Day: May 12, 2024

With a strong #snowpack, the Dillon Reservoir will ‘fill and spill’ for the 2nd year in a row — Summit Daily News #BlueRiver #ColoradoRiver #COriver #aridification

Click the link to read the article on the Summit Daily News website (Ryan Spencer). Here’s an excerpt:

May 11, 2024

Dillon Reservoir will “fill and spill” for the second year in a row, Denver Water announced this week. Dillon Reservoir – which is [part of] Denver’s public water supply –  is currently 87% full, matching the average for May, according to Denver Water. Natural streamflow into the reservoir is predicted to be 101% of normal this runoff season and, right now, inflow into the reservoir is about 350 cubic feet per second. With the reservoir levels expected to reach an elevation of 9,012 feet by June 12, Denver Water said that it expects both the Dillon and Frisco marinas could be fully operational by that date. As inflows into the reservoir increase over the next week, Denver Water said it will ramp up outflow to the Blue River to between 200 and 400 cubic feet per second. Then, the following week, outflow may be adjusted to accommodate the Colorado Park and Wildlife’s fish survey and will likely remain in the 250 to 400 cubic feet per second range.

But by the end of May or early June, [Kevin] Foley said that he expects the Blue River will be open to commercial rafting, which requires at least 500 cubic feet per second. He expects the season could last three to four weeks, though it could be longer or shorter depending on weather. With a healthy snowpack peak of 119%, Foley said that the conditions for rafting could be pristine this summer. That is enough of a snowpack to fill the Dillon Reservoir and have other rivers in the state flowing too, but it is not so much that it will create too strong of streamflows for commercial rafting, he said.

Ruedi Reservoir expected to fill again — The #Aspen Daily News #FryingpanRiver #RoaringForkRiver #ColoradoRiver #COriver #aridification #snowpack

Click the link to read the article on The Aspen Daily News website (Austin Corona). Here’s an excerpt:

May 10, 2024

Ruedi Reservoir is expected to hit full capacity for only the second time in five years, according to projections shared by reservoir managers. The managers don’t know exactly when the reservoir will hit capacity, though Tim Miller, hydrologist for the Bureau of Reclamation — the federal agency that operates Ruedi Dam —  said it will likely stay full through July. Miller said calls for Ruedi water farther down the Colorado River could change that timeline. Ruedi is currently 68.8% full.

Ruedi did not reach its full capacity for three years between 2020 and 2022. Low runoff kept the reservoir from filling in 2020, and then overshoots in inflow projections and dry soils caused the reservoir to miss its capacity again in 2021. Reservoir levels then dropped to a 20-year nadir in March 2022 and never quite reached full capacity during a rebound that summer. Those three years were the only multiyear stretch in which Ruedi failed to fill in the last 10 years. Reservoir levels also fell short in 2018. 

Ruedi ended its dry streak after a wet winter in 2023, with Miller reporting in August that last year was almost flawless for reservoir operations. This year, Miller said snowpack and runoff projections look similar to 2023. Water supply forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Colorado Basin River Forecast Center project a total Fryingpan River April-July runoff volume at Ruedi roughly 10% higher than projections from the same time in 2023 (this year’s May 1 projection is 135,000 acre feet).

Miller said the Ruedi may receive even greater flows than expected this year because of operational issues at a connected facility on the eastern slope. Miller said water managers may have to leave more water in the Fryingpan River this year than usual if Turquoise Lake, an eastern slope reservoir that receives Fryingpan water through a tunnel under the continental divide, fills up. Miller said Turquoise’s outflow will be limited this year because both pump/turbine units at the Mount Elbert pumped-storage powerplant, which constitutes one outlet for the reservoir, are not operating this summer. 

U.S. Senator Bennet announces $2.3 million for Southern Ute water infrastructure — The #Durango Herald

Vallecito Lake via Vallecito Chamber

Click the link to read the article on The Durango Herald website (Reuben M. Schafir). Here’s an excerpt:

Sen. Michael Bennet and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton visited the Pine River Indian Irrigation Project on Monday and announced $147.6 million in investments to 42 projects in 10 states facing water reliability challenges. The announcement included a $2.3 million grant to the Southern Ute Indian Tribe to address the PRIIP’s crumbling infrastructure. The funding is a part of the Bureau of Reclamation’s Watersmart Drought Resiliency program.

“For too long, the United States has failed to live up to its responsibility to adequately fund and maintain the Pine River Indian Irrigation Project,” Bennet said in a news release. “I was grateful to travel to Ignacio (Monday) with Commissioner Touton to welcome this investment to ensure the Southern Ute Indian Tribe can access the water it needs. There is much more work to be done, but this is a great start.”

The project uses water from Vallecito Reservoir, managed by the Pine River Irrigation District, to irrigate about 12,000 acres of land via 170 miles of ditches and raised flumes. Tribal officials have called the degradation of the infrastructure a “ticking time bomb,” and farmers and rancher dependent on the system are routinely shorted the water they need. According to a 2024 estimate reported by the Colorado Sun, PRIIP needs $35.3 million in repairs.

Reclamation finalizes SEIS process to address drought and climate impacts on #GlenCanyonDam and #HooverDam #ColoradoRiver #COriver #aridification

Colorado River between Glen Canyon Dam and Lees Ferry. Photo credit: USBR

Click the link to read the article on the Reclamation website:

May 9, 2024

Interior Department announced earlier this year that historic investments led to record water savings, helped stave off immediate collapse of Colorado River system

WASHINGTON – The Bureau of Reclamation today finalized its process to protect the short-term stability and sustainability of the Colorado River System by signing the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for Near-term Colorado River Operations Record of Decision. The Department of the Interior released the final SEIS in March 2024.

Reclamation initiated the supplemental environmental impact statement to protect Glen Canyon Dam and Hoover Dam operations, system integrity, and public health and safety. This supplemental guidance will be effective through 2026 – at which point the existing 2007 Interim Guidelines and the 2019 Drought Contingency Plans expire. This record of decision is a substantial milestone in the ongoing efforts to address water scarcity, the ongoing drought, and climate change challenges in the Colorado River Basin.

Reclamation’s action selected in this record of decision is the preferred alternative that the Department identified in March 2024, which will yield at least 3 million acre-feet of system water conservation savings through the end of 2026, coinciding with the expiration of the current guidelines, and provides additional tools to manage dry hydrology. Selection of the preferred alternative was made possible through Reclamation’s collaborative efforts including those with the seven basin states, 30 basin Tribes, water managers, farmers and irrigators, municipalities, power contractors, non-governmental organizations, and other partners and stakeholders, and underpinned by historic water conservation enabled by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda.

President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is integral to the efforts to increase near-term water conservation, build long term system efficiency, and prevent the Colorado River System’s reservoirs from falling to critically low elevations which would threaten water deliveries and power production. Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Reclamation is investing another $8.3 billion over five years for water infrastructure projects, including water purification and reuse, water storage and conveyance, desalination and dam safety. Since the Law’s signing, the Department has provided more than $2.9 billion to fund 425 projects, including $825 million for 131 aging infrastructure projects; $377 million to 231 WaterSMART grants; $382 million for 12 water storage and conveyance projects; and $698 million to seven rural water projects. The Inflation Reduction Act also provides $4.6 billion to address the historic drought across the West – including for system conservation agreements throughout the Colorado River Basin.

As described in the previously announced final SEIS, key information in today’s record of decision includes:

  1. System Water Conservation: The preferred alternative will conserve at least 3 million acre-feet of system water through 2026. The results of the supplemental environmental impact statement modeling indicate that the risk of reaching critical elevations at Lake Powell and Lake Mead has been reduced substantially.
  2. Lake Powell Releases: The preferred alternative allows for reducing annual releases from Lake Powell to 6 million acre-feet if the reservoir is projected to fall below 3,500 feet over the subsequent 12 months. This adaptive approach ensures the long-term integrity of the system.
  3. Complementary Measures: The preferred alternative builds upon the existing 2007 Interim Guidelines, incorporating additional strategies to mitigate shortages and contributions under the 2019 Drought Contingency Plans.

The short-term supplemental environmental impact statement process is separate from the ongoing long-term efforts to protect the Colorado River Basin after current guidelines expire in 2026. The post-2026 process currently underway is working to develop new guidelines that will replace several reservoir and water management decisional documents and agreements that govern the operation of Colorado River facilities and management of the Colorado River that are scheduled to expire at the end of 2026.  

2024 #COleg: Bipartisan group approves law to fill federal regulatory gap that left #Colorado streams, wetlands at risk — Jerd Smith (Fresh Water News)

These wetlands, located on a 150-acre parcel in the Homestake Creek valley that Homestake Partners bought in 2018, would be inundated if Whitney Reservoir is constructed. Photo credit: Heather Sackett/Aspen Journalism

Click the link to read the article on the Water Education Colorado website (Jerd Smith):

May 9, 2024

Thousands of acres of Colorado wetlands and miles of streams, left unprotected by a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year, would be shielded under a hard-won measure that was approved this week by a bipartisan group of state lawmakers.

Environmental advocates say Colorado leads the nation in adopting such regulations, which will replace certain Clean Water Act rules that were wiped out last year in the U.S. Supreme Court case Sackett v. EPA.

“Colorado is the first state to pass legislation on this issue,” said Josh Kuhn, senior water campaign manager for Conservation Colorado. “It had a lot of attention because of the magnitude of the bill. There were dozens and dozens of meetings to try and strike the right balance. We’re really happy with this final piece of legislation.”

The Sackett case sharply limited the streams and wetlands that qualify for protection under the Clean Water Act, a decision that water observers said had a particularly broad impact in the West. In Colorado and other Western states, vast numbers of streams are temporary, or ephemeral, flowing only after major rainstorms and during spring runoff season, when the mountain snow melts. The Sackett decision said, in part, that only streams that flow year-round are subject to oversight. It also said that only wetlands that had a surface connection to continually flowing water bodies qualified for protection. Many wetlands in Colorado have a sub-surface connection to streams, rather than one that can be observed above ground.

The legal decision came after decades of federal court battles over murky definitions about which waterways fall under the Clean Water Act’s jurisdiction, which wetlands must be regulated, what kinds of dredge-and-fill work in waterways should be permitted, what authority the act has over activities on farms and Western irrigation ditches, and what activities industry and wastewater treatment plants must seek permits for.

With the passage of House Bill HB24-1379, which passed Monday, Colorado wetlands are once again formally protected, as are ephemeral streams, said Kuhn.

“It also sets the federal regulations as the floor, not the ceiling, so that Colorado can go above and beyond those to ensure we are protecting our resources,” Kuhn said.

House Bill 1379, sponsored by House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, Rep. Karen McCormick, D-Longmont, and Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, was one of two proposed bills that sought to address the regulatory gap created by the Sackett decision. Senate Bill 127, sponsored by Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, R-Brighton, was the second.

While Senate Bill 127 ultimately was not approved, a number of exemptions it contained to address concerns of farmers, miners, developers and some cities, were eventually added to House Bill 1379 and Kirkmeyer signed onto the measure as well, becoming a Senate sponsor along with Roberts.

Those exemptions were important to gathering the support of farm and real estate interests, among others, according to John Kolanz, an attorney who represents developers and who served in a state workgroup that helped lay the groundwork for the new regulations.

“There was significant movement from the first draft to the end. Barb’s bill played a big role in that. This is an important program that touches a lot of people, and interests and activities. I think the end result is pretty good,” Kolanz said.

Among the exemptions that were added is a rule that specifically exempts maintenance work on irrigation ditches and canals. Another exempts work that disturbs less than one-tenth of an acre of wetland or 3/100th of an acre of a streambed.

“If you’re a developer … and you’re under those thresholds, you don’t need a permit, you just need to follow best management practices,” said Kuhn, who was among the negotiators who hammered out the details of the final legislation.

In addition, if a pipeline is installed or a ditch is lined, that activity is exempted if it can result in water conservation.

House Bill 1379 also gives regulators the option to add one staff person on the Western Slope to help with program administration in that region, and provides nearly $750,000 in the state 2024-25 fiscal year budget and nearly $250,000 in the next year to get the new regulatory program, housed within the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, up and running.

Senate  Bill 127 had proposed housing the program within the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, due to concerns about an existing backlog in the CDPHE’s wastewater discharge program.

With the decision to house the program in CDPHE come requirements that require frequent reporting to lawmakers to ensure that health officials have the resources they need to review and issue permits, Kuhn said.

The Water Quality Control Commission will have until Dec. 31, 2025 to finalize the rules implementing the new law.

The bill is awaiting the governor’s signature.

“In Colorado, where the rivers and streams are the lifeblood of our land, our agriculture, and our communities, the importance of water cannot be overstated,” Kirkmeyer said in a text message. “I believe that House Bill 1379 will be the strongest protection for Colorado streams and wetlands that we have had in the last 50 years.”

More by Jerd SmithJerd Smith is editor of Fresh Water News. She can be reached at 720-398-6474, via email at jerd@wateredco.org or @jerd_smith.

May 2024 #ENSO update: we’re 10! — NOAA

Click the link to read the article on the ENSO blog (NOAA) website (Emily Becker):

May 9, 2024

El Niño weakened substantially over the past month, and we think a transition to neutral conditions is imminent. There’s a 69% chance that La Niña will develop by July–September (and nearly 50-50 odds by June-August). Let’s kick off the ENSO Blog’s tin anniversary with our 121st ENSO outlook update!

Attention!

First things first: our beloved editor, Rebecca Lindsey, has trained us all very well, including being sure to acquaint our newer readers with the fundamentals of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation climate pattern, or ENSO. ENSO has two opposite phases, La Niña and El Niño, which change the ocean and atmospheric circulation in the tropics. Those changes start in the Pacific Ocean and affect global climate in known ways. El Niño and La Niña can be predicted many months in advance, giving us an early picture of potential upcoming temperature, rain, and snow patterns. When neither El Niño nor La Niña are present and conditions are more normal across the tropical Pacific, well, that’s ENSO-neutral conditions.

Hang 10

There was some discussion this week amongst our ENSO forecast team about whether El Niño, much weakened already early last month, is still present. El Niño is a coupled system, meaning the ocean and atmosphere both exhibit characteristic changes. The atmospheric half of El Niño is harder to detect this month; most of the standard equatorial Pacific atmospheric indicators (rain and clouds over the tropical Pacific, trade winds and upper-level winds) were pretty close to average.

However, the April average sea surface temperature in the tropical Pacific was still 0.8 °C above average according to the ERSSTv5 dataset (average = 1991–2020). The latest weekly measurement, which comes from the OISSTv2 dataset, was 0.5 °C above average. Given that the El Niño threshold is 0.5 °C, the team decided we’re right on the edge of the transition to neutral conditions.  We also can’t rule out some lingering El Niño impacts in other regions of the world. 

Animation of maps of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean compared to the long-term average over five-day periods from April through early May 2024. El Niño’s warm surface has weakening and a region of cooler-than-average sea surface temperature has appeared. NOAA Climate.gov, based on Coral Reef Watch maps available from NOAA View.

Once this El Niño ends, it’s likely that our spell of neutral conditions won’t be a long one, with La Niña expected to develop by the late summer and last through the early winter at least.

NOAA Climate Prediction Center forecast for each of the three possible ENSO categories for the next 8 overlapping 3-month seasons. Blue bars show the chances of La Niña, gray bars the chances for neutral, and red bars the chances for El Niño. Graph by Michelle L’Heureux.

We’ve seen a quick switch from El Niño to La Niña several times before in our 1950–present record, especially after a strong El Niño. This tendency is one source of confidence in the prediction that La Niña will develop later this year.

2-year history of sea surface temperatures in the Niño-3.4 region of the tropical Pacific for all strong El Niño events since 1950 (gray lines) and the current event (purple line). Graph by Emily Becker based on monthly Niño-3.4 index data from CPC using ERSSTv5.

Other factors that provide confidence that La Niña is on the way include forecasts from computer climate models and cooler-than-average water under the surface of the tropical Pacific.

10-count

Even if the sea surface temperature in the tropical Pacific lingers near the El Niño threshold for a few weeks, it’s unlikely that there will be noticeable El Niño impacts on global climate conditions this coming summer. Nat looked at how the winter turned out in the US in his recent post, but El Niño causes changes in rain and temperature patterns all around the world, with related impacts on drought, food supplies, and flooding. You can look at El Niño and La Niña’s global patterns of temperature and rain/snow throughout the seasons here.

To get some insight into how this past winter turned out in other regions, I checked in with Steven Fuhrman of NOAA Climate Prediction Center’s International Desk (footnote). Steven had this to say about the effects from El Niño since December:

The rainfall difference from average for February 7–May 6, 2024 for Africa. Brown areas indicate less rain than average, while green regions received more rain. Average is based on 2001–2019. Map by climate.gov based on CPC ARC2 data.

While many El Niño-related shifts in temperature and rain/snow are strongest during the Northern Hemisphere winter (December–February), some start earlier and last longer, especially in the tropics. One example is a tendency for drier and warmer conditions in central America and northern South America from September through March or April. Rebecca wrote about the impacts on the Amazon Rainforest back in the fall. Steven added this recap:

El Niño’s and La Niña’s shifts in temperature and rain impact communities around the world, including affecting global health and crop yields. This is why we spend so much time studying and predicting ENSO—it can provide an early heads-up of the possibility of severe impacts and allow people time to prepare.

Double digits

Speaking of so much time—who would have thought when we launched this blog back in May 2014 that we’d still have so much to say, 10 years later? In upcoming months, we’ll keep you posted on the ENSO forecast and discuss some of the climate shifts that can be expected during La Niña, including the likelihood of an active Atlantic hurricane season and drier winter conditions through the Southwest U.S. Also, I just checked our “ENSO Blog ideas” doc, which currently runs five pages long, so… here’s to another 10??

Footnote

Fun fact: For many years, Steven and I have regularly donated blood at our local hospital, along with some of our friends. There’s a national blood shortage in the U.S. right now—please consider visiting your local blood donor center!

Topsoil Moisture % Short/Very Short by @usda_oce #drought

22% of the Lower 48 is short/very short; 3% less than last week. Much of the US improved last week. Conditions declined in some states along the East Coast. Already dry soils dried out further in NM & CO.

Another fast, early melt in the southern mountains — Russ Schumacher (@ColoradoClimate Center)

Click the link to read the article on the Colorado Climate Center blog (Russ Schumacher):

May 8, 2024

As we’ve covered in previous posts, the peak snowpack in Colorado’s mountains generally looked pretty decent this year, with the amount of water stored in the snow peaking pretty close to the long-term average in most areas. However, in the southern mountains, it’s been another year where the melt has happened a lot faster than it typically has in the past.

Snow water equivalent in Colorado’s mountains with respect to the 1991-2020 median value, on (left) April 6, 2024, and (right) May 6, 2024. Source: USDA NRCS Interactive Map.

As of early April (left image above), all basins in Colorado had above average snow water equivalent, as measured by the SNOTEL network. But a month later (right image), the picture is quite different. The northern basins still look good, with a string of April snowstorms adding to the snowpack there. But southern Colorado largely missed those storms, and warm, sunny conditions, assisted by layers of dust on snow, really accelerated the melt. Cooler conditions this week will slow down the melt a bit, and a storm this weekend will add some much-needed moisture. But once the snow itself gets warmer than 32°F, it’s hard to slow the melt too much. The Rio Grande basin now only has half of the snowpack it typically does on May 6.

The time series graph for the combined San Miguel, Dolores, Animas, and San Juan river basins in the southwest corner of Colorado illustrates this nicely:

Time series of snow water equivalent in the combined San Miguel, Dolores, Animas, and San Juan basins, through May 6, 2024, as measured by the SNOTEL network. Source: NRCS Colorado Snow Survey.

The trace for 2024 reached essentially an average peak, and right on time: the peak was 18.1″ of SWE on April 2, compared to an average peak of 18.6″ on April 1. It also stayed near that peak for about another 10 days, but then the melting progressed extremely quickly. In fact, it was the largest 14-day loss of SWE before the end of April in this basin since the start of SNOTEL data in the 1980s.

Before going into those numbers, a quick note on snowpack melt rates. In absolute terms, the fastest melts come in years when there are big snowpacks that linger late into May or early June, like 2019. Eventually that snow can’t stand up to the summer sun, and SWE goes away at a very fast rate. But in years like 2024, what we’re interested in is the snow melting quickly, and early.

So here, we’ll look at the largest two-week declines in SWE prior to the end of April, and we see that the combined southwest river basins lost over 8″ of snowpack from April 12-26 this year. That much melt so early hasn’t been observed before. The Upper Rio Grande and Arkansas basins also saw their largest 14-day SWE declines prior to April 30.

Table showing the largest 14-day declines in SWE prior to April 30 at the SNOTEL stations in the San Miguel-Dolores-Animas-San Juan; Upper Rio Grande; and Arkansas basins. Data source: NRCS Snow Survey.

If you look on the bright side, you can’t get rapid melts like this without a good snowpack to begin with. At least, unlike some really bad drought years, the water was there in the first place! But early melts have big implications for the timing of water availability. It means higher-than-normal streamflows in May, but then much lower streamflows later during the heat of summer, when the water is really needed, especially by those who don’t have access to water stored in reservoirs. And the overall water availability situation for this spring and summer isn’t looking great in southern Colorado, with the latest CBRFC forecast projecting only 90% of average flow into Blue Mesa Reservoir, 74% of average on the Animas, and 80% of average into Lake Powell.

And unfortunately, years like this have been getting more common, and that trend is expected to continue as the climate warms. These changes are addressed in detail in the water chapter of Climate Change in Colorado, so dive in to that for more details. But in general, the changes observed up to this point have been toward modest declines in peak snowpack, but robust trends toward earlier melting, and these changes have been most acute in southern Colorado. For the future, there is still considerable uncertainty about what will happen to winter precipitation: some climate projections show more winter snow, others less. But every one of them shows a shift toward earlier snowmelt, and earlier peak streamflow on the Colorado River, meaning changes to when and where our water supply is available. In other words, we might need to get used to the snowpack looking pretty good in the southern mountains in March, but being disappointed in the numbers when May comes around.

The #RioGrande flowing on a windy day — @AlamosaCitizen

Water that used to irrigate #Granby hay fields to return to #ColoradoRiver and Grand County lakes — Sky-Hi News #COriver #aridification

Willow Creek Reservoir.

Click the link to read the article on the Sky-Hi News website (Emily Guitierrez). Here’s an excerpt:

May 7, 2024

Grand County and Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, otherwise known as Northern Water, have agreed to work together on an operational framework that will give Grand County’s waterways as much as 7,000 acre-feet of additional controllable water from the Colorado-Big Thompson Project for stream enhancement. The volume available for streamflow improvement will be dependent on annual river conditions and C-BT Project storage levels. The agreement was approved by the Grand County Commissioners on April 23.

Water made available under this agreement to the county will be released to the Willow Creek Reservoir or the Colorado River. This water will supplement existing flows and could accumulate to nearly 40,000 acre-feet over the course of a decade, according to a joint news release from Grand County and Northern Water…Prior to 2005, this water was used for irrigation of hay fields near the town of Granby. However, the lands have since been converted for residential and commercial development. This additional water will benefit Grand County’s recreation and agriculture industries.

Digging into Snow Survey History — Fresh Water News

Photo Caption: Two men surveying for the Federal-State Cooperative Snow Surveys, Division of Irrigation, Soil Conservation Service, USDA, J. G. James, photographer, undated. From the Irrigation Research Papers, Water Resources Archive, Colorado State University Libraries. https://hdl.handle.net/10217/180131

Click the link to read the article on the Water Education Colorado website (Patty Rettig):

May 7, 2024

After trekking on skis up a mountain, two men unpack equipment, use a long metal tube to take a snow sample, weigh it, and record the measurement. Captured on 16mm film in the mid-twentieth century, the men demonstrate the most advanced snow survey techniques of their time, providing us a fascinating glimpse into the past.

Three such films—one of which is undated, with the others being from about 1941 and 1952 (narrated and in color!)—held by the Colorado State University Water Resources Archive, when considered with related photographs, reports, data, and letters, reveal an important part of the story of the development of snow surveying and water supply forecasting in the western United States.

Federal coordination of snow surveying began in the 1930s, after several decades of individual states and institutions independently taking measurements. Though Nevada and Utah are recognized as the pioneering states, in 1902 Colorado’s state engineer hired Enos Mills as the state’s first snow surveyor. Several of his 1903 and 1904 letters in CSU’s Agricultural and Natural Resources Archive provide insight into how monitoring snowpack started here.

Two men measuring snow, undated. From the Irrigation Research Papers, Water Resources Archive, Colorado State University Libraries. https://hdl.handle.net/10217/178534

By the mid-1930s, following the drought of the early part of the decade, interest grew in having water supply predictions. The U.S. Department of Agriculture took on snow surveying and water forecasting not only to benefit irrigators who relied on the forthcoming snowmelt, but also to support the economic interests of industry and hydropower as well as predict stream flooding.

In Colorado, Ralph Parshall, as senior irrigation engineer at the USDA branch in Fort Collins (and best known for the Parshall flume), contributed to the emerging Federal-State Cooperative Snow Surveys in a number of ways. Parshall’s materials in both his archival collection and his team’s files document his active participation over more than a decade. These include letters and drafts related to several Colorado River Water Forecast Committee meetings, including the first, held in 1945 and at which Parshall presided. A published draft of those proceedings can be found in the Water Resources Archive’s Groundwater Data Collection.

Trail Ridge Road, Ralph Parshall and Park Ranger Jones, May 1941. From the Groundwater Data Collection, Water Resources Archive, Colorado State University Libraries. https://hdl.handle.net/10217/23340

Also among Parshall’s materials, a few dozen photographs of snow courses and related images also exist, some of which remain to be digitized. Additional photographic materials in other collections include slides showing Parshall and others conducting snow surveys at Cameron Pass and in Rocky Mountain National Park, as well as a set of about 100 images (not digitized) taken during winter and spring months at McNey Hill in northern Colorado. This set reveals a decade-long photography project involving both Ralph Parshall and his son Max.

A collection from the Colorado Snow Survey Program of the Natural Resources Conservation Service contains two boxes of photographic materials. These images show snow survey sites and equipment, agency employees, and public outreach events. Two of the films referenced above also are in this collection. The NRCS, having evolved from the USDA division that Ralph Parshall was part of, began operating the first SNOTEL (SNOpack TELemetry) site in 1977. This automated system of collecting snow and weather data greatly furthered the field, especially for remote sites where access is difficult.

Patricia Rettig, Associate Professor, Libraries, Colorado State University, March 29, 2022

The science, methods, and equipment related to measuring snowpack and estimating water content have continued to evolve. In the Water Resources Archive, documentation of snow hydrology studies as well as aerial snowpack measurement is also available for research.

Additional collections in the Water Resources Archive also touch in part on snow surveying and can be found through browsing our research guide. All of our materials are available for use by the public, and assistance can be provided in person at CSU’s Morgan Library or remotely.

Patty Rettig is the archivist for the Water Resources Archive at the Colorado State University Libraries. Over more than 20 years, Rettig has built the archive to hold over 130 distinct collections documenting Colorado’s water heritage by engaging with the water community across the state. She is happy to help anyone dive in to archival research!

2024 #COleg: Roberts, Dems Strike Deal on Regulating Critical Wetlands as Kirkmeyer ‘Lets Water Bill Go’ — #Colorado Times-Recorder

A wetland along Castle Creek. Photo credit: Brent Gardner-Smith/Aspen Journalism

Click the link to read the article on the Colorado Times-Recorder website (David O. Williams):

May 7, 2024

For state Sen. Dylan Roberts (D-Frisco) “protecting and securing our water future is the most important issue and biggest challenge facing our state for the next several decades.”

So as the current legislative session circles the proverbial drain, he’s been pushing hard to secure funding for water projects, enact the recommendations of the Colorado River Drought Task Force, and, perhaps most critically, replace wetlands protections stripped away by the Trump-stacked U.S. Supreme Court in last year’s highly controversial Sackett v. EPA decision.

That ruling, which backed an Idaho couple who didn’t want to get a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wetlands dredging permit, gutted decades of federal Clean Water Act protections for fully two-thirds of Colorado’s vital wetlands and streams, according to Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser’s brief filed in support of those protections.

Colorado lawmakers this session stepped into that regulatory void with two competing bills – a rarity in the Colorado Legislature, according to Roberts. The Regulate Dredge and Fill Activities in State Waters bill (HB24-1379), sponsored in the House by Speaker Julie McCluskie (D-Dillon) requires a rulemaking by the Colorado Department of Health and Environment’s Water Quality and Control Division to permit dredge and fill activities on both public and private land.

The competing bill (SB24-127) from Republican state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer (R-Brighton) known as the Regulate Dredged & Fill Material State Waters bill, was backed by the Colorado Association of Homebuilders. Environmental groups and some Democrats said the Kirkmeyer bill fell short of replacing longstanding federal protections for wetlands for several reasons.

“We reached an agreement with Sen. Kirkmeyer and some of the folks that she was working with on her bill,” Roberts said in a phone interview. “She is going to join me as the co-prime sponsor on the bill with the Speaker and let her Senate bill go. So, we’ve gotten to a really good place … We just made a few final amendments that got Kirkmeyer on board, but the environmental advocates are very pleased with where we stand.”

On Monday, the full Senate passed the new version of HB24-1379 and sent it back to the House, which then repassed it after considering amendments.

“We could not be more proud of the fact that Colorado is the first state in the nation to pass legislation that restores protections to our wetlands and streams that were overturned by Trump’s Supreme Court,” Conservation Colorado’s Senior Water Campaign Manager Josh Kuhn wrote in an email. “Our coalition and the bill sponsors worked to negotiate several significant compromises that led to the legislation we see today, and it remains a win for the environment.” Proponents hope the Colorado bill will become a national model.

Two of Kuhn’s biggest criticisms of the original Kirkmeyer bill was its “political line” saying waters outside of 1,500 feet from the historical floodplain would be unprotected, and its regulatory structure requiring a new agency in the state’s Department of Natural Resources.

“That’s not in our House bill,” Roberts said. “Our House bill is much more based on the actual wetland and the connection to Colorado waters and basically what the Army Corps was doing. So, the arbitrary line in the Kirkmeyer bill was a huge problem, and that is certainly not in the House bill. And it’ll stay with CDPHE, the Water Quality Control Commission.”

Asked if there was a concerted development industry effort to muddy the waters with the competing bill filed before the Speaker’s House bill, Roberts had this to say:

“It was an interesting tactic,” he said. “A lot of state legislatures, and obviously Congress does this, where there are similar bills that start in opposite chambers and they kind of compete with each other. That doesn’t normally happen here, but it was kind of interesting to have it play out that way this year.”

Roberts is also a bipartisan co-prime Senate sponsor with Sen. Cleave Simpson 9R-Alamosa) of a bill (HB24-1436) –Sports Betting Tax Revenue Voter Approval – that refers to a ballot measure asking voters in November if the state can spend additional sports betting tax revenue (above the current $29 million annual cap) on water-conservation projects. The bill passed out of both chambers and now heads to the desk of Gov. Jared Polis for his signature.

First established by voter approval of Proposition DD in 2019, the Water Plan Implementation Cash Fund goes toward water storage and supply, agricultural projects, and watershed health and recreation projects.

“If we don’t [pass HB24-1436], we’ll have to refund the excess to the casinos,” Roberts said. “So I hope it’s a really easy question for voters, and that they would prefer the money go to water rather than back to the casinos.”

Roberts was also the sponsor of the annual water projects bill, which allocates $56 million to the Colorado Water Plan and various water infrastructure projects. More than half of that money currently comes from sports betting, and this year $20 million of it will go toward acquiring the Shoshone power plant water right from Xcel Energy to keep that non-consumptive right on the Western Slope for farmers, boaters, and aquatic life along the endangered Colorado River.

Finally, Roberts was co-prime Senate sponsor, along with Sen. Perry Will, R-New Castle, of SB24-197 (Water Conservation Measures) that implements several key recommendations of the Colorado River Drought Task Force, including the ability to loan water to an instream flow loan program for stream health and restoration, as well as protections for agricultural water. 

The bill, which has cleared both the Senate and the House, will also allow power companies near the Yampa River in Northwest Colorado to temporarily loan their water to the river while they explore different types of energy development in a post-coal world, as well as enhance the ability of Colorado’s native tribes to get more funding for water projects using historic water rights. 

Colorado Rivers. Credit: Geology.com

Middle school students raise, release trout — #PagosaSprings Sun

One of Pagosa Springs’ oldest parks, Town Park straddles the San Juan River in the heart of downtown Pagosa Springs. The site of many events, Town Park is by far one of the most popular parks in Pagosa Springs. Photo credit: Town of Pagosa Springs

Click the link to read the article on the Pagosa Springs Sun website (Randi Pierce). Here’s an excerpt:

Ons Thursday, May 2, 2024 sixth- graders in Terri Lindstrom’s Pirate Time advisory class rolled a cooler down to Town Park, then carried it to the edge of the river. There, the students used river water to acclimate the temperature of the water in the cooler — the transport for 75 rainbow trout fin- gerlings who were being taken to be released in the San Juan River.

As they waited for the fish to acclimate, the students read messages they wrote after spending the school year helping and watching the fish grow.

Lindstrom’s class raised and released the fingerlings through a partnership with the Trout in the Classroom program and Trout Unlimited…

“The purpose of the program is to give students the opportunity to ex- plore water quality,” Lindstrom wrote, explaining the students kept track of the water temperature, count and weight of the fish.

Four to five fish were pulled from the tank each week and weighed be- fore being returned, she notes. That allowed students to calculate the average weight per fish, which then allowed them to calculate 2 percent body weight of all the fish in order to know how much to feed them.