Day: October 2, 2018

#Drought news: Record low streamflow on the #AnimasRiver at Durango

The Animas River in Durango, in Apri, 2018. Photo: Brent Gardner-Smith/Aspen Journalism

From The Durango Herald (Jonathan Romeo):

For the past week or so, the river in Durango has registered the lowest flows ever recorded at a water-level gauge, which has been in operation for 107 years, located behind the Powerhouse Science Center, according to data maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Around Sept. 26, the Animas River dipped below 100 cubic feet per second – the measurement used for waterways.

According to a review of the water-level gauge’s data, the Animas River has never dropped below 100 cfs.

Robert Kimbrough with the USGS in Denver said although the gauge shows the Animas below 100 cfs, the information needs to be confirmed before it can be considered an official record. He did not have a timeline for when that would be finished.

Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit – 2018, Thursday, November 15, 2018 – Carbondale, Colorado

Click here for all the inside skinny and to register:

Join in the growing excitement and energy for the Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit. All are invited to follow this event online by clicking ‘follow’ on the Summit website. We will be posting photos, videos of speakers, and more. If you are local and would like to attend, please email info@wildroseeducation.com for a registration code.

Republican leadership fails the Land and Water Conservation Fund #LWCF

Fog-filled Black Canyon via the National Park Service

From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Dennis Webb):

The fund was created in 1964. It has provided protections over the years in Colorado to national parks, monuments and forests, and helped create local recreation amenities like the Blue Heron Trail along the Colorado River in Grand Junction.

A bipartisan congressional majority that in Colorado includes Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner and Reps. Scott Tipton, Jared Polis, Mike Coffman, Ed Perlmutter and Diana DeGette has supported a bill to permanently reauthorize the fund. But it hasn’t been brought up for a vote by congressional leadership.

Amy Roberts, executive director of Outdoor Industry Association, said in a news release, “We are extremely disappointed that Congress is letting one of the most popular and bipartisan programs which supports our nation’s public lands and outdoor recreation opportunities expire before the November elections. Our public lands are one of our nation’s underlying unifiers, not to mention that they help to fuel the growing $887 billion outdoor recreation economy.”

Gardner spokesman Casey Contres said the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee likely will be voting on conservation fund legislation this week.

Oil shale operation access approved, another straw in the #GreenRiver and the #ColoradoRiver #ActOnClimate

Left: Fossil fuel emissions 1850 to 2010 and since 2000. Right: Amount of fossil fuel emissions to keep warming under 2 C, vs. potential emissions from proven reserves. Fossil fuel companies know that they cannot compete with renewable energy v. cost. The competitive cost advantage will be advanced if the fossil fuel companies are compelled to pay a cost for their pollution.

From The Salt Lake Tribune (Brian Maffly):

…the federal government authorized a 14-mile corridor across public land in eastern Utah’s Uinta Basin to service a proposed strip mine and processing plant that could produce 50,000 barrels of a crude a day — but also deplete the Green River.

The Bureau of Land Management issued the decision last week after a six-year environmental review that dodged studying impacts associated with the controversial South Project, proposed by Estonia-based Enefit American Oil on private land 40 miles southeast of Vernal.

Environmental activists argue that this omission renders the decision suspect because the 9,000-acre mine’s impacts to air quality, groundwater, the Green and White rivers and the landscape remain unknown.

“Oil shale has been the next big thing for a hundred years!” — Ed Quillen