NIDIS Weekly Climate, Water and Drought Assessment Summary of the Upper Colorado River Basin

Here are the notes for this week via the Colorado Climate Center .

South Platte River basin: Water sharing in the future?

From the Sterling Journal Advocate (Forrest Hershberger):

Jim Yahn, manager of the North Sterling and Prewitt Reservoir system, and members of other area water management boards, met with the Sterling City council last week regarding a proposed “water co-op,” as City Manager Joe Kiolbasa described it…

Yahn and his associates came to the council, explaining the plan they are taking to other ditch companies. “We`ve met with all these ditch companies, telling them what we`re thinking,” he said. Part of the discussion is developing an agreement where individuals and agencies can exchange, buy and share water credits. “If we don`t do something, agriculture will have a target,” Yahn said. “We have these pressures on our area for Front Range water.”[...]

Yahn said ultimately the idea is to plan for water need associated with population growth. He said some communities have narrowly missed running out of water; others have entered contracts with other water suppliers to keep their communities healthy. “We kind of feel an urgency to get this thing going,” he said. He said the plan of sharing water credits could be a financial asset to an owner or agency willing to sell or lease credits to others. It is an example of rural water users getting as much out of each gallon as possible.

More South Platte River basin coverage here.

Summit County: Education in Action program

From the Summit Daily News (Drew Anderson):

The program aims to engage students in the process of dealing with a socio-environmental issue from varying points of view. In this instance, students learned about mining and water quality issues surrounding the Pennsylvania Mine and the Snake River Watershed…

After learning about the issue, students were accompanied by Keystone Science School educators to local bodies of water such as French Creek, Miner’s Creek and Tiger Dredge to take water samples. Students tested the samples for heavy metals or abnormal pH levels and compared their results to samples tested by Colorado Mountain College. Field work proved to be the students’ favorite part of the program. “Going out and testing the water was the best part,” said SMS student Elle Dice. “It was kind of cold, but it was fun.”[...]

After reviewing the results, students played the parts of stakeholders to the Pennsylvania Mine situation. Roles included county commissioners, biologists, environmental protection agency representatives and Montezuma residents, among others. In a mock town hall meeting, the students recommended a solution based on the perceived motivation of their stakeholder role. The students widely agreed that bioremediation — the use of natural filtration systems to absorb heavy metals — was the best solution to the problem. Next spring some of the students will return to the creeks from which the samples were taken to plant willow seeds and enact other forms of bioremediation to the affected water flows…

For more information about the Keystone Science School and the Education in Action program, visit www.keystone.org/cfe/kss or e-mail Miller at dmiller@keystone.org.

More education coverage here.

Southern Delivery System update

From the Colorado Springs Independent (Pam Zubeck):

But on this day, as we hop into Utilities’ 2001 Dodge Durango for a day-long tour of the project, [Dan] Higgins’ spirits are high. “It’s actually happening,” he says…

The pipe along Marksheffel, which extends 4,000 feet and burrows under Sand Creek, is the first segment under construction; it’s being buried in tandem with El Paso County’s widening of the road. Next month, Utilities will open bids from seven pre-qualified pipeline contractors for a four-mile segment southeast of Colorado Springs, several miles east of Interstate 25, where pipe at least 66 inches in diameter will be buried.

SDS — which includes 62 miles of pipe, three pump stations and the treatment plant — represents a dozen construction contracts that will require 700 workers at the peak of construction. And contractors are hungry. Higgins says the Marksheffel stretch drew bids 15 percent below the engineer’s estimate.

Heading south, we pull off Marksheffel along vacant rolling hills where Utilities has acquired 120 acres for a treatment plant, slated for construction in mid-2012.

Northeast of here lies Jimmy Camp Creek, where the city sunk more than $6 million into 14 tracts targeted for a treatment plant and reservoir. The deals, which paid some landowners up to four times their property’s assessed value, triggered an overhaul of city land acquisition rules in 2006.

The federal environmental study later identified archaeological and paleontological artifacts at Jimmy Camp. Also, developers alleged putting a reservoir there would violate the 1988 Banning Lewis annexation agreement, which calls for a passive park — one without the distractions of a reservoir and other activities on the site. Moreover, downstream residents feared loss of life and property if the dam failed.

Now, Jimmy Camp is held as an option to a new site. That site, Upper Williams Creek, is farther south, along Bradley Road, on hundreds of acres that an 1893 map in Penrose Library’s archives shows is near “Burial Rocks” amid former Arapahoe Indian territory. The site, which Utilities has not yet acquired, also might sit atop a network of abandoned mines. A 1967 city Planning Department geology report shows mines in that general area from which more than 445,000 tons of coal were removed from 1883 to 1964…

Our next stop is Pueblo West, a project partner that will be bisected by the pipeline. Utilities is making headway on land acquisition here, having bought several easements and six homes at prices that nearly match assessed values. Higgins notes the homes are being stripped of reusables, such as appliances, windows and doors, to be used by Habitat for Humanity.

At Pueblo Dam, Higgins points out a gushing stream from the dam’s north side. A new outlet from the dam will be built there so that some water can still empty into the Arkansas River to nurture habitat, while another stream goes into Utilities’ new pipeline. This is the site of SDS’ first construction contract, awarded to Pueblo West-based ASI Constructors…

Pushing all that water 1,100 feet uphill will require three 21,000-horsepower pump stations. Power will come from Black Hills Electric and Mountain View Electric, Higgins says. Power for Phase 1 is estimated to cost $1.5 million annually; after both phases are implemented, the bill will be $7.4 million a year.

More Southern Delivery System coverage here and here.

Energy policy — nuclear: Black Hills gets the go ahead for expanded uranium exploration in Fremont County

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Tracy Harmon):

[Fremont County Commissioners] voted 2-1 to allow Australia-based Black Range Minerals’ request to expand exploration on an additional 2,220 acres of property known as the Hansen Deposit, which is believed to be the largest uranium deposit in the district…

In passing the resolution, commissioners also put into place 34 conditions the company must abide by to continue exploration. Commissioner Mike Stiehl cast the one dissenting vote, saying the commission has, “Gone beyond the conditions crafted the first time around and I think done a better job of protecting our water.”

Black Range Explorations Manager Ben Vallerine asked the commission to consider changing one of the conditions from twice-a-year water well monitoring to once a year. “We would like some degree of flexibility in that,” Vallerine said.

“We didn’t agree with that and wanted twice-a-year monitoring because of the wet and dry times,” Stiehl said.

Vallerine also requested the proposed water sampling take place twice a year on wells within a half-mile of exploration areas and only once a year for wells outside of the half-mile range. Again, the commission denied that request. “The applicant continually is resistant to monitoring and I am not able to understand why they are resistant,” Stiehl said.

More nuclear coverage here and here.