Day: September 7, 2024

Grand Valley water managers have plan to outmuscle invasive species — Heather Sackett (@AspenJournalism) #ColoradoRiver #COriver #aridification

Palisade Irrigation District Superintendent Dan Crabtree shows an irrigation control box and headgate near the piped Price Ditch that could be susceptible to a zebra mussel infestation. PID plans to begin treating its water with copper this fall. Credit: Heather Sackett/Aspen Journalism

Click the link to read the article on the Aspen Journalism website (Heather Sackett):

September 4, 2024

Grand Valley water managers have a plan to nip a potential zebra mussel infestation in the bud, with one irrigation district beginning treatment of its water this fall.

Officials are hoping to secure federal funding to treat the water that irrigators and domestic water providers pull from the Colorado River with liquid ionic copper, which kills zebra mussels. Mesa County plans to ask for the money through the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Bucket 2 Environmental Drought Mitigation program.

Microscopic zebra mussel larvae, known as veligers, were found this summer in the Government Highline Canal, a crucial piece of irrigation infrastructure for the Grand Valley’s agricultural producers. If these aquatic invasive species become established, it could be disastrous for the region’s farms, vineyards, orchards and Colorado’s famous Palisade peaches. The fast-reproducing mussels, which are native to Eastern Europe, can clog water infrastructure and are incredibly hard to eradicate once established.

“Our concern is for our smaller partners,” said Tina Bergonzini, general manager of Grand Valley Water Users Association. “Many of our commercial peach growers and vineyards use microdrip irrigation. It would take just absolutely nothing to pinch off those systems completely, and it would be catastrophic. … It could absolutely cripple agriculture from Palisade clear to Mack depending on the extent of the infestation.”

Mesa County plans to apply on behalf of the irrigation districts and water providers for more than $4 million in funding, which will come from the remaining $450 million of Inflation Reduction Act funding for projects in the Colorado River’s Upper Basin (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming). “B2E” funding, as it’s called, is intended for projects that provide environmental benefits or ecosystem restoration and must be awarded to public entities or tribes. Several irrigation districts and domestic water providers would take part in the copper treatments: GVWUA, Grand Valley Irrigation Company, Orchard Mesa Irrigation District, Palisade Irrigation District, Mesa County Irrigation District and Clifton Water.

“Mesa County recognizes the serious threat posed by the recent discovery of zebra mussels in the Colorado River and the Government Highline Canal,” Mesa County Commissioner Bobbie Daniel said in a written statement. “We understand the urgency of the zebra mussel situation, and that is why Mesa County is leading the charge in applying for federal funding to tackle this issue.”

Famous Palisade peaches hang heavy on the branches of an orchard in the Palisade Irrigation District. PID plans to treat its water with liquid ionic copper this fall in an effort to prevent a zebra mussel infestation. Credit: Heather Sackett/Aspen Journalism

Palisade Irrigation District is not waiting for federal funding. It plans this fall to begin treating with copper the roughly 8 miles of the Price Ditch and its many laterals that irrigate about 5,000 acres of orchards, vineyards, alfalfa, cornfields and lawns. PID gets its water from the Government Highline Canal.

PID Superintendent Dan Crabtree saw the issues with quagga mussels, a relative of zebra mussels that causes similar problems, in Lake Powell on his yearly trips to the reservoir and knew mussels could someday become a problem for the Upper Basin too.

“It just seemed inevitable that we would get them up here somehow,” Crabtree said. “The Palisade Irrigation District actually started a line item in our budget for this very thing maybe four years ago, so we’ve got a little money set aside. Our system, I believe, is very susceptible to mussels because we are all pipes.”

Crabtree said PID plans to start the copper treatment in October, which will cost the district about $60,000.

Copper has been used by water providers in the Colorado River’s Lower Basin (Arizona, California and Nevada), including the Central Arizona Project, to kill invasive mussels that threaten infrastructure. Experts say the treatment doesn’t harm fish or crops.

Dan Pogorzelski: The West should put its straws away. #GreatLakes water is not for sale — The Chicago Tribune

Great Lakes satellite photo via Wikipedia.

Click the link to read the column on The Chicago Tribune website (Dan Pogorzelski). Here’s an excerpt:

September 1, 2024

We know our Great Lakes are an enviable resource, one that is becoming more attractive to covetous states in the western U.S. that have been facing long-term drought, a process called aridification by some experts. No one is surprised that the squabbling has become more intense as the water supply out West has dwindled. With so many stakeholders, it will not be easy to reach a consensus on the changes that will need to be made to how this precious resource is managed and who will pay for it. 

A recent guest essay in The New York Times, “Will We Have to Pump the Great Lakes to California to Feed the Nation?” imagines a future in which we have no choice but to pump fresh water from hydrologically rich areas such as ours in order to supply farmers in the West or face starvation. That essay is not necessarily advocating the creation of cross-country pipelines or canals across the U.S. like what is being proposed in India and China. 

While I recognize that water policy is intrinsically linked with food security for our nation, the headline is more than just misleading. It also is perpetuating a dangerous fallacy. The idea that water from the Great Lakes will solve the thirst of the western United States is not just a misplaced notion; it is also an obstacle delaying the inevitable reckoning with the unsustainable status quo. 

The proposal to take water from the Great Lakes also ignores the existence of the legally binding interstate compact that governs how the states bordering them manage it. Known as the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact, it places strict limits on how much water can be used as well as who can divert it. Additionally, Canada borders four of the five Great Lakes, which means that our neighbor to the north has a say in what happens to these bodies of water. Often overlooked in this discussion, there are also governments of Native American tribes on both sides of the border in the Great Lakes region. None of these partners that share control of the Great Lakes would be willing to let water be shipped out of the Great Lakes Basin.