliminary average temperature over the past month of September in Pueblo was 71.9 F. This is 7.2 degrees above normal and makes September of 2015 the warmest September on record in Pueblo, smashing the previous record average temperature of 71.0 degrees recorded in September of 1931. Pueblo recorded only 0.03 inches of precipitation through out the month of September. This is 0.74 inches below normal and makes September of 2015 tied with September of 1895 as the 6th driest September on record in Pueblo, remaining just below the trace of precipitation recorded through out September of 1956, 1916 and 1892. Pueblo recorded no snow through out the month of September, which is 0.3 inches below normal.

The preliminary average temperature over the past month of September in Colorado Springs was 67.3 F. This is 6.4 degrees above normal and makes September of 2015 the warmest September on record in Colorado Springs, besting the average temperature of 67.0 degrees recorded in September of 2010. Colorado Springs recorded 0.30 inches of precipitation throughout the month of September. This is 0.89 inches below normal and makes September of 2015 the 19th driest September on record, though remains well above the trace of precipitation recorded in September of 1953 and 1919. Colorado Springs recorded no snow through out the month of September, which is 0.2 inches below normal.

The preliminary average temperature over the past month of September in Alamosa was 58.4 degrees. This is 3.4 degrees above normal and makes September of 2015 tied with September of 1939 as the 3rd warmest September on record in Alamosa, though remains just behind the average temperature of 59.0 degrees recorded in September of 1933. Alamosa recorded 0.78 inches of precipitation through out the month of September, which is 0.13 inches below normal. Alamosa recorded no snow through out the month of September, which is normal.

September 2015 climate data and records for other select locales across south centrral and southeast Colorado can be found here:

http://www.weather.gov/pub/adryandwarmseptembersofar

Looking ahead into October, in Pueblo, the average high and low temperatures of 75 degrees and 40 degrees on October 1st, cool to 64 degrees and 29 degrees by the end of the month, yielding an average monthly temperature of 51.8 degrees. Pueblo averages 0.72 inches of precipitation and 1.3 inches of snow through out the month of October.

In Colorado Springs, the average high and low temperatures of 68 degrees and 41 degrees on October 1st, cool to 58 degrees and 31 degrees by the end of the month, yielding an average monthly temperature of 49.4 degrees. Colorado Springs averages 0.82 inches of precipitation and 2.9 inches of snow through out the month of October.

In Alamosa, the average high and low temperatures of 68 degrees and 30 degrees on October 1st, cool to 55 degrees and 19 degrees by the end of the month, yielding an average monthly temperature of 43.1 degrees. Alamosa averages 0.68 inches of precipitation and 2.1 inches of snow through out the month of October.

Below is the Climate Prediction Center’s (CPC) temperature and precipitation outlook for the month of October, which gives a slight nod to above normal precipitation and equal chances of above, below and near normal temperatures for the month across south central and southeast Colorado.

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