Southern Delivery System update

Here’s an update on Colorado Springs Utilities proposed Southern Delivery System, from Chris Woodka writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:

“The people who are supposed to be in oversight agencies are not looking out for me,” rancher Gary Walker said Monday. “I’m sure Colorado Springs has met one-on-one with the Bureau of Reclamation and the Pueblo County commissioners. I have asked for that, but it hasn’t happened yet. The playing field isn’t level.” Walker’s latest complaint comes after last week’s action by the Army Corps of Engineers to deny requests for a public hearing on SDS. The Corps explained the Bureau of Reclamation’s environmental impact statement sufficiently covered most of the issues in the case. Reclamation issued a record of decision approving the SDS use of federal facilities at Lake Pueblo on March 20. It will negotiate contracts with the SDS partners – Colorado Springs, Security, Fountain and Pueblo West – at a later date.

The Bureau of Reclamation has not visited Walker Ranches to discuss his concern about rare native plants that are still being catalogued by the Nature Conservancy and the Colorado Natural Heritage program, Walker said. “With my finding of rare and endangered plants in the SDS’s proposed route and with the ongoing damage that was caused by your last pipeline that crossed my property, I was in hope of having some semblance of equality in this issue,” Walker wrote in an e-mail to the Bureau of Reclamation Monday…

Reclamation ran a five-year public process on the project, and provided other opportunities for Walker to comment, said Kara Lamb, public information officer for the bureau. “All of those environmental mitigations are included in the final EIS,” Lamb said. “And there is another public process on the horizon when contract negotiations start.”[...]

Last month, Colorado Springs City Council voted to move completion of the first phase of the $1 billion-plus pipeline project to 2016, from the announced completion date of 2012. “We believe the 2016 in-service date provides adequate time to address Mr. Walker’s concerns and develop specific mitigation plans for his property. It’s our intent to work closely with Mr. Walker on these plans,” said Keith Riley, SDS planning and permitting manager. “We’ve been working on a rare plant study with the Colorado Natural Heritage program – the group recommended by Mr. Walker,” Riley added. “We’ve also been working to identify some areas to do test plots for revegetation after pipeline construction. This will allow us to test the revegetation process to ensure it will be effective.”

More Southern Delivery System coverage here and here.

Ruedi operations update

From email from Reclamation (Kara Lamb):

Several of you have been calling, so I thought it best to let everyone know that it looks like releases from Ruedi will stay up and the Fryingpan flows will remain around 500 cfs for the time being. After the inspection up on the Colorado River at Shoshone last week, the Fish and Wildlife Service maintained their call for their contracted Ruedi water for the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program. Flows in the Colorado remain lower than anticipated there. Contracted water from Ruedi is being used to help boost those flows.

Ms. Lamb is also pointing to the website for the reservoir operations.

More Roaring Fork watershed coverage here.

Sterling: City Council approves ballot issue for new treatment plant

From the Sterling Journal Advocate (Forrest Hershberger):

The city is confronted with an issue of how to supply water that meets the quality standards dictated by the Environmental Protection Agency and consequently the state health department. The issue is that the amount of uranium detected in the city’s water is higher than new EPA standards, and the city has a limited amount of time to show progress toward changing it…

A question brought up to the council is what happens if the voters do not approve the bonds. Mayor Dan Jones said if the city does not update the water system, the EPA could declare the city’s water system noncompliant and consequently federal funding, such as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, would disappear. Real estate in the area would be virtually worthless, he said. Kiolbasa said the city is applying for funding from the Department of Local Affairs. Meanwhile, Sterling water users are in a bind, but no different than any other community along the South Platte River. “I think everyone else along the South Platte is in the same boat,” said councilman Jerry Haynes.

More Sterling coverage here and here.

Eagle County: Brush Creek enhancement project enters final phase

From the Vail Daily:

The intent of the project is to improve stream health from the upper Sylvan Lake Road bridge to the upper end of the Eagle Ranch development boundary, about 8,300 feet. The project is coordinated jointly by the Eagle Ranch Wildlife Committee, town of Eagle and the Colorado Division of Wildlife under permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. Funding for the project comes from the Eagle Ranch Wildlife Trust Fund and Scott Skelton, an adjacent property owner. The project involves using mechanical equipment to construct gravel bars, pools and riffles, as well as stabilize eroding stream banks. “The work uses well established practices that improve stream health and fish habitat for spawning, feeding, resting and wintering,” said Eagle Open Space Coordinator Bill Heicher. “The work is planned on portions of the stream on town open space, along with land where adjacent property owners have agreed to allow in-stream and bank work on their property.”

More Eagle River watershed coverage here and here.

Colorado Springs Utilities’ Conservation and Environmental Center and Xeriscape Demonstration Garden

From The Colorado Springs Gazette (Kristina Iodice):

On the third Tuesday of each month through September, Colorado Springs Utilities’ Conservation and Environmental Center and Xeriscape Demonstration Garden hosts an open house, complete with displays, tours and classes. Classes are free. The next open house, focusing on energy and water conservation, will be 4 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the center, 2855 Mesa Road. In addition to a scheduled class, volunteers and staff will be on hand to answer questions. The scheduled class will cover low- to no-cost ways for homeowners to save money. Utilities experts will offer ways to save energy and water — and thus money — by discussing heating and air conditioning systems, water heaters, appliances, insulation, windows and water use.

More conservation coverage here.

Upcoming Colorado water related events from the Colorado Watershed Assembly

Here’s the link to the Colorado Watershed Assembly’s comprehensive schedule of upcoming events.

Denver Water: Moffat Collection System and the proposed expansion of Gross Reservoir

Say hello to the shiny new Denver Water website. I’m most excited about the RSS feed for their news page. You Coyote Gulch readers know I crave Colorado water news.

At any rate check out the new part of the website for the expansion Gross Reservoir, part of Denver Water’s Moffat Collection System. They write:

If approved, the project would produce 18,000 acre-feet of new supply by expanding an existing reservoir rather than building a new one. The current dam height would increase from 340 feet to approximately 465 feet. The proposed project would increase Gross Reservoir from its current storage capacity of 41,811 acre-feet to approximately 114,000 acre-feet – an increase of 72,000 acre-feet. (Denver Water has determined four acre-feet of storage are needed for every one acre-foot of supply.)

Because Gross Reservoir was originally designed to be this larger size, other facilities, such as the Moffat Tunnel and South Boulder Canal, do not need to be modified and no additional water rights are needed. The additional water would be carried through the existing Moffat Tunnel from the Fraser River basin and Williams Fork River basin in Grand County, as well as from South Boulder Creek basin. Streamflow in the Fraser and Williams Fork rivers and South Boulder Creek would only be decreased by this project during wet and average years during the runoff months.

Denver Water officials anticipate that the Corps of Engineers draft environmental impact statement for the project will be released in the next few weeks.

More Denver Water coverage here and here.

Colorado’s water future dependent on new transmountain diversions?

The Colorado Department of Natural Resources is looking at four pipeline concepts and two agricultural fallowing and dry up concepts as possible solutions to watering the unbridled growth along the Front Range. Here’s a report, from Bruce Finley writing for The Denver Post, about the pipeline plans from Flaming Gorge and the Green River proposed by the Colorado-Wyoming Coalition and the Million Resource Group. From the article:

Colorado municipal water suppliers are in discussions with their Wyoming counterparts exploring the feasibility. Separately, a private entrepreneur’s proposal to build a pipeline is under federal review. Colorado government officials — who have met with both contingents and are talking with Wyoming officials — recently included the “Flaming Gorge concept” among four options for diverting Western Slope water to the Front Range…

Huge hurdles remain, including financing and Colorado’s and Wyoming’s obligations to downriver states under an interstate compact. Conservationists object to the potential environmental impact of withdrawing the water…

The pipeline concept originated with entrepreneur Aaron Million and his Million Conservation Resource Group. In 2008, the group applied for a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which regulates construction in waterways and wetlands. An environmental review has begun, and engineers are sifting through a deluge of public comments, said Rena Brand, regulatory specialist for the agency. “The majority of letters are against it” and “push for the idea of conserving more along the Front Range,” Brand said. Federal wildlife officials are among those questioning possible impacts on endangered species and migratory birds…

Million must provide a list of likely customers by January to establish a need for the pipeline, Brand said. Last week, Million said that “ongoing negotiations with 20-plus” potential customers in Wyoming and Colorado “are going well.” He declined to name them. The project could be done in five years, he said. He wasn’t invited to the municipal suppliers’ discussions at a country club, a slight he calls unfortunate. “The lack of collaboration is problematic. It was the private sector that developed the water in the West” before federal agencies got involved, he said. “This is a return to the historical development of water resources, using the efficiency of the private sector to get things accomplished.”

Meanwhile, the municipal suppliers’ group was to continue discussions in Wyoming this week. They are close to formalizing a coalition, Jaeger said. He declined to name participants.

Colorado’s top natural resources officials say they’ve talked with Million and Jaeger. The state’s emerging strategies for meeting projected demand — which include conservation, the re-use of water and rethinking low-density versus high-density growth — assume that importing some water between river basins will be necessary, said Harris Sherman, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. “Whether it is a public or a private project, it must incorporate public benefits,” Sherman said. “Sometimes it’s easier to incorporate public benefits with a public project, because the sponsoring entity is the public, and it will be focussed on public benefits. But it’s not impossible for a private project to incorporate a wide variety of public benefits. “

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here. Colorado-Wyoming Coalition coverage here.

Republican River Basin: Arbitration next for dispute between Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska

From the Yuma Pioneer (Tony Rayl):

According to Janelle Myotte of Quality Irrigation, who attended the RRCA meeting, Commissioner Dunningan of Nebraska and Commissioner Barfield of Kansas both voted NO on the approval of the pipeline. Commissioner Wolfe of Colorado voted YES. Nebraska stated that they had concerns over the proper accounting procedures, this is the reason why they are not approving the pipeline. Kansas stated that they have not had enough time to review the resolutions presented by Colorado on their issues regarding the pipeline. Colorado is filing for arbitration on this matter.

More Republican River Basin coverage here.

Montrose: Gunnison Tunnel 100th year celebration September 26

Here’s the lowdown on the upcoming celebration, from Katharhynn Heidelberg writing for the Montrose Daily Press. From the article:

Celebration organizers are encouraging community involvement right now by inviting the public to the Gunnison Tunnel Museum at Main and Townsend. The temporary museum is in renovated space that formerly housed Sagebrush Books. It will feature displays, historic newspaper articles, photographs and artifacts from the tunnel’s opening day, Sept. 23, 1909, when President William Howard Taft came to town. The museum also functions as headquarters for the centennial celebration, which is being organized through the collaborative efforts of the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association, individuals, staffers, ditch riders, historians and committee members. The chamber and visitors bureau, the Montrose County Historical Museum, plus many local businesses and governmental entities are also pitching in for the centennial event Sept. 26, which is funded through donations.

“It’s all combined together,” said Marc Catlin, director of the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association. “It’s a place to see the history, to see what’s going to happen at the event and to see the memorabilia.”

More Gunnison Basin coverage here.

Peru Creek Basin: Efforts at restoration paint a costly and complicated picture

Many Colorado water watchers were hoping that the restoration work up in the Peru Creek Basin would be a successful demonstration project for good samaritan efforts at mine cleanup. What has been shown is that restoration projects related to past mining activity are complicated and costly. Current estimates for cleaning up the runoff and drainage in the basin is at $20 million. Here’s a report from Bob Berwyn writing for the Summit Daily News. From the article:

That amount includes construction and annual operations and maintenance for as long as 20 years, but it’s still much higher than expected. When Trout Unlimited entered the picture, there was speculation that a treatment plant could be built for under $1 million. “All the work that’s been done up there paints a much more dire picture of what we need to do,” [Trout Unlimited's Liz Russell] said. He said the stakeholders working on the cleanup had also hoped that Congress would have passed some Good Samaritan legislation by now. Such a liability limiting law would have eased the cleanup process by enabling a nonprofit to work on remediation without fear of being pinned with responsibility for the cleanup work forever.

One option that’s not on the table anymore is a Superfund designation for the Pennsylvania Mine. EPA officials previously suggested a Superfund listing would loosen up federal funding for a cleanup. But county officials were not keen on the idea of Superfund status for the mine, preferring to explore alternate options instead.

This summer, some of the research at mine is focused on treating other sources of pollution in the area besides the mine itself. State and federal experts are teaming up to find sites for repositories, where some of the mine waste could be stored in a place where running water can’t get to it. That could help reduce metals-loading into Peru Creek.

The Snake River is showing signs of making a comeback. From the sidebar to the article linked above:

Latest survey shows promising signs of recovery
Trout populations in the Snake River appear to be making a comeback after a surge of pollution two years ago all but wiped out most of the fish. Colorado Division of Wildlife biologists recently surveyed a stretch of the river running through Keystone Resort and found evidence that some rainbow trout survived over the winter.

More Peru Creek Basin coverage here.

Pueblo Board of Water Works to consider raising rates

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

The Pueblo Board of Water Works will meet next week and is expected to act on a staff recommendation to raise water rates 3.2 percent next year in order to provide $1.05 million in debt service for bonds to help pay for shares of the Bessemer Ditch. The 3.2 percent increase would amount to about 96 cents per month for the average customer with a 1-inch residential tap. The board meets at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the board room at 319 W. Fourth St.

More Pueblo Board of Water Works coverage here.

Energy policy — geothermal: Mount Princeton Geothermal LLC is proposing a 10 megawatt geothermal electric generation plant near Buena Vista

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

“This is a big deal,” Bill Bennett, energy use adviser for Sangre de Cristo Electric said Thursday. “Everyone in the valley should be interested in this project. This is a nonpolluting, renewable power supply that could provide all the electricity this valley needs.”

Bennett’s comments came during the monthly meeting of the Upper Arkansas Valley Conservancy District, which heard a presentation from Fred Henderson, of Mount Princeton Geothermal LLC.

Gov. Bill Ritter’s office has scheduled another meeting on geothermal development from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Upper Ark offices, 339 East U.S. 50.

Last month, the Upper Ark board heard concerns from some residents in the Buena Vista area about the potential impacts of geothermal power generation. Henderson attempted to address those concerns – noise, the potential for earthquakes, land disturbance – during Thursday’s presentation. “I can’t answer all the questions. This is a three- to four-year project,” Henderson said. “We need to drill into the deep aquifer before we can even decide where the plant would be.”

Bennett said Sangre de Cristo’s lines could easily accommodate the output from a 10 megawatt plant, adding that such a plant could easily provide most of the 104 million kilowatt hours Sangre de Cristo customers used last year. “People fight this because they don’t understand it,” Bennett said. “They should be fighting to get this.” Ironically, geothermal power could have little to do with water rights, even though it would likely be administered by the Division of Water Resources. That’s because no water would be consumed in what Henderson described as a “pump and dump” system. Essentially, water would be pumped up from the heat source in the area – which lies somewhere below the 2,000-foot level if engineering predictions are correct – run through a sort of reverse air conditioner and reinjected into the deep underground reservoir. Six extraction and four injection units would be air-cooled, again using no water. What deep-well drilling will attempt to show in the next phase of the project is where the reservoir lies, Henderson said.

More geothermal coverage here and here.

Southern Delivery System: No public hearing for Corps permit

From The Colorado Springs Gazette (R. Scott Rappold):

… the Corps determined there was enough information presented in documents and hearings with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Pueblo County, both of which have approved the pipeline. “With all the information we received and all the prior hearing and public comments, we didn’t think we’d get any new information that would change our decision,” said Van Truan, with the Corps Pueblo office, Friday.

More Southern Delivery System coverage here and here.

S. 787: The Clean Water Restoration Act

Here’s an opinion piece in opposition to S. 787, the Clean Water Restoration Act, from Patrick O’Toole writing in The Denver Post. From the article:

The reality is that an expansion of the Act will restrict the ability of states, municipalities and individuals to adjust to such variables as changing snowpack and runoff due to climate change. The dying forests of the West present another watershed challenge that we must be prepared to address, post haste. We live in a time in which people in the water community need more flexibility, not less.

More S. 787 coverage here.

ResourceSmart Colorado

From the Denver Business Journal:

Denver Water and Xcel Energy Inc. have teamed up with industry group NAIOP Colorado to promote energy and water conservation in commercial buildings. The three organizations have launched a new program toward those ends called ResourceSmart Colorado, they said Tuesday.

NAIOP Colorado is the local chapter of the national NAIOP trade group, formerly called the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. This state’s NAIOP branch is one of the group’s largest, with 800 members.

Huerfano County: Petroglyph Operating Company Inc. angling to restart coalbed methane wells

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Anthony A. Mestas):

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission shut down the methane wells in 2007 because of seepage into private water wells.

Residents, however, still are complaining that coal-bed methane has migrated into their water wells and that some of those wells are drying up. Farmers and ranchers also are expressing fears that drilling for coal-bed methane could contaminate groundwater. The Boise, Idaho-based company has requested a 10-year permit to pump water from one formation, treat it and then reinject it into another formation that contains domestic water wells and is used for agriculture. The company hopes to create a barrier of water to prevent methane from going where it shouldn’t.

More than 100 people gathered Monday at the Walsenburg Community Center for a meeting with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials to speak out against the permit. Valois Shea, an environmental scientist with the EPA, led the meeting.

More coalbed methane coverage here and here.

Arkansas Basin Roundtable is taking a close look when allocating Water Supply Reserve Account dough

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

“The CWCB budget is decimated and will be for several years,” Dils said. The original plan was to provide $10 million statewide annually to the Water Supply Reserve Account for four years, beginning in 2006. The fund was cut to $6 million in 2007, restored to $10 million in 2008 and lopped again to $5.8 million this year. That leaves only $173,000 for the Arkansas basin’s account, plus whatever it can convince the CWCB to give it from $4.2 million in a statewide account. The roundtable can only count on that amount being 40 percent funded in the first cycle this September, Dils said.

Based on that information, the roundtable agreed to fund a project sponsored by Pueblo to remove bed-load sediment from Fountain Creek for $225,000 and a $180,000 study to look at water availability in the Upper Arkansas region. Between the two projects, about $70,000 would come from the basin funds.

A third, $110,000 project to look at water availability in the Upper Black Squirrel groundwater basin in El Paso County was put on hold for now. Roundtable President Gary Barber, who represents El Paso County on the panel, abstained from the decision.

More Arkansas Basin coverage here and here.

Next water availability task force meeting August 26

From email from the CWCB (Ben Wade):

The next Water Availability Task Force (WATF) meeting is scheduled for August 26, from 9:30-11:30a at the Division of Wildlife Headquarters in the Bighorn Room. The agenda will be posted on the CWCB website.

In the event you are unable to attend the meeting in person, you can attend the meeting via the web using services of See N’ Share and a conference call in. The See N’ Share software allows you to access the desktop of the computer used to run the PowerPoint presentations. An email will be sent to you shortly before the meeting starts with a link to the conference and a conference phone number to call in. Instructions are given in the email to connect to the online conference.

For any other questions or if you will be joining us thru the web, please contact Ben Wade at 303-866-3441 ext. 3238 or at ben.wade@state.co.us by August 25.

More Colorado Water Conservation Board coverage here.

Microbial desalination cells based on using air cathodes

From Science Daily

“Water desalination can be accomplished without electrical energy input or high water pressure by using a source of organic matter as the fuel to desalinate water,” the [Penn State researchers, Bruce Logan, Kappe Professor of Environmental Engineering and Maha Mehanna postdoctoral fellow] report in a recent online issue of Environmental Science and Technology…

The team modified a microbial fuel cell — a device that uses naturally occurring bacteria to convert wastewater into clean water producing electricity — so it could desalinate salty water.

“Our main intent was to show that using bacteria we can produce sufficient current to do this,” said Logan. “However, it took 200 milliliters of an artificial wastewater — acetic acid in water — to desalinate 3 milliliters of salty water. This is not a practical system yet as it is not optimized, but it is proof of concept.”

A typical microbial fuel cell consists of two chambers, one filled with wastewater or other nutrients and the other with water, each containing an electrode. Naturally occurring bacteria in the wastewater consume the organic material and produce electricity.

More wastewater and water treatment coverage here and here.

Flaming Gorge pipeline: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sides with opponents

It’s a good thing the Aaron Million is a young man. He may age a bit before he sees his dream of a pipeline from Flaming Gorge Reservoir to the Front Range bear fruit. Here’s a report from the Associated Press via CBS4Denver.com. From the article:

The agency submitted written comments to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is conducting an environmental study of the proposal. The Fish and Wildlife comments focused concern on how the pipeline would affect threatened or endangered species, migratory birds and habitats and ecosystem balances.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Wiggins: New water attorney named

From The Fort Morgan Times (Jesse Chaney):

The council hired [Frederick] Fendel of Petrock and Fendel, P.C. to replace former water attorney Steve Jeffers, who left due to a conflict of interest. Town Administrator Bill Rogers said after the meeting that Jeffers’ firm represents the Weldon Valley Ditch Co., which has control of water the town may seek to acquire…

Fendel said local Gary Teague is interested in selling the town 10 shares of Weldon Valley Ditch Co. water. The ditch company would have to approve the exchange, Fendel said, and he has been working to specify exactly which shares Teague would like to sell. “I plan to have a draft agreement this week that I hope everyone here can look at,” he said.

More Wiggins coverage here and here.

Republican River Basin: Still no settlement between Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska

From the Kearney Hub (Leslie Reed):

David Barfield, Kansas water czar, said his state continues to assess whether to take the long-running dispute to the U.S. Supreme Court. “Obviously there’s substantial distance between the states on these issues, particularly with Nebraska’s future consumption,” Barfield said in an interview following the meeting. “You can expect Kansas to pursue this matter until we’re satisfied.”

It was the first meeting of the Republican River Compact Administration – the top water officials from each of the states that share in the basin – since an arbitrator made a nonbinding ruling last month that Nebraska irrigators need to reduce pumping in the basin to allow more water to flow to Kansas. The arbitrator also concluded that Kansas so far has established only nominal monetary losses as a result of Nebraska irrigators overusing their share of water during the drought years of 2005 and 2006. Although the states remain at odds, there was little saber-rattling at the meeting. Each official made a point of acknowledging the other states’ work on the issue.

Plentiful rain in the past two years has brought Nebraska back into compliance with the Republican River agreement, but Barfield warned that Nebraska would quickly fall out of compliance should the weather turn dry.

More Republican River Basin coverage here and here.

Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program: Senator Udall introduces legislation for permanent Ruedi Reservoir pool

From the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel:

The bill would let the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation permanently use Ruedi water to help the Colorado pikeminnow, razorback sucker, humpback chub and bonytail chub…Water users negotiating the agreement have decided half of the water will be provided by converting old, unused agricultural rights, and half will come from unobligated water in Ruedi Reservoir…Additional unsold water would remain in the reservoir to help defray construction costs. But because the water targeted by the bill would be used for fish recovery, the bill would waive the requirement that it be used to pay for reimbursement of costs, Udall’s office said.

More endangered species coverage here.

Montrose County: Piñon Ridge plant pollution control

Here’s a report about precautions at the proposed Piñon Ridge mill in Montrose County, from Joe Hanel writing for The Durango Herald. From the article:

In an application to Montrose County for a special use permit on the mill site, Energy Fuels briefly lists some of the steps it will take to control pollution.

The mill will have the best available technology to reduce air emissions, according to the application. Mill opponents worry about dust pollution from the strong winds common to the Paradox Valley.

But company officials say they will spray roads, stockpiles and tailings with water or chemical dust suppressants.

Five air monitors are collecting data to establish a baseline for air quality, and they will continue monitoring during mill operation.

Waste ponds will be lined to avoid groundwater pollution and designed to withstand a 1,000-year storm. The mill site will be designed to have no stormwater discharge, according to the county permit application.

More energy policy nuclear coverage here and here.