Colorado Water Congress 2011 Annual Convention: Ag dry ups were part of the converseation
January 31, 2011
From The Denver Post (Bruce Finley):
Former Gov. Bill Ritter “was always concerned about the loss of agricultural lands, and Gov. (John) Hickenlooper is concerned about the loss of agricultural lands,” said Alex Davis, the state’s assistant director of natural resources. “Do the energy companies end up buying most of the water? Do the municipalities end up competing with the energy companies for water? Could we have a South Platte River without agricultural production? The population is growing. Demands will increase and there’s not enough water to meet all the demands. There will be trade-offs.”[...]
“We’re losing the ability to produce food in this country,” Family Farm Alliance president Pat O’Toole said at a water congress session aimed at exploring options for water sharing. Environmental advocacy groups point out that recreation and tourism-related activities, which in 2009 injected $8.6 billion into Colorado’s economy, require healthy rivers and natural beauty, not new diversions for farming or cities…
Water squeeze
16 million: Number of acre-feet of water that Colorado’s rivers, on average, generate each year. Colorado is obligated, under various legal compacts and decrees, to let about two-thirds of that flow out of the state.
Where the water comes from
Yearly production of significant river basins:
South Platte: 400,000 acre-feet
Arkansas: 164,000 acre-feet
Colorado: 4.5 million acre-feet
Rio Grande: 320,000 acre-feet
Yampa: 530,000 acre-feet…About 80 percent of Colorado’s river water flows on the western side of the state, where about 20 percent of the people live. About 20 percent of the water flows on the eastern side of the state, where 80 percent of the people live. The Western Slope contains 562,000 people and about 918,000 acres of irrigated agricultural land, where food is produced. The eastern half of the state contains 4.5 million people and about 2.5 million irrigated agricultural acres.
Meanwhile, the Henrylyn Irrigation district is gearing up to automate their system. More from Finley’s article:
Installation of a $220,000 system of measuring stations and computer controlled gates by the Henrylyn Irrigation District is slated to start this spring in the South Platte basin. Financed in part by the federal government, the automation is designed to save 4,000 acre-feet of water a year…
“What’s in it for us?” asked Rod Baumgartner, manager of Henrylyn’s network of 140 miles of canals and ditches, which irrigate 33,000 acres northeast of Denver. “If we can be more efficient, it means we’ll have that much more water for the farmers we serve.”
Colorado Water Congress 2011 Annual Convention: Balancing Water Supply and the Environment
January 30, 2011
Moderator, Joe Frank asked the closing general session panel to relate what they had learned from the discussions, sessions and informal conversations that took place over the course of the convention.
Brad Udall repeated his belief that Australian water policy in the Murray-Darling basin shows that markets can be utilized to distribute water effectively and fairly. “We need more people at the table, not just lawyers and engineers,” he said.
“How can we turn our back on the most powerful tool we have?”
He listed some of the things he has been thinking about lately. First, he said, “We have to think long and hard about the number of water providers we have in our urban areas…We need to make sure that we get environmental issues right.”
Conservation is the “least heinous solution out there,” he said, and he favors a, “national water commission,” that will look at the problems and , “incorporate science into policy.”
Udall is also looking for ways to institute transmountain and trans-state markets.
Peter Sutherland (Water Resources, GHD, Sydney) said that Australia is, “still grappling with the same issues you [Colorado] are, how to get things right for the environment and the economy.”
“The water cycle doesn’t recognize state boundaries,” he said.
Mark Pifher (Aurora Water) cited the similarities between solutions in Australia and Colorado. Both, “have made a significant investment in facilities,” he said. Pifher praised Australia’s use of free markets.
I asked Scott Ashby about their market after the session.
He told me that allocations are based on historical diversion practices. Water owners can sell permanently or temporarily.
For example, the government can use the market to acquire environmental water for streamflow or wetlands protection.
Colorado Water Congress 2011 Annual Convention: Climate and Water Policy — When is the right time to Adjust Course?
January 30, 2011
Brad Udall moderated this session. The panel was made up of water managers from both Colorado and Australia.
Mark Waage from Denver Water started things off by stating that, instead of climate change, “I like to call it the unknown climate..It’s going to warm — the question is how high and how much.”
The dilemma comes from the, “overwhelming range of possible outcomes,” we’re, “waiting for actionable science,” he said.
Denver Water has chosen to use scenario planning in their approach. They put the drivers of change into a plan and build multiple possible outcomes for the future and, “try to find the ‘no regrets’ plan.”
He mentioned regional cooperation between Denver Water, Aurora Water and the South Metro Water Supply Authority where the WISE project is designed to leverage Aurora’s Prairie Waters Project to maximize the use of the three suppliers’ reusable water available in the South Platte basin.
He joked that in solving the problem, “We have to get rid of plants to make way for people.”
Mark Pascoe (CEO, National Water Centre, Queensland) said that South Queensland has spent more than $6 billion since the onset of the mega-drought. They are now looking at recycled water, groundwater and stormwater as future supply sources. Their research shows that in most years at least as much rain falls on the cities as they use. The current thinking is to store that stormwater in aquifers for later recovery.
Mark Pifher from Aurora Water noted that higher temperatures are being recorded around the globe and asked, “What does that mean for our regulatory regime?”
“If regulatory constraints are flexible we may not need changes in the statutes,” however, if the rules are subject to strict interpretation then, “we may be in trouble,” he said. He sees conflicts brewing around expansion of reuse programs, additional use of enhanced treatment technologies like Reverse Osmosis with its attendant problem of brine disposal and current wastewater treatment plant capacity limits.
Scott Ashby (Chief Executive, South Australia Department for Water) said that water suppliers up until recent history tended to, “manage on averages.” The drought in Australia has shown that climate change is occurring and that has spawned a change in the game plan as policy makers now manage the entire (Murray-Darling) basin as a whole.
Recent work on the Murray-Darling agreement recognizes that, “extremes are not extremes but the new norm,” he said. He cautioned that, “adherence to regulations can lead to a do nothing option so you have to have a far more flexible system,” to deal with the extremes.
Education is at the heart of South Australia’s water policy as well. They’ve created a strong education program in the schools — getting the young students on board so that when they reach teenage they are supporters of the policy. With education they try to, “keep inventing news things,” such as feedback on water bills about usage compared to the goals set by the authority.
Here’s a report from Chris Woodka writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:
“I don’t see a great deal of movement on water issues this year,” Colorado House Speaker Frank McNulty told the group at its annual convention. “Take the year off.”
His comments were reinforced by other lawmakers, who traditionally open the two-day convention with a wake up call at breakfast. “This year, it’s all about the budget,” said Senate President Brandon Shaffer. “To the extent we can keep water projects whole, we all agree, but with a deficit of $1.1 billion, we’re not making promises to anyone.”
Lawmakers are resistant to more raids on water project funds, which occurred during the past two years, limiting the ability of the Colorado Water Conservation Board to make loans. “When we think we can dip in and take $120 million previously allocated for water projects, we cannot believe that this will become a regular occurrence,” said Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village, and the chair of the Senate Ag Committee. “We need to keep working toward a statewide solution.”
Colorado Water Congress 2011 Annual Convention: Colorado Streamflow Variability — The Hydrologic Effects of Temperature, Dust, and Landscape
January 29, 2011
This session dealt with the current state of the science around measuring snowpack and forecasting streamflow. It was a treat. It’s not often that so many experts currently working on this problem are assembled in one location to present overviews of their current research and thinking.
Jeff Deems (Research Scientist, NOAA Western Water Assessment and National Snow and Ice Data Center) started things off with a bit of a primer on snow albedo and the effects of dust on snowmelt and runoff. “Solar radiation is the big deal,” he said. He added that air temperature has an effect as well but it is much less than solar radiation. Dust decreases the snow albedo and increases the effects (melting) of solar radiation.
The dust that accumulates on the snow surface comes mainly during the spring and therefore impacts the melt season, he said. The snowpack melted off 28 days earlier than the historic norm in 2005, in 2009 it was 50 days earlier and last season the melt occurred 43 days ahead of the average. In the Colorado Rockies, “snow all gone,” is occurring 1 to 2 months earlier now.
Deems said that silt samples from high mountain lakes in the San Juans indicates a six-fold increase in dust in the mid-1800s. There was a drop in the increase of dust directly after the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 was enacted but dust levels have climbed steadily since the late 1940s.
Desert soils in their natural state are armored by crusts, he said. These crusts are composed of biotic materials and shield the soil from wind erosion. Grazing animals and vehicle traffic break down the crusts leading to a 50-fold increase in sediment production when disturbed, according to Deems. Invasive species, primarily annuals, also add to the disturbance as less ground cover is often present in drought conditions, he said.
In the Colorado River Basin his team has estimated a 5% annual runoff decrease or 800,000 acre-feet. To put that into perspective the total is more than two times the annual Colorado River Compact allocation for Southern Nevada.
Deems hopes to see some sort of dust mitigation strategy put in place in northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico that would lessen the amounts of wind-borne silt making it’s way to the Rockies. [Click on the thumbnail graphic to the right for the satellite view of the April 29, 2009 dust event in Four Corners.] During the question and answer period afterward he was asked if any measures are in place and if they are getting results. His answer was no, but another panelist suggested that the Taylor Grazing Act was a good example of what could be done, citing the drop in dust accumulation after its enactment.
Noah Molotch (University of Colorado) explained his team’s work on using remote satellite sensing to measure snowpack. Their approach is to estimate snowpack by calculating backward from “snow all off” to arrive at a snowpack total. This is based on the assumption that snow persists where the accumulation is deepest.
Mark Williams (University of Colorado) emphasized that remote sensing can include a much larger area for measurement rather than the point values inherent in the NRCS’ Snotel network. They are, “able to measure snow-water equivalent across the landscape.”
Williams is working to get dust measuring devices across the southwest to gather data. A new site at Telluride is going to measure uranium and vanadium components in order to monitor the recently licensed uranium mill at Paradox.
David Clow (USGS) and his team are using chemistry and Principle Component Analysis to identify the increase in dust deposition along the Rockies. They collect and analyze snow samples from 57 sites ranging from Montana to New Mexico. The analysis shows an increase in calcium in the samples from the Colorado Rockies indicating an increase in dust over time, he said.
Colorado Water Congress 2011 Annual Convention: Eric Wilkinson receives the Aspinall Award
January 28, 2011
Here’s the release from the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District (Brian Werner):
Wilkinson receives Colorado’s top water honor
BERTHOUD – Northern Water General Manager Eric Wilkinson was named the 2011 recipient of the Aspinall Award at today’s Colorado Water Congress annual awards luncheon in Denver. The award is given each year to someone deemed to be highly knowledgeable about and dedicated to the management of Colorado’s water resources.
Wilkinson joins a select group of 30 previous recipients, who have included U.S. Sen. Hank Brown, Interior Secretary Gale Norton, U.S. Rep. Ray Kogovsek and Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture Don Ament.
Wilkinson has been Northern Water’s general manager since 1994 and is a recognized leader in water issues statewide. He serves on the Colorado Water Conservation Board of Directors, the South Platte Basin Roundtable and the Governor’s Interbasin Compact Committee.
A native of Fort Collins, Wilkinson graduated from Colorado State University in 1973 with a civil engineering degree and has been in the water resources field ever since. In 2007 he was recognized as a distinguished alumnus by the university’s college of engineering.
The Colorado Water Congress describes the awardee as “a person exemplifying the courage, dedication, knowledge and leadership qualities shown by Wayne N. Aspinall in the development, protection and preservation of the water of the State of Colorado.”
The award is named after former state legislator and U.S. Rep. Wayne N. Aspinall, who served in the Statehouse for 16 years before spending the next 24 as a member of the U.S. House. He is considered one of the most influential water leaders in Colorado history.
The award recipient is selected after a rigorous evaluation process which includes all previous Aspinall Award winners and the current officers of the Colorado Water Congress. It was presented by last year’s winner, Alan Hamel, who is the executive director of the Pueblo Board of Water Works.
More Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District coverage here.
Colorado Water Congress 2011 Annual Convention: Water in our corner of the world — a comparative look at water management in Colorado and Australia
January 28, 2011
The first general session at the convention was a panel discussion of the similarities and differences in water management issues between Australia and Colorado. The Murray-Darling basin in Australia has been in a severe multi-year drought and the conditions there have many adjuncts here in Colorado. Australians are dealing with the gap between water supply and needs, just as Colorado is. Their situation is more pressing (until drought visits Colorado statewide again, as in 2002).
Australia’s approach to water management has changed while they have dealt with the drought there. One big difference that came out of the discussion is the heavy federal government involvement in allocating supplies. They do not rely on prior appropriation as we do in Colorado and they have developed water markets to grease the wheels of allocation and protect their economy.
Alex Davis (Colorado Water Conservation Board) said that Australia and Colorado have, “similar ways of attempting to meet the gap,” but that Australia’s system in more centralized, with a more fluid water market and that, “water for the environment is a significant driver.”
During the drought they’ve seen a 45% drop in streamflow, a significant reduction in yield and an increase in temperatures. One big policy difference, according to James Cameron (CEO, National Water Commission) is that the Australian government has a, “much more active involvement,” in the crisis where water matters are usually left to the states in the U.S. He added that, “It is hard to underestimate the importance of markets.”
Brad Udall (Western Water Assessment) said that some in the U.S. look down on federalism but that the Australian approach is not much different from Colorado’s Statewide Water Supply Initiative. He added, in talking about the water issues in the western U.S., that there is, “no way to do it at a state level.”
Towards the end of the session Udall said that his recent visit to Australia to study their response the the drought was, “a life changing experience,” that opened his eyes to new ways of thinking about water. He praised their decision making process for emphasizing their economy in all decisions.
The second general session dealt with the political issues of the day, nationally and statewide.
Floyd Ciruli said that, “This state [Colorado] has become the focal point in the 2012 presidential race.” He said that the U.S. Senate race in Colorado set the stage for Democrats. Michael Bennet was trailing in the polls late in the race but was able to turn things around by focusing on the wide differences he had with Ken Buck. Ciruli said that will be the strategy in many races across the country.
Right now the presidential race is wide open on the Republican side with early polling showing no candidate above 10% support.
The 2010 census resulted in Arizona, Nevada, Washington and Utah gaining congressional seats. It was the first time in California’s history that they will not gain a seat after the census. Most states that lost representatives as a result of the census tend to trend Democratic while the states that picked up seats trend Republican. Colorado will stay at seven representatives.
“Politically speaking the status quo will put us in a weaker position,” compared to downstream states, said Ciruli.
His recent polling tells him that, “Colorado residents value water.” Coloradans favor more storage and do not consider conservation as the sole solution to the water supply gap. Support for agriculture and meeting the threats to supply from out of state are also high on Coloradans radar, according to Ciruli.
Mike King (Colorado Department of Natural Resources Director) said that Colorado, “is going to be facing a daunting fiscal challenge,” in 2011 and 2012 but must, “remain open for business,” while protecting water and the environment. He plans to spearhead an evaluation of the most efficient and effective way for the agencies under his leadership to work together. He says they will, “streamline processes to work more effectively,” managing natural resources for the benefit of the economy, tourism and agriculture.
Energy policy — geothermal: Gypsum deep geothermal project update
January 27, 2011
From the Eagle Valley Enterprise (Derek Franz):
“We wasted four months because we were handling (the geothermal resources) as a mineral right and then realized it made more sense being handled as a water-right issue,” said Jeff Shroll, Gypsum’s town manager. “No one’s really sure how to handle it.”
Lee Robinson, a manager for Flint LLC — known as Flint Eagle LLC in this particular venture — phrased the situation a little differently. “It’s a bit of legal pioneering that we’re doing,” he said. “Nobody has done what we are trying to do, at least not in Colorado.” The legal complications have to do with federal and state statutes and their classifications for a geothermal resource. Robinson described an involved process for sorting out the paperwork before the company can drill…
“Surface geothermal has been used before, but no one has really gone that deep before,” Shroll said recently. Robinson estimated the resource could save some town entities around 20 percent or more in energy expenses, depending on the water’s temperature. If the exploration proves fruitful, Robinson wants to drill more wells and utilize the resource throughout the county…
In his July presentation, Robinson said the Rio Grande Rift extends from Mexico into Colorado under the earth’s surface. The rift is caused by the earth’s crust getting pulled apart. Water trickling down into the deep nooks and crannies of such a rift is then heated by the earth’s mantle. Robinson said the airport is the closest land to the rift that’s entirely owned by Gypsum, including mineral rights, and that’s why he wants to explore there, west of the runway.
More geothermal coverage here.
Colorado Ag Preservation Society meeting February 3
January 27, 2011
From The Holyoke Enterprise:
The Colorado Agriculture Preservation Association (CAPA) will be hosting its annual meeting with featured speakers including the Colorado state engineer Dick Wolfe, first assistant attorney general Peter Ampe, assistant director for water of the Division of Natural Resources (DNR) Alex Davis and president of the RRWCD Dennis Coryell. They will explain the results of arbitration, what that means for North and South Fork users of the basin, what future plans are for compact compliance and the future of the compact compliance pipeline. The meeting will be held Thursday, Feb. 3 at 6:30 p.m. in Burlington at the Boy Scout building.
Blue River Watershed Assessment update
January 27, 2011
From the Summit Daily News (Janice Kurbjun):
The Blue River Wildfire and Watershed Assessment, the latest of which was presented by JW Associates environmental consultant Brad Piehl on Tuesday in the County Commons building, is one of many tools used by the U.S. Forest Service and by Colorado water officials as they prioritize work to be done to protect water sources…
“Each water system has different threats,” said John Duggan, a state source water assessment and protection coordinator, adding that in Summit County, wildfire and emergency response to hazardous-waste spills and other problems are significant pieces to consider. “Our source water protection plan is a holistic, broader approach,” he said, explaining that the Blue River assessment is among a quiver of information to use as they approach issues surrounding water protection. “Wildfire is a piece of it. A significant piece.”[...]
Some of Summit County’s high-priority areas for wildfire and watersheds include inflows to Dillon Reservoir, Old Dillon Reservoir, areas in and around Frisco, Tenmile Creek, Keystone Gulch, and the Snake River. Some of these areas already have projects in place or planned, such as areas targeted by the Forest Service that overlap with the assessment’s high-priority areas. The Forest Service plans to transition from hazard tree removal to watershed protection this year.
CWCB: Board meeting recap
January 26, 2011
From the Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
The [Colorado Water Conservation Board] approved $1.5 million in grants following 2008 legislation aimed at meeting the needs of the Front Range. The new grants approved on Tuesday — part of a 2009 allocation of an additional $1.5 million — opened up new avenues for sharing water on the Western Slope as well. The state is studying alternatives as one way to prevent the dry-up of 500,000 acres of farmland to meet the needs of cities if the state’s population doubles to about 10 million by 2050, as currently projected…
Doherty said the second round of grants was delayed in order to determine the first group of studies was progressing. In some cases, the grants Tuesday enhance efforts already under way. Only one of the grants approved Tuesday will affect the Super Ditch, a $31,000 grant to the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District to develop a farm financial planning tool that allows farmers to determine if selling water through lease agreements is a good idea. A similar tool was developed during the first round of studies, but it was too specific to the South Platte basin, Doherty told the board…
The board also approved a $180,000 grant for the Colorado River Conservation District that would study the establishment of a water bank of per-1922 water rights that could be used to stave off a call on the Colorado River by downstream states. That idea dovetails with a proposal by the Gunnison and Arkansas basin roundtables to establish an account in Blue Mesa Reservoir as insurance against a call on the river by California, Arizona and Nevada under the 1922 Colorado River Compact. Most of the water that is brought across the Continental Divide would be subject to curtailment if there were a call. That water represents about one fourth of the flows in the Arkansas River above Pueblo, about half of Pueblo’s water supply and 80 percent of Colorado Springs’ water supply…
For the South Platte River basin, proposals are looking at several innovations, including:
- Lake Canal Demonstration Project — A $135,000 grant would look at improving flows in the Cache la Poudre River with methods like deficit irrigation and rotational fallowing. Environmental groups support the project, while irrigators on the Lake Canal would receive money for bypassing water in an area already heavily targeted by municipal purchases.
- East Cherry Creek Water and Sanitation District — A $111,000 grant looks at maintaining productivity on land through partial irrigation or conversion to dry-land crops after water purchases.
- Parker Water and Sanitation — A $320,000 grant completes a project to determine measurement of consumptive use by irrigating crops at levels lower than the historic use of water for corn. Parker’s study, with the cooperation of Colorado State University, attempts to show how part of the historic consumptive use could be sold to cities, while allowing irrigation to continue.
- Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District — A $300,000 grant looks at numerous ways to improve efficiency in how water is used and returned to the river.
- Colorado Corn Growers Association, Aurora and Ducks Unlimited — A $250,000 grant will attempt to quantify historic consumptive use on major ditch companies from Denver to Greeley in order to develop a model on how part of the consumptive use could be sold to cities needing water.
More CWCB coverage here.
Energy policy — hydroelectric: Boulder Canyon modernization project designed to generate 500 kW of power
January 26, 2011
Here’s a release from Canyon Hydro via PRWeb:
Canyon Hydro, a USA manufacturer of hydroelectric turbine systems, has been selected by the City of Boulder, Colorado to supply the powerhouse water-to-wire package for the 5-megawatt Boulder Canyon Hydro Modernization Project.
Some of the project funding comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, which imposes strict guidelines for the use of goods manufactured in the United States. Canyon Hydro is the only manufacturer of this turbine class that is entirely owned and operated in the USA.
The project involves the replacement of an existing, 100 year-old turbine system with a modern, more efficient system designed by Canyon Hydro. The new Pelton-type turbine will be specifically designed for the unique requirements of the project, including special provisions to accommodate the existing penstock (water pipeline) connections.
Canyon Hydro will manufacture the turbine at its headquarters in Deming, Washington, and at its new CNC facility in nearby Sumas, Washington. Canyon’s newest computer-controlled CNC milling machine is capable of automatically machining all surfaces of the 1.35 meter (53 inches) Pelton runner to extremely tight tolerances, resulting in very high turbine efficiency.
About Canyon Hydro
Canyon Hydro is the waterpower division of Canyon Industries, Inc. The company has been in business for more than 35 years, and manufactures its own Pelton, Francis, and Crossflow-type hydroelectric turbines. Canyon Hydro also provides extensive refurbishment and replacement services, as well as on-site machining. canyonhydro.com.
NIDIS Weekly Climate, Water and Drought Assessment Summary of the Upper Colorado River Basin
January 25, 2011
Here are the notes for this week from the Colorado Climate Center.
San Juan Mountains: Research into high mercury levels
January 25, 2011
From The Durango Herald (Dale Rodebaugh):
“In 2007 we began to study mercury because very little was known about its presence in Southwest Colorado other than that reservoirs had fish-consumption advisories, and that precipitation sometimes deposited heavy concentrations of mercury at Mesa Verde National Park,” former institute director Koren Nydick said last week by telephone.
As result of mercury accumulation in fish, the state of Colorado has posted advisories at McPhee, Totten, Narraguinnep and Vallecito reservoirs and Najavo Lake cautioning about consumption of fish from those waters.
Kelly Palmer, a Bureau of Land Management hydrologist, said as a result of the Mountain Studies Institute pilot study at Molas Pass, the San Juan National Forest in 2009 initiated a long-term mercury-monitoring program there.
“It appears the levels of mercury are notable,” Palmer said last week…
Analysis of mercury and weather data collected from 2002 to 2008 at Mesa Verde points to coal-fired power plants in New Mexico as potential sources of mercury. Analysis of pollution components as well as potential sources and storm pathways support the theory, Nydick said.
But they don’t pinpoint specific sources and don’t definitely rule out the possibility that storms were carrying pollution from elsewhere when they passed over the New Mexico plants…
In June 2009, researchers from MSI and other agencies spent a day in Mancos Canyon trapping and releasing songbirds after testing their blood for mercury. They also collected crayfish, spiders, sow bugs, cicadas and centipedes and planned to return to electro-shock fish for testing.
“Wetland-dependent songbirds were chosen for study, in addition to fish and crayfish, because research shows they can accumulate methyl mercury,” Nydick said at the time. “It appears they accumulate methyl mercury from prey such as spiders that are a link between the aquatic and terrestrial food webs. That is why we collect invertebrates, soil and dead foliage to analyze for mercury, too.”
CWCB: Statewide Water Supply Initiative 2010 update
January 25, 2011
Bump and update: Here’s a report from Joe Stone writing for The Mountain Mail. From the article:
A new report commissioned by the Colorado Water Conservation Board – Colorado’s Water Supply Future – shows by 2050 municipal and industrial water shortfall will be at least 36,000 acre feet a year in the Arkansas River Basin if all proposed water projects are completed. Without new projects, the basin shortfall could be as much as 110,000 acre feet per year.
The report estimates Colorado will need from 600,000 to 1 million acre feet per year of additional municipal and industrial and “self-supplied industrial” water by 2050. And if the state water supply continues to develop according to status quo, water for 500,000 irrigated acres could be transferred to municipal and industrial uses, resulting in “significant loss of agricultural land and potential harm to the environment.”[...]
Other factors driving increased demand for water include energy resource development, need to replace depleted groundwater sources and self-supplied industrial needs like oil shale development. For example, the report indicates an oil shale industry producing 1,550,000 barrels of oil per day could use as much as 120,000 acre feet of water per year.
Update: Here’s a look at the Grand Valley and their take on Colorado River governance, from Honora Swanson writing for KJCT8.com. From the article:
A new report out shows that our state will need twice as much water in 2050 as we do right now. The Colorado River Conservation District Board estimates 10 million more people could come to Colorado in the next 40 years. And with those people, comes a big demand for water.
The article is about the SWSI 2010 Update released last Friday by the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
Here’s a look back at last month’s meeting of the Colorado River Water Users Association Annual Conference with a bit of analysis of the basin thrown in, from Brett Walton writing for Circle of Blue Water News. From the article:
In Las Vegas last month, at the annual meeting of the Colorado River Water Users Association—the only organization bringing together stakeholders from each of the seven basin states—opponents and supporters made their views known during a speech by Doug Kenney, the director of the Western Water Policy Program at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
Kenney was invited to Caesar’s Palace to share the first-year findings from his study on water governance in the Colorado River Basin. His message: in a new era of water scarcity along the river—where supply and demand lines have already crossed—traditional water management practices will need to be fundamentally changed.
New options for managing the Colorado include establishing provisions for year-to-year agreements with states and farmers to avoid shortages. They also include improvements in the efficiency of river operations, or by river augmentation, which means adding new supplies from a slew of sources—some viable, some expensive, and some fanciful: desalination, river diversions, and weather modification, respectively.
Kenney’s governance study is just one of several such assessments—carried out by academics and federal agencies, as well as state and regional water management authorities—suggesting the need for new ways to manage water flows. The studies are providing a new legal and scientific foundation for defining existing water rights within states, clarifying laws and regulations about how shortages on the river would be handled, and evaluating options for increasing the basin’s water supply and reducing demand.
Kenney argued that the states of the upper basin—Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming—are the most vulnerable if future flows are as low as predicted because the river’s legal structure gives priority to Mexico and the lower basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada.
More Colorado River basin coverage here.
First-Ever Global Map of Surface Permeability Informs Water Supply, Climate Modelling
January 25, 2011
Here’s the release from the University of British Columbia via Science Daily:
University of British Columbia researchers have produced the first map of the world outlining the ease of fluid flow through the planet’s porous surface rocks and sediments.
The maps and data, published January 21 in Geophysical Research Letters, could help improve water resource management and climate modelling, and eventually lead to new insights into a range of geological processes.
“This is the first global-scale picture of near-surface permeability, and is based on rock type data at greater depths than previous mapping,” says Tom Gleeson, a postdoctoral researcher with the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences.
Using recent world-wide lithology (rock type) results from researchers at the University of Hamburg and Utrecht University in the Netherlands, Gleeson was able to map permeability across the globe to depths of approximately 100 metres. Typical permeability maps have only dealt with the top one to two metres of soil, and only across smaller areas.
“Climate models generally do not include groundwater or the sediments and rocks below shallow soils,” says Gleeson. “Using our permeability data and maps we can now evaluate sustainable groundwater resources as well as the impact of groundwater on past, current and future climate at the global scale.”
A better understanding of large scale permeability of rock and sediment is critical for water resource management–groundwater represents approximately 99 per cent of the fresh, unfrozen water on earth. Groundwater also feeds surface water bodies and moistens the root zone of terrestrial plants.
“This is really an example of mapping research from a new, modern era of cartography,” says Gleeson. “We’ve mapped the world, peering well below the surface, without ever leaving our offices.”
The study’s maps include a global map at a resolution of 13,000 kilometres squared, and a much more detailed North American map at a resolution of 75 kilometres squared.
The research also improves on previous permeability databases by compiling regional-scale hydrogeological models from a variety of settings instead of relying on permeability data from small areas.
The paper’s authors include UBC Professors Leslie Smith and Mark Jellinek, as well as researchers from the US Geological Survey in Denver, Colorado, the University of Hamburg, and Utrecht University.
The work was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the German Science Foundation, and Utrecht University.
Update: Here’s a look at the Grand Valley and their take on Colorado River governance, from Honora Swanson writing for KJCT8.com. From the article:
A new report out shows that our state will need twice as much water in 2050 as we do right now. The Colorado River Conservation District Board estimates 10 million more people could come to Colorado in the next 40 years. And with those people, comes a big demand for water.
The article is about the SWSI 2010 Update released last Friday by the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
Here’s a look back at last month’s meeting of the Colorado River Water Users Association Annual Conference with a bit of analysis of the basin thrown in, from Brett Walton writing for Circle of Blue Water News. From the article:
In Las Vegas last month, at the annual meeting of the Colorado River Water Users Association—the only organization bringing together stakeholders from each of the seven basin states—opponents and supporters made their views known during a speech by Doug Kenney, the director of the Western Water Policy Program at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
Kenney was invited to Caesar’s Palace to share the first-year findings from his study on water governance in the Colorado River Basin. His message: in a new era of water scarcity along the river—where supply and demand lines have already crossed—traditional water management practices will need to be fundamentally changed.
New options for managing the Colorado include establishing provisions for year-to-year agreements with states and farmers to avoid shortages. They also include improvements in the efficiency of river operations, or by river augmentation, which means adding new supplies from a slew of sources—some viable, some expensive, and some fanciful: desalination, river diversions, and weather modification, respectively.
Kenney’s governance study is just one of several such assessments—carried out by academics and federal agencies, as well as state and regional water management authorities—suggesting the need for new ways to manage water flows. The studies are providing a new legal and scientific foundation for defining existing water rights within states, clarifying laws and regulations about how shortages on the river would be handled, and evaluating options for increasing the basin’s water supply and reducing demand.
Kenney argued that the states of the upper basin—Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming—are the most vulnerable if future flows are as low as predicted because the river’s legal structure gives priority to Mexico and the lower basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada.
More Colorado River basin coverage here.
CWCB: Statewide Water Supply Initiative 2010 update
January 24, 2011
Just in time for the CWCB meeting and the Colorado Water Congress Annual Convention this week the CWCB has released the updated SWSI 2010 report. You can download it from the CWCB here. From the executive summary:
Colorado faces significant and immediate water supply challenges. Despite the recent economic recession, the state has experienced rapid population growth, and Colorado’s population is expected to nearly double within the next 40 years. If Colorado’s water supply continues to develop according to current trends, i.e., the status quo, this will inevitably lead to a large transfer of water out of agriculture resulting in significant loss of agricultural lands and potential harm to the environment.
Providing an adequate water supply for Colorado’s citizens, agriculture, and the environment will involve implementing a mix of local water projects and processes, conservation, reuse, agricultural transfers, and the development of new water supplies, all of which should be pursued concurrently. With this Statewide Water Supply Initiative (SWSI) 2010 update, the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB or Board) has confirmed and updated its analysis of the state’s water supply needs and recommends Colorado’s water community enter an implementation phase to determine and pursue solutions to meeting the state’s consumptive and nonconsumptive water supply needs.
Here’s a report from the Colorado Independent (David O. Williams):
Colorado will need up to 1 million more acre-feet of water than it currently uses if, as projected by the report, the state’s population balloons to 10 million by 2050. The fastest areas of growth will be on Colorado’s Western Slope, where the prospect of increased traditional energy production – as well as a speculative oil shale boom – looms large in any water discussion.
The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel [Gary Harmon] reports the state’s demands for municipal and industrial water “could exceed supply by as much as 630,000 acre-feet by mid-century,” according to the report released Friday.
More CWCB coverage here.
From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
The Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District agreed to coordinate formation of the committee at its meeting Thursday, as part of a $225,000 grant request for the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District on behalf of the Super Ditch. The grant was approved last week by the Arkansas Basin Roundtable, which forwarded it to the Colorado Water Conservation Board. It will be accompanied by a letter of dissent from roundtable member Dan Henrichs, superintendent of the High Line Canal.
Henrichs and some others on the roundtable objected to the grant because the Super Ditch exchange application is in Water Court and the information could be used in the case. Jay Winner, general manager of the Lower Ark district, said the information would be available for anyone to use, and most roundtable members agreed that it is better to know how agricultural water can be quantified for exchange, storage and transfer.
Winter water is just one piece of the grant. The program was established by a court decree to allow irrigators to store water from Nov. 15 to March 15 each year. Water can be used later in the growing season, when flows are typically diminished…
[Southeastern Executive Director Jim Broderick] said the Division of Water Resources, Southeastern, the Bureau of Reclamation and winter water participants need to meet to see how using winter water in programs like Super Ditch that sell water through lease agreements. Henrichs was on hand to make sure winter water interests are included. “We have to work out winter water before it’s put out before the whole world and becomes a battle,” Broderick said. “We want the process to be inclusive.”
Snowpack news: Drought conditions persist on the eastern plains
January 24, 2011
From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
Snowpack remains heavy in the northern mountains and much of the Western Slope, while the Arkansas River basin continues to move into severe drought. Statewide, snowpack remains at 125 percent of average, but it’s too early to make projections about water supply. The Arkansas River and Rio Grande basins hover near average precipitation, while the South Platte and southwest corner of the state are slightly above average. The Colorado River and its tributaries are well above normal…
To illustrate the importance of later spring snows, snowfall in the upper part of the Arkansas River basin was at 60 to 75 percent of peak so far, said Pat Edelmann, of the Pueblo office of the U.S. Geological Survey. The southern mountains are at only 20 to 30 percent of peak, while the Roaring Fork basin, which provides supplemental diversions to the Arkansas River, is at 50 to 75 percent of its peak…
Ski areas are reporting healthy bases of snow, with 74 inches at Wolf Creek, 64 inches at Monarch and 54 inches at Ski Cooper. Snotel sites operated by the Natural Resources Conservation Service show snow depths up to 7 feet at higher elevations, with 3 to 4 feet at most lower sites on the Western Slope. In the southern mountains, there is less than 2 feet in most places. Snow water equivalent, the moisture content of snow, is 8 to 36 inches in most places, but under 6 inches in the southern mountains…
Storage in upper reservoirs — Lake Pueblo, Clear Creek, Turquoise and Twin Lakes — is anywhere from 100 to 140 percent of average, which Trinidad Lake is only 70 percent of average and John Martin Reservoir is at 30 percent.
Precipitation news
January 23, 2011
From The Yuma Pioneer (Tony Rayl):
The early-week moisture helped bring total precipitation so far in January to six-tenths of an inc (o.60 inch). The moisture has been widespread, bringing hope for this year’s winter wheat crop that had been struggling along under extremely dry conditions since being planted early last fall. The first 18 days of 2011 have been the wettest stretch in the region since early August, and has been the wettest early January since 2007.
Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District board meeting recap
January 23, 2011
From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
The board is concerned that the Fountain Creek Watershed Flood Control and Greenway District is contemplating diverting money from the Corridor Master Plan and concentrating more on land-use review rather than completing projects to improve Fountain Creek. “If you aren’t seeing any progress, you won’t have people going forward with you,” said Leroy Mauch, the Lower Ark board member who also sits on the Fountain Creek board…
Under an intergovernmental agreement, the district is using $100,000 annually from Colorado Springs Utilities and the Lower Ark district to fund its activities. Those two sources are also funding the master plan at $200,000 annually. Funding ends this year. The district has no other source of funding until at least 2016, when Colorado Springs would pay the balance of $50 million pledged to the district under conditions of the Pueblo County 1041 permit for the Southern Delivery System…
The district board will look at the Lower Ark’s response at its next meeting, 1 p.m. Jan. 28 at Fountain City Hall, said Pueblo County Commissioner Jeff Chostner, chairman of the Fountain Creek board.
More Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District coverage here.
Peak water
January 23, 2011
From Circle of Blue: Water News (Peter Gleick):
Water Number: Three (3) definitions of “peak water.”
Peak Renewable Water: This is the limit reached when humans take the entire renewable flow of a river or stream for our use. Water is renewable, but there is a limit to how much can be used. Humans have already reached “peak renewable water” limits on the Colorado River. We use it all and can’t take any more. In fact, of course, we probably shouldn’t even take as much as we do, for ecological reasons (see “Peak Ecological Water” below). Increasingly, we are reaching peak renewable limits on many of our rivers and streams. The Yellow River in China no longer reaches the sea much of the year. The Aral Sea has been devastated because the entire flows of the Amu and Syr Darya rivers have been consumed. The Nile Delta is typically dry much of the year.
Peak Non-Renewable Water: While much of our water supply is renewable, there are “non-renewable” water sources as well, where our use of water depletes or degrades the source. This most typically takes the form of groundwater aquifers that we pump out faster than nature recharges them — exactly like the concept of “peak oil.” Over time, groundwater becomes depleted, more expensive to tap, or effectively exhausted. Central Valley aquifers are overpumped, unsustainably, to the tune of 1-to-2 million acre-feet a year. So are groundwater aquifers in India, China, the Great Plains, and other places. This cannot continue indefinitely — it runs into peak non-renewable water limits.
Peak Ecological Water: The third definition, and perhaps the most important (and difficult) one, is peak “ecological” water — the point where any additional human uses cause more harm (economic, ecological, or social) than benefit. We’re good at measuring the “benefits” of more human use of water (semiconductors manufactured, or food produced, or economic value generated), but we’re bad at measuring on an equal footing, the ecological “costs” or harm caused by that same use of water. As a result, species are driven to extinction, habitat is destroyed, water purification capabilities of marshes and wetlands are lost. For many watersheds around the world, we are reaching, or exceeding, the point of “peak ecological water.”
From The Colorado Springs Gazette (Daniel Chaćon):
…a late-in-the-game tangle with the federal government means Utilities still doesn’t have key contracts it needs to start construction at the Pueblo Reservoir, the mouth of the 62-mile pipeline…
Utilities officials insist the unfinished contracts won’t stop or delay construction. They point to a 4,000-foot section of pipeline that workers recently laid along Marksheffel Road, marking the unofficial start of the project. And, they say, a 4-mile stretch of construction will start in El Paso County in February or March. Utilities has already invested more than $100 million in the project. “It’s important that we take the time to get these final details resolved in a way that protects our customers’ best interests,” John Fredell, SDS project manager, said Friday.
Although it’s unclear when Utilities and the bureau will reach agreement on the contracts, it’s primarily “lawyerly language” that needs to be ironed out, said David Robbins, outside legal counsel for Utilities. “I hope we’re pretty close,” he said this week.
According to interviews and e-mails between Utilities officials and bureau representatives, three significant issues remain unresolved:
• A termination, or “subject to appropriation of funds,” provision.
• A desire by Utilities officials to take advantage of lower water storage rates if other entities get such rates in the future.
• A schedule detailing how much water each of the SDS partners needs to store each year and the cost over the life of the contracts.
