From The Colorado Springs Gazette (John Schroyer):
El Paso County Commissioner Amy Lathen and state Rep. Marsha Looper, R-Calhan, convened the conference because oil in the near eastern plains is booming again, and Coloradans need to know how they can profit from it without endangering their water. State officials spent hours explaining how the oil and gas industry is regulated, how horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing operate, and what kind of rights are afforded to landowners trying to decide whether to lease their rights to oil companies.
The most vital message was that protecting Colorado’s groundwater should be the highest priority for both the state and landowners, said Dave Neslin, director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. To that end, the state requires hydraulic fracturing (also known as “fracking”) pipes not only to be made of stainless steel, but also to be encased in concrete, said Neslin…The concrete casings are just one of dozens of requirements placed on the industry, Neslin told the crowd. Complaints can be filed by anyone at any time for any reason, and one of COGCC’s 15 inspectors around the state will respond within 24 hours, he said…
Looper called the conference the “beginning of an education,” and said there will be a lot of issues going forward. She said she doubts that a perfect balance will ever be struck between all the stakeholders. “The question is, how much water is in the ground? Is there enough for the energy companies and all of the 500,000-plus residents on the Front Range? I don’t think so,” said Looper.
Meanwhile, Greeley oil company, Ranchers Exploration, held a public meeting Monday night to inform residents about their plans for the Niobrara shale play near Windsor. Here’s a report from Bobby Magill writing for the Fort Collins Coloradoan. From the article:
Ranchers Exploration intends to drill for oil 1½ miles directly beneath the neighborhoods [150 River West and Ridge West subdivision], which are in Larimer County along the Poudre River, using a drilling technique called directional drilling. That method allows drilling rigs to drill away from homes, preventing them from having to drill down into the oil from above. The specific drilling site hasn’t been determined yet, said the company’s chief operating officer Michael Ward. Each well also will be fracked, he said. Fracking companies use a granular substance and a cocktail of possibly carcinogenic chemicals to fracture an underground natural gas- or oil-saturated rock formation, helping to release the fuel into the well…
“Just reading this, I got the impression that if haste makes waste, we’re dealing with a cesspool of a company,” said resident and Colorado State University forest ecology professor Thomas Stohlgren, who received his lease in the mail Monday, after it was sent Saturday…
“This was a plan to keep us ill-informed,” he said. “We were not informed whatsoever about the chemicals used in the process, some of which may be carcinogenic. No list of chemicals came with the documents. We are not advised of whether a bond would be posted for any possible long-term environmental or health effects from fracking in a subdivision. “There are no peer reviewed studies that show no long-term effects of fracking. So, they are experimenting, and you are the guinea pigs. We are the guinea pigs.”[...]
Residents also said they are concerned about a practice called forced pooling, under which homeowners who decline to lease their minerals could be forced to by the COGCC. “If nobody signs the lease, do you still have the right to drill?” another woman asked Ward.
“Yes,” he responded. “But it’s not going to be fun.”
More coverage from T. M. Fasano writing for The Greeley Tribune. From the article:
Harold Smith owns 50 percent of the mineral rights and the homeowners own the other 50 percent. [Mike Ward, the chief operating officer for Ranchers Exploration Partners] said even if the homeowners do not sign a lease to turn over their mineral rights, which amounts to about $70 per year per property owner, the drilling will still go on because of Smith’s 50 percent ownership of mineral rights. “My job is to drill wells for people who want to access their mineral rights,” Ward said…
Ward, whose company is drilling four wells on open space farmland in Eaton, said there won’t be any drilling for at least six months, and the plan is to drill the first well on open space on the north side of River West. Ward said it’s the first time his company has drilled near a subdivision, and if the first well doesn’t produce oil or gas, the project will be stopped.
“The best hope we have to not get drilled on is if they hit a dry hole down below on River West,” [Donn Brubaker, the president of the Ridge West HOA board of directors,] said.
Lake Mead news: Reclamation projects the reservoir level to rise 40 feet over the next year as releases continue from Lake Powell
August 17, 2011
From the Las Vegas Sun (Connor Shine):
According to Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman Rose Davis, excess water from Lake Powell is being sent to Lake Mead under conditions established in the Colorado River Compact. Lake Mead’s elevation had plunged nearly 100 feet over the past decade, as a lingering drought choked the Colorado River. The lake came within six feet of dropping below the point that would have caused a water shortage. Further drops would have triggered limits on water use in the valley, but the recent increase has pushed the date of a possible shortage back to at least 2014, Davis said. “It’s too early to say the drought is over, but we’ve had a great year,” Davis said.
More Colorado River basin coverage here.
Lamar pipeline: Around 75 people attend first public meeting with the developer GP Resources, LLC in Lamar
August 17, 2011
From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
Karl Nyquist, one of the partners in the GP group, outlined the scope of the project for about 75 people, including local water rights owners, county commissioners from throughout the area, state water officials and attorneys. Prowers County would gain full-time jobs, tax base and economic diversity from the project, while losing seasonal farm labor and water, Nyquist said. “We think we can provide benefits on this end, in Prowers County,” he told the group. “We have tried to engineer a project that can be supportable in Prowers County and supportable on the Front Range and good for everyone.”
Those attending the meeting questioned whether GP could treat the water in a cost-effective manner, how the brine from treatment would be dealt with and whether the tax benefits of a privately built project would last if it were turned over to a public district at some point. Nyquist explained that Water Court, the Arkansas River Compact Administration and Prowers County 1041 regulations would sort out those kinds of issues. The project is being aired at a series of public meetings in Lamar, Elbert and El Paso counties as Nyquist and his partners seek approval for expansion of their Elbert County water district.
More Lamar pipeline coverage here.
Flaming Gorge pipeline: Add Utah’s Uintah County to the list of critics of the proposed project
August 16, 2011
From the Deseret News (Amy Joi O’Donoghue):
“If this project moves forward, we’re afraid that whatever water rights we have left (on the Green River) will be a paper water right without any wet water,” said Uintah County Commissioner Mike McKee…
As planned, Million said the project would generate 70 megawatts of hydropower from in-line storage and another 500 to 1,000 megawatts from pumped storage — an energy source he says could shore up intermittent renewables such as wind and solar that are in demand to become a larger player in Colorado’s energy portfolio.
Million said he is framing the water-use requirements around a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation preliminary analysis that shows even when future Utah and Wyoming water depletions are factored in from the Green River, Flaming Gorge has an available surplus of 165,000 acre feet a year. Another 75,000 acre feet would be diverted per year from the Green River above Flaming Gorge…
Utah’s Uintah County joins another line of critics, who aside from other accusations, describe the proposal as an “if we build, it they will come” project because of questions about the financing and customer base.
Million says the viability of the project is backed by multiple water supply studies that show sharp contrasts between Colorado’s available water supply and demands in the decades to come. That is backed by letters of interest he says he has received that represent an annual need for 400,000 acre feet of water — nearly twice what the project would deliver.
Wastewater: The Metropolitan Wastewater Reclamation District to break ground on their Northern Treatment Plant tomorrow
August 16, 2011
From the Metro district via the Commerce City Sentinel:
The Metro Wastewater Reclamation District, which treats wastewater for most of the Denver area, will break ground for its new treatment plant at U.S. Highway 85 and Weld County Road 2 1/2 at 10 a.m., Aug. 17. The $475 million plant marks the first satellite treatment facility for the district, and it coincides with the district’s 50th anniversary, which will be incorporated into the program…
The facility is scheduled to go online in 2015. It will serve portions of Aurora, Brighton, Commerce City and Thornton and have the capacity to serve other communities in the northern end of the metropolitan area.
The district’s service area is about 715 square miles. The main plant at 64th Avenue and York Street treats about 140 million gallons of wastewater per day.
More wastewater coverage here.
Wastewater: Palisade cancels new lift station and sewer line project, replaces it with lower cost alternative
August 16, 2011
From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Mike Wiggins):
In a move made both out of frustration with federal guidelines and relief in having discovered a cheaper option, town trustees last week unanimously agreed to terminate a project that would have resulted in a new lift station and a three-mile pipeline to hook into the Clifton Sanitation District’s treatment plant. The board also agreed to give up a grant and loan totaling nearly $8 million that would have funded the project. Instead, the town will modify its existing lagoon system for $1 million to $1.25 million. “I’m very pleased to be able to tell ratepayers in the town of Palisade that we’re going to be able to comply with the unfunded mandates at a cost far lower than originally assumed,” Town Administrator Tim Sarmo said…
Following a lead from Delta, Palisade also learned about technology that emerged last year that allowed the town to diffuse the ammonia being released into the river. The town will make other upgrades to the lagoons.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment recently approved a site plan amendment and asked the town to submit more specific construction plans. Sarmo said he hopes to win state approval of the plans by December, start construction in March and finish the work early next summer.
More wastewater coverage here.
Here’s the link to the Colorado Water Congress’ August 2011 newsletter. Here’s an excerpt:
The CWC is pleased to announce the release of a new news service available on its web site called the CWC Evening News. Updated daily, the Evening News provides summaries of water-related news articles from Colorado and the West. Links to the full versions of each article are also provided. Updates generally appear each afternoon.
Colorado State University study: Changing Climate Could Cut Western Trout Habitat in Half
August 16, 2011
Here’s the release from Colorado State University (Kimberly Sorensen):
A new study shows a changing climate could reduce trout habitat in the Western United States by about 50 percent over the next 70 years, with some trout species experiencing greater declines than others. The results were reported by a team of 11 scientists from Colorado State University, Trout Unlimited, the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group.
The study, published this week in the peer-reviewed science journal, “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,” predicts native cutthroat throughout the West could decline by as much as 58 percent and introduced brook trout could decline by as much as 77 percent. Rainbow and brown trout populations, according to the study, would also decline by an estimated 35 percent and 48 percent, respectively. These losses would have major impacts on trout fishing, which generates hundreds of millions of dollars in recreation annually in the United States and is a major factor drawing anglers to Colorado and the West.
The study notes that the decline of cutthroat trout is of particular significance because cutthroats are the only trout native to much of the West and a keystone species in the Rocky Mountain ecosystem.
“The study advances our understanding of climate change impacts by looking beyond temperature increases to the role of flooding and interactions between species,” said Seth Wenger, the paper’s lead author. “The study also is notable in scope, using data from nearly 10,000 sites throughout about 400,000 square miles of the Western United States.”
“This research also builds on 15 years of work with graduate students at CSU to find ways to prevent our native cutthroat trout from going extinct in the face of declining habitat and nonnative trout invasions,” said co-author Kurt Fausch, professor in CSU’s Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology and an expert on trout ecology and management in the West. “It’s exciting to see these ideas being used, but the impending loss of trout habitat is both startling and depressing. The West is iconic for trout fishing, but much of this is projected to go away.”
Wenger was quick to point out that, while predictions are indeed dire, there is some hope. By restoring and reconnecting coldwater drainages and by protecting existing healthy habitat largely located on public lands in the West, some of the decline in trout populations might be avoided.
“Trout Unlimited is working to protect remaining strongholds and restore degraded habitat – exactly the kind of things that need to be done to reduce the impact of a changing climate on coldwater fisheries in the West,” Wenger said.
“This report is a wake-up call,” said Chris Wood, president and CEO of Trout Unlimited. “The good news is that we’re already working to protect high-quality trout habitat, such as backcountry roadless areas on national forests. We’re reconnecting tributaries to mainstem rivers, and we’re restoring degraded habitat. It is imperative that we accelerate the scope and the pace of that work if we are to have healthy trout populations and the irreplaceable fishing opportunities they provide through this century.
“However, this study also reinforces the danger in congressional proposals that would remove protection from backcountry roadless areas and cut funding for state and federal natural resource agencies,” Wood said.
Wenger and fellow researchers used an ensemble of climate models to arrive at the study’s findings. Some models predicted more warming than others, but under even the most optimistic model, cutthroat trout populations in the West could decline by 33 percent. Scientists note that most of the 14 unique forms (subspecies) of cutthroat trout are already in trouble—two are extinct, and most of the rest now occupy less than 15 percent of their historic native range with several of these listed under the Endangered Species Act. Declines from a changing climate would impact native cutthroat trout beyond the impacts they’ve already suffered.
The study can be read in its entirety online at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences website: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/08/09/1103097108.
The research was funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station.
Here’s the abstract:
Broad-scale studies of climate change effects on freshwater species have focused mainly on temperature, ignoring critical drivers such as flow regime and biotic interactions. We use downscaled outputs from general circulation models coupled with a hydrologic model to forecast the effects of altered flows and increased temperatures on four interacting species of trout across the interior western United States (1.01 million km2), based on empirical statistical models built from fish surveys at 9,890 sites. Projections under the 2080s A1B emissions scenario forecast a mean 47% decline in total suitable habitat for all trout, a group of fishes of major socioeconomic and ecological significance. We project that native cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarkii, already excluded from much of its potential range by nonnative species, will lose a further 58% of habitat due to an increase in temperatures beyond the species’ physiological optima and continued negative biotic interactions. Habitat for nonnative brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis and brown trout Salmo trutta is predicted to decline by 77% and 48%, respectively, driven by increases in temperature and winter flood frequency caused by warmer, rainier winters. Habitat for rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, is projected to decline the least (35%) because negative temperature effects are partly offset by flow regime shifts that benefit the species. These results illustrate how drivers other than temperature influence species response to climate change. Despite some uncertainty, large declines in trout habitat are likely, but our findings point to opportunities for strategic targeting of mitigation efforts to appropriate stressors and locations.
More coverage from Steve Bunk writing for NewWest.net. From the article:
Today’s paper, in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also predicts that by 2080, rainbow trout, whose native habitat includes Idaho in the Rocky Mountain states, could be reduced by 35 percent. Two introduced trout species in the study will not do well, either: Brook trout habitat could decline by an estimated 77 percent, and brown trout by 48 percent…
They base their conclusions on statistical models they constructed that use data from almost 10,000 fish surveys, which were primarily done in the western parts of Colorado and Wyoming, eastern and northern Idaho, the western half of Montana, and in much of Utah. They write that the real value of their work, rather than predicting the futures of local populations of fish species, is to help identify how species and their habitats will react to various environmental effects of climate change. As an example, they point to a 1994 laboratory study that indicated brook trout in Wyoming fare better in warm-temperature waters than cutthroat. This apparently was contradicted by a 2011 study done in the Columbia River Basin showing cutthroat do better than brookies in warm water. The authors say their study resolves this conflict by showing that cutthroat generally have a wider thermal range than brook trout, although this varies in specific habitats, due to localized genetic adaptations…
The new report takes into account temperature shifts, seasonal flooding, inter-species competition, topography, and various land uses throughout the study area. It shows that brook and brown trout, which spawn in the fall, are hurt by high water flows in winter, which scour the eggs from stream bottoms. Such flows are expected to increase with climate change. The spring-spawning cutthroat suffer a little from such high flows, but rainbow, which also spawn in spring, actually benefit from them, possibly because of genetic adaptation.
More coverage from David O. Williams writing for the Colorado Independent. From the article:
Besides Colorado State University, the study was conducted by Trout Unlimited, the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group. In addition to rising water temperatures, the study looks at other factors such as “flow regimes” and “biotic interactions.”[...]
Kurt Fausch, professor in CSU’s Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, said the study builds on 15 years of research by CSU graduate students trying to find ways to prevent the degradation of habitat for native cutthroat trout, considered a keystone species in the Rocky Mountain ecosystem. “It’s exciting to see these ideas being used,” Fausch said, “but the impending loss of trout habitat is both startling and depressing. The West is iconic for trout fishing, but much of this is projected to go away.”
More climate change coverage here.
Aspinall Unit operations meeting August 18
August 16, 2011
From email from Reclamation (Dan Crabtree):
The 2011 August Aspinall Operation meeting will be held starting at 1:00 p.m. on August 18th at the Elk Creek Visitors Center located on the balmy banks of beautiful Blue Mesa Reservoir. The meeting will last 2 – 3 hours depending on the depth of discussions and questions. We will be reviewing operations from this past spring and summer along with projected operations for the coming fall. The meeting is open to the public and we look forward to your questions and reports regarding activities related to operations of the Aspinall Unit. Agenda ideas are welcome.
More Aspinall Unit coverage here.
The Arkansas Basin roundtable forms committee to study the basin’s agricultural water gap
August 16, 2011
From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
Reeves Brown, a Beulah rancher and member of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District board, will chair the committee. Brown has consistently made the point that the state’s water-planning process through the Interbasin Compact Committee and Colorado Water Conservation Board is focused on filling a municipal gap, but largely ignores the future needs of agriculture…
The IBCC has treated farmland dry-up as a default measure for obtaining future urban supplies and has concentrated on finding alternatives to that through conservation, ongoing projects, new projects and alternative ag transfers that don’t take land out of production.
More IBCC — basin roundtables coverage here.
From The Mountain Mail (Cailey McDermott):
The first hole at Poncha Hot Springs [which demonstrated a thermal gradient of 178 degrees Celsius per kilometer] was drilled to a relatively shallow depth of 255 feet to determine if the thermal gradient is sufficient to warrant a deeper hole. Morgan said shallow holes cost about $10,000 each, while the cost of a borehole deep enough to facilitate geothermal electricity production is around $1 million. The project budget, $50,000, came from a state grant…
[Frederick Henderson of Hendco Services] said temperature readings gathered from the first hole were “really very good.” But he clarified that the number is preliminary and the hole will need to be retested when the temperature has stabilized. He said drilling machines sometimes makes a difference in air temperature in the hole and the next test may be higher or lower. Henderson said geothermal testing near Mount Princeton returned thermal gradient measurements eight times greater than normal, making it the most significant thermal gradient in the state.
Energy policy — oil and gas: Property owners cannot deny oil companies ingress and egress to explore and produce minerals
August 15, 2011
Back in the day I worked as a permit agent for one of the biggest U.S. oil companies. Once in a while I had to tell some hay farmer that I was going to take several acres of his irrigated alfalfa out of production for several years or decades. There was no guarantee, of course, that any well we drilled would turn out to be a producer. But if the well did come in the farmer would lose control of his surface for the life of the well. Operations such as re-fracturing, casing repairs, hauling off oil or condensate and connecting to a natural gas pipeline would be ongoing I told them. If that farmer owned the mineral rights he would get a royalty. More often than not the surface damages that I paid up front were the only compensation. To add insult to injury “forced pooling” may have forced the farmer to lease or sell his rights in the first place.
Fast forward to the burgeoning Niobrara shale play in Colorado. Here’s a report about leasing tactics in Elbert and Douglas counties, from Mark Jaffe writing for The Denver Post. From the article:
Across Elbert and Douglas counties, where energy companies are competing for leases, landmen are using the “forced pooling” card as leverage, property owners say. “Everybody was told the alternative to a lease was forced pooling,” said Steve Budnack, president of the homeowners association for Centennial Ranch in Douglas County.
Under the state’s 1951 Oil and Gas Conservation Act, the mineral rights of a landowner who has not signed a lease, or refuses to sign one, can by state order be force pooled, meaning he or she can be included in an energy company’s drilling plan. In 2010, the state oil and gas commission issued 136 orders for items such as variances and rule changes, and 48 of the orders were for forced pooling, according to agency data. “It sounds like eminent domain, but it is really there to assure orderly oil and gas development,” said Lance Astrella, an attorney who represents landowners. “The problem is that it can be abused.”[...]
Whether forced pooling is employed as a prod, its use in the Denver area — parts of Boulder, Arapahoe and Adams counties also sit atop the Niobrara — is likely to grow.
The horizontal wells the industry is drilling to capture oil from the Niobrara’s shale can extend 5,000 feet or more, requiring larger drilling areas that will affect more landowners, Astrella said.
“It may start out as a threat,” said Debbie Trujillo, an Elbert County homeowner who began researching leasing after landmen knocked on her door. “But when an oil company decides to drill in an area, it becomes a very real possibility.”[...]For parcels that don’t have leases, the driller returns to the oil and gas commission seeking a pooling order. There are cases where as much as 40 percent of the land in the spacing order has been force pooled, according to the oil and gas commission staff. “It really is there to protect landowners,” said Thom Kerr, the commission’s permit manager. “It is a way to make sure they benefit from the exploitation of the resource.”[...]
A forced-pooled landowner gets a royalty equal to 12.5 percent multiplied by the fraction of the drilling area owned. For example, a property owner with 10 percent of the land in the spacing order gets a 1.25 percent royalty as soon as the well begins producing. While some oil company leases deduct some well costs from the landowner’s royalty, there are no costs deducted from a pooling royalty. When the well has produced oil and gas valued at roughly twice the cost of the well — $4 million if it costs $2 million to drill — the royalty for the pooled landowner is replaced with a working interest in the well. If a landowner owns 10 percent of the land, that person gets a 10 percent share of the well’s production, less 10 percent of the cost of operating the well.
Climate change: Arctic sea ice at record low for July
August 15, 2011
Here’s the link to the National Snow and Ice Data Center webpage. Here’s an excerpt:
Average ice extent for July 2011 was 7.92 million square kilometers (3.06 million square miles). This is 210,000 square kilometers (81,000 square miles) below the previous record low for the month, set in July 2007, and 2.18 million square kilometers (842,000 square miles) below the average for 1979 to 2000.
On July 31, 2011 Arctic sea ice extent was 6.79 million square kilometers (2.62 million square miles). This was slightly higher than the previous record low for the same day of the year, set in 2007. Sea ice coverage remained below normal everywhere except the East Greenland Sea.
More coverage from the Summit County Citizens Voice (Bob Berwyn). From the article:
During the northern hemisphere summer, the ice shrinks through September, then starts to expand again through the winter. Accurate sea ice extent measurements date back to 1979, when satellites first started delivering reliable data and photographic images…
Signalling the trend of vanishing sea ice, new data shows that more of the Arctic’s store of old and thick ice is melting. The ice melted quickly in early July, but the melting slowed down the second half of the month as a high pressure system over the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, broke down, bringing stormier and cooler weather to the region. The Arctic ice researchers say the weather change probably pushed the ice apart, forming a thinner but more extensive ice cover.
From The Lamar Ledger (Lois Shrimplin):
[Karl Nyquist] told the Elbert County Commissioners that the Highway 86 Commercial Metro District owns shares in the Lamar Canal, which outrank those of Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Aurora.
According to a press release from Nyquist, contributions for the pipeline from Elbert County would include the approval of the Water District Expansion Plan and temporary export of privately owned groundwater already adjucated for Municipal and Industrial (M&I) use.
“He’s stuck his stick not into a hornet’s nest, but into a rattlesnake nest,” Dan Rasmussen, who lives across from the proposed gravel pit said.
The benefits to Elbert County would be large, including Performance Improvement Framework (PIF) revenue from commercial projects and a renewable water source for the community. The oil and gas industry would not deplete groundwater supplies, the pipeline would provide economic growth and jobs, and the pipeline would provide a long term solution for communities with water issues. Additionally, property values would increase, due to a secure water supply.
Prowers County would experience some loss of irrigated farmland, export of some privately owned water out of the basin and loss of seasonal farm labor jobs, according to the release.
Meanwhile, it seems that GP Resources is looking to transfer ag water with as little impact to Prowers County as possible. Here’s a report from Chris Woodka writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:
The Grasmicks have sold their land and Lamar Canal shares to GP Water, which plans to build a treatment plant near Lamar and a pipeline to Elbert and El Paso counties to deliver drinking water to the Front Range. The family has invested in GP Water, will continue farming for GP on the Lamar Canal and sees benefits for Prowers County from the deal. “With GP, it was the first time I had talked to people who talked about how to build a project that would have benefits at both ends of the line,” said Bill Grasmick, 64, the oldest of three brothers in the family corporation. “I’m looking at this as economic development.”[...]
There have been other offers for the water from the Lamar Canal since the 1990s, along with a slew of changes. Grasmick is the president of the canal company, and those changes are a daily fact of life for him. Many areas along the canal were dried up for use by the Lower Arkansas Water Management Association, which augments depletions to the Arkansas River from well-pumping. Grasmick also sits on the LAWMA board, so he understands the conditions put on Colorado wells by the U.S. Supreme Court lawsuit with Kansas over the Arkansas River Compact. Cattle feedlots, the Colorado Division of Wildlife and the city of Lamar also have taken water from farmland under the canal over the years. There also have been water speculators — High Plains A&M, Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association and others — showing up on the doorstep over the past two decades…
The Lamar Canal has one of the most senior water rights below John Martin Reservoir, with an 1875 priority date, Grasmick explained, standing at the ditch intake on the Arkansas River in Lamar. The Lamar Canal diverts water to the south of the river for about 21 miles, where it flows into the Granada Ditch. The route goes through an area once irrigated by the Manvel, X-Y and Graham ditches, whose headgates were damaged by the 1965 flood and which now primarily provide LAWMA water. On many days, the Lamar Canal virtually “sweeps” the Arkansas River, which then gains return flows as it makes its way to Kansas…
A proposed gravel pit will be dug on 260 acres owned by GP. It eventually will become a 10,000 acre-foot storage site that would serve a water treatment plant at the beginning of the pipeline. It’s near Lamar’s sewage treatment pond in the industrial park just outside Lamar, and within sight of the old Neoplan bus plant and associated industrial buildings. One corner of a field of corn badly damaged by feeding deer shows the possibility for wildlife areas, and possibly hunting clubs. Most importantly, there are still crops being grown in both dry and irrigated fields. Grasmick said that will continue…
GP will continue to farm, through its agreement with the Grasmick family, using LAWMA shares. The advantage is that the best farmland can be irrigated, including some of the land taken out of production in the past. Pivot sprinklers eventually will replace all flood irrigation on the ditch, he predicts…
Grasmick agrees with GP’s analysis that the jobs and tax benefits that come with building a treatment plant at Lamar will offset the farm jobs and land that will be lost. There also is the possibility that treated water from the plant could be used by area water districts struggling with how to meet water quality regulations.
More Lamar pipeline coverage here.
Next Colorado Water Conservation Board meeting September 13-14
August 14, 2011
From email from the CWCB:
Notice is hereby given that a meeting of the CWCB will be held on Tuesday September 13, 2011, commencing at 8:00 a.m. and continuing through Wednesday, September 14, 2011. This meeting will be held at the Ute Water Conservancy District Offices located at 2190 H ¼ Road, Grand Junction, CO 81505.
The CWCB Board will also meet with the IBCC Board on Monday September 12, 2011 at the same location.
More CWCB coverage here.
From NewWest.net (Jeff Thomas):
Mike Gillespie, the state’s snow survey supervisor, said a number of survey sites in northern Colorado reported record breaking snowpack, but even more amazing was how long the snowpack has held.
“We had snowfall occurring about a month later than usual (into late June),” said Gillespie. Subsequently, the runoff, which normally tapers off in July, has lasted into August.
The Tower snow survey location, located on the Continental Divide on Buffalo Pass between Walden and Steamboat Springs, is normally the snowiest in the state and had a record year of about 80 inches of moisture content. Some of the more than 20 feet of snow that had accumulated was still there in the beginning of August, more than a month after a normal melt-out date.
Much of this was predictable, said Colorado State Climatologist Nolan Doesken, though in actuality it may have been difficult to believe how predictable it actually was this year.
The winter storms that blasted northern Colorado—and even the southern mountains had average years—are expected during a La Nina year, a periodic climate fluctuation marked by a cooling of tropical Pacific Ocean water.
“But it has been more typical than typical,” Doesken said. “You usually expect some variance (in the storm paths), but except for an early winter storm (that slipped on a more southerly track), there’s been no variance.”
Arkansas River Basin: How should the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District divvy up Fryingpan-Arkansas Project revenue?
August 14, 2011
From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
The Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District last October proposed paying off the South Outlet Works first, the Fountain Valley Conduit second and Ruedi last until the Arkansas Valley Conduit is built. The bill itself does not indicate priorities among the projects prior to completion of the new conduit.
Reclamation suggests other alternatives, including paying the majority of the funds from Ruedi, paying equal shares to all three or adjusting payments to the total amount currently owned. It has not chosen an alternative.
“Our expectations are that the East Slope facilities and obligations will be paid off first, with consideration for Ruedi in the future,” Alan Hamel, executive director of the Pueblo Board of Water Works, told Reclamation officials at a meeting to discuss the law Wednesday. “It starts to appear that there will be additional mitigation for the West Slope.”
“The alternatives are bookends,” replied Michael Collins, area manager for Reclamation. “We’re trying to look at what the debt stream would be under different assumptions.”
More Fryingpan-Arkansas Project coverage here.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that July was fourth warmest on record
August 14, 2011
Here’s the link to the NOAA July statistical roundup. From the website:
Persistent, scorching heat in the central and eastern regions of the United States shattered long-standing daily and monthly temperature records last month, making it the fourth warmest July on record nationally, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center. The heat exacerbated drought conditions, resulting in the largest “exceptional” drought footprint in the 12-year history of the U.S. Drought Monitor. “Exceptional” is the most severe category of drought on the drought monitor scale. Drought conditions at several locations in the South region are not as long lived, but are as dry, or drier, than the historic droughts of the 1930s and 1950s.
The average U.S. temperature in July was 77.0 degrees F, which is 2.7 degrees F above the long-term (1901-2000) average. Precipitation, averaged across the nation, was 2.46 inches. This was 0.32 inch below the long-term average, with large variability between regions. This monthly analysis, based on records dating back to 1895, is part of the suite of climate services NOAA provides.
USDA: What Counts is the Water That Actually Enters Plant Roots
August 14, 2011
Here’s the release from the United States Department of Agriculture (Don Comis):
To help farmers make the best use of limited irrigation water in the arid West, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) researchers are helping farmers determine how much water major crops actually need.
Tom Trout, research leader of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Water Management Research Unit (WMRU) in Fort Collins, Colo., and his colleagues are measuring crop water-use efficiency not by the traditional measure of crop yield per drop of irrigation water applied, but instead yield per drop of water actually taken in by the crop.
ARS is USDA’s chief intramural scientific research agency, and the research supports USDA’s commitment to agricultural sustainability.
Trout is in the fourth year of a study to determine how much water the four crops common to the High Plains region-corn, wheat, sunflower, and pinto beans-actually use.
Regenesis Management Group, LLC, in Denver, Colo., has signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with ARS to create monitoring instruments and software for a web-based application being designed by the company, known as SWIIM™, or Sustainable Water and Innovative Irrigation Management™. Contributions to SWIIM™ are also provided through a research and development agreement with Colorado State University at Fort Collins.
Trout and his colleagues designed the study to find out if limited irrigation is best for farmers for each of these crops and to help with irrigation timing, amounts, and other options. The four crops are being grown with six levels of irrigation, from full irrigation down to only 40 percent of full.
In the first three years of the study, each acre of land produced about 10 bushels of corn for each inch depth of water consumed, or one pound of corn for each 60 gallons of water.
These results will help farmers in this region decide whether to put all their irrigation water into producing corn, or to reduce either their irrigation levels or the amount of land they plant, and sell or lease water rights on the rest.
These results are preliminary and may vary with different timing of water applications or newly developed varieties.
The scientists plan to extend the results over a wide range of conditions throughout the central high plains.
Read more about this research in the August 2011 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
Trout published findings from this research in the trade journal Colorado Water as well as in abstracts for professional meetings, most recently at the annual Universities Council on Water Resources/National Institutes for Water Resources conference in Boulder, Colo.
From AspenJournalism.org (Brent Gardner-Smith):
The two water districts [Colorado River District and the West Divide Water Conservancy District] are asking a judge to grant a conditional water right to dam the Crystal River at Placita, an old town site along Highway 133 just below McClure Pass. The dam would create a 4,000 acre-foot reservoir and allow for the installation of a hydropower plant fueled by 150 cubic-feet-per-second of flowing water.
Pitkin County, the Crystal River Caucus, the Crystal Valley Environmental Protection Association, American Rivers and Trout Unlimited are all opposing the districts’ efforts.
Also in opposition is Paul Durrett of Glenwood Springs, who goes by his middle name of Gregory. He served on the board of the West Divide Water Conservancy District for 16 years, starting in the 1970s. “The Placita Power Plant and Placita Reservoir fills no need in the Crystal River drainage by any credible water user,” Durrett told the court in a hand-written legal filing. “This application is a ploy to retain some interest in the Crystal River and continue the falsehood that the taxpayers in the Crystal and Roaring Fork River drainages have anything to gain from the continued taxation by the WDWCD.”
The conditional water rights tied to the West Divide Project date back to 1958.
From the Colorado Springs Independent (Pam Zubeck):
Meeting information:
Tuesday, Aug. 16, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Mountain View Electric Association, 11140 E. Woodmen Road
FalconThursday, Aug. 18, 6 to 8 p.m.
El Paso County Public Services Facility
3255 Akers Drive
Colorado Springs“I encourage residents to attend at least one and possibly both of these summits,” Lathen said in a press release.
Orchard City: Area water systems seeking to join with the town have until February 1 to meet new system requirements
August 14, 2011
From the Delta County Independendent:
On Aug. 3, a filled-to-capacity meeting room at Town Hall brought to-gether for the first time the full town board, town administration, and representatives of some 40 private domestic water companies who buy their water from the town. The water powwow gave companies a chance for direct question and answer feedback from Orchard City government over its new suite of requirements…
The new Feb. 1 deadline, almost six months away, may still be too soon for some of the companies to complete the town’s new technical and legal requirements. Those requirements include mandatory installation of a backflow preventer on each private system. Mayor Don Suppes explained the rule is a state/federal requirement to prevent contamination of the town water supplies…
…Orchard City’s new legal requirements are another problem, Chinn said. Those requirements can include that the companies have written bylaws, be organized under state law, make recorded easements or provide legal access for town employees to their water systems, and provide the town with documentation for all of it. [Jim Chinn of the Northeast Thornton Pipeline Company] explained, “Five of our eight members are fruit farmers. We can’t even get a meeting of everyone together until Oct. 20,” thus making the town’s Feb. 1 deadline a hard push for them.
More infrastructure coverage here.
Federal funding may become available for the south Metro suburbs, Aurora and Denver to use for the WISE project
August 14, 2011
From The Denver Post (Bruce Finley):
Suburban water authorities said the project [Water Infrastructure Supply Efficiency or WISE], designed to reduce reliance on dwindling underground water, will cost about $558 million.
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials said “rural water supply” funds may be available for the project, if it survives a detailed feasibility review. Congress would need to authorize the federal funding, which could decrease the bill passed on to water customers. “What we’re looking at: Is this project capable of being completed? Is the cost-benefit going to work out? Is it going to be beneficial?” Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Peter Soeth said.
Meanwhile, a crucial wastewater purchase deal with Denver and Aurora has yet to be done. How much wastewater could be diverted, and how often, remains under negotiation. The suburbs told federal officials the WISE project would deliver 5,000 to 11,000 acre-feet a year for the first five years, then as much as 37,000 acre-feet a year…
The federal rural water-supply funds could be used because suburbs with populations under 50,000 are deemed “rural,” said Mark Shively, executive director of the Douglas County Water Resource Authority. “We have very aggressively pursued this opportunity,” Shively said. “We’re now about 20 percent into the feasibility study.”[...]
Beyond pipeline construction, the proposed project involves new storage of treated wastewater in surface reservoirs and by injecting it into depleted aquifers. “We have a couple reservoirs we’re looking at,” Shively said. “Between the Chatfield and Rueter Hess (reservoirs) we have a good amount of storage.”
Here’s the report from Reclamation.
More WISE project coverage here.
Drought news: Roughly 40% of U.S. cowherd is now affected by the southern tier exceptional drought
August 14, 2011
From the Ag Journal (Candace Krebs):
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the area rated in poor or very poor condition has expanded in the last couple of weeks, and roughly 40 percent of the nation’s entire cowherd is now directly impacted by it, according to Greg Highfill, Northwest Oklahoma area livestock specialist…
Extended emergency haying and grazing on Conservation Reserve acreage has been authorized in approved counties in five states: Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Extension experts pegged daily feed costs at somewhere around $2.50 to 3.50 to maintain a cow, historically high levels. The spread between what it costs to sell a cow now and buy a replacement back later is also substantial and continues to widen as sale prices fall. Additionally, the figure is influenced by how large of a geographic area will be rebuilding herds at the same time, according to area economist Rodney Jones. Cowherd liquidation over the past decade was at a fast clip even before drought conditions accelerated it. “My assumption is very high valued replacements when conditions improve,” Jones told producers…
National weather observers gave official notice recently that signs are favorable for redevelopment of the La Nina weather pattern credited with bringing hotter, drier weather to the Southern tier of the U.S., compounding a trend climate officials in Texas have already compared to “a death spiral.”
From the Fort Collins Coloradoan (Bobby Magill):
This week’s drought monitor data, compiled by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the National Weather Service, show extreme drought conditions reaching north of the Arkansas River Valley in southeast Colorado, with the San Luis Valley under exceptional drought conditions — the most extreme category of drought.
The National Weather Service’s seasonal drought outlook shows that drought conditions throughout Colorado are expected to improve, but no change for better or worse is expected in Northern Colorado.
