TU hires new Upper Colorado River coordinator

  Trout Unlimited’s Colorado Water Project today announced the hiring of Rob Firth as project coordinator for the Upper Colorado River Basin in Grand and Summit Counties.

Firth, a longtime resident of Hot Sulphur Springs, retired in 2008 after a distinguished 25-year career with the Colorado Division of Wildlife.  For most of his career, he served as a district and area wildlife manager in Grand, Summit and parts of Routt and Eagle Counties in northwest Colorado.  More recently, he served as the DOW’s statewide chief of law enforcement.  Over the years, his varied duties included enforcement of game laws, protection of land and water resources, wildlife and fisheries management, and public education.

“We are excited to put Rob Firth’s experience and skills to work protecting fish and wildlife habitat in the Upper Colorado River Basin,” said Drew Peternell, director of TU’s Colorado Water Project, which works to improve stream flows and coldwater fisheries in the state.  “Rob is a trusted local voice on resource issues.  And he knows how to bring people together to find solutions.  That makes him a perfect choice to coordinate projects on behalf of TU in the Upper Colorado.”

For many years, the health of the Upper Colorado River Basin, including the Fraser and Williams Fork Rivers and other important tributaries, has suffered as a result of large-scale diversions of water to Colorado’s Front Range, with low stream flows degrading coldwater fish habitat.  Along with Colorado Water Project counsel Mely Whiting, Firth will work to assure that the proposed Windy Gap Firming Project and Moffat Tunnel Firming Project do not further damage an already over-tapped river system.

Firth will also plan and implement on-the-ground projects that improve coldwater habitat in the Upper Colorado River Basin.  Among other duties, he will work closely with water users, private land owners and agency staff to identify opportunities to restore streams and implement cooperative agreements with irrigators that benefit agricultural operations and fish habitat simultaneously. 

“I have always respected Trout Unlimited as an outstanding grassroots sportsmen’s conservation group,” said Firth. “I’m eager to work with local partners to find ways to protect and enhance our fisheries here on the West Slope.”

In 2005, Grand County presented Firth with an outstanding Citizen award.  In 2007, he was named the Colorado Trapper’s Association Wildlife Professional of the Year.

Colorado & Western Water Project Notes

April 2010 WWP staff testified about the SECURE Water Act in mid-March in D.C. While in DC, staff met w/ Asst Secretary of the Interior for Water & Science, about TU's approach to hydro. Staff also presented on SECURE at the University of Denver Water Law Review annual conference.

We had a month stocked full of meetings with both our NGO partners, consultants and the Bureau on how we're going to get the Basin Study -- and other decision making in the Basin -- to incorporate some level of protection for environmental flows, and how the rest of the study is moving along. Colorado released its final water availability study for the CO R Basin in CO.

CTU had its big annual auction in Denver and national staff bought a table. Later this week, various members of the Water Project staff will be attending and making presentations at the CTU Rendezvous.

We’ve been working on responses to the Million pipeline project, which threatens Flaming Gorge fishery and other sensitive habitat: http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20100406/OPINION04/4060303/Plan-has-economic-environmental-pitfalls

CWP staff submitted comments to the Army Corps of Engineers on the proposed expansion of Denver Water’s trans-basin Moffat Collection System Project. If the expansion moves forward, cumulative depletions to the headwaters of the Fraser River and Colorado River mainstem could reach 70% to 80% of native flows. CWP staff recommended that the project not move forward unless an adaptive management plan can be agreed to by east and west slope interests.

The CWP staff also continues to provide environmental perspective on several large cooperative endeavors including the Colorado River Wild and Scenic Management Plan Alternative, Halligan Seaman Shared Vision Plan and the Chatfield Reservoir Reallocation process.

The CWP staff is cooperating with the United States Forest Service, Colorado Division of Wildlife and Bureau of Land Management staffs to reconnect several headwater streams containing conservation populations of Colorado River cutthroat trout. In general, these projects involve either barrier removal (i.e., culvert removal and replacement) and/or installation of fencing to exclude cattle from the riparian areas. These projects will start back up early this spring once funding and access become available.

We are working with the Forest Service and a private contractor on preparation of an RFP seeking bids for a watershed restoration plan focusing on Colorado River cutthroat trout for the Elkhead Creek Basin.

The CWP staff and local Colorado Trout Unlimited Chapter members worked with Colorado Division of Wildlife staff to sample fish in the Eagle River. The sampling has been conducted for several years to evaluate improvements to the trout fishery attributable to past mine reclamation activities and stream habitat improvements in the Eagle River. Based on the results of this sampling effort, the trout fishery in the Eagle appears to be doing quite well with some 200 meter sample reaches holding up to 490 fish including lots of trout within the 14” to 16” range.

Plan has economic, environmental pitfalls

Coloradoan Opinion piece on the Flaming Gorge Pipeline from Drew Peternell, Director of TU's Colorado Water Project:

Developer Aaron Million is selling his proposed 500-mile water pipeline from Flaming Gorge Reservoir on the Utah-Wyoming border to the Front Range as a win for everyone, from thirsty Front Range communities to farmers to fish.

If you buy that, I've got riverfront property in the Mojave Desert to sell you.

The recent panel discussion on the proposal at the University of Wyoming highlighted some of the very real economic and environmental pitfalls of this multi-billion-dollar pipe dream ("Debate centers on water project," April 1 Coloradoan). As hydrologist Dan Leucke pointed out at that event, the proposal is rife with problems.

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20100406/OPINION04/4060303/1014/OPINION/Plan+has+economic++environmental+pitfalls

Innovative proposal will protect Dominguez waters

GJ Sentinel Regarding the March 11 editorial by The Daily Sentinel, “Future may be clear for Dominguez waters:” Trout Unlimited applauds the Sentinel for supporting a balanced, innovative plan to meet the water needs of the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area and Dominguez Canyons Wilderness Area.

Healthy wilderness rivers and streams require more than minimal flows. They also require larger “flushing” flows in the spring to ensure that natural stream processes and hydrology are maintained. In last year’s Black Canyon of the Gunnison settlement, for instance, all parties agreed on the need for flushing flows to mimic the flow variability that occurs under natural conditions

In the Dominguez case, the BLM plan is innovative in calling for the state to claim water rights to meet the flow needs of the federal wilderness area.  This arrangement allows Colorado to maintain control over the water resource while satisfying the purposes of the federal wilderness designation which, as the Sentinel points out, resulted from a constructive, cooperative effort

The Colorado Water Conservation Board should approve this plan to keep the Big and Little Dominguez creeks running wild

Drew Peternell, Director

Colorado Water Project

Trout Unlimited

Flaming Gorge 'scheme'

Pueblo Chieftain

TELL IT TO THE CHIEFTAIN

Re: "Flaming Gorge pipeline users lining up," Jan. 15 Chieftain. It's a stretch for developer Aaron Million to try to sell his  grandiose pipeline dream as an "environmental" project that will benefit Colorado's overtapped rivers.    It's a promise that, like many of his claims, has yet to be firmed up. What is certain is that the pipeline would draw down Flaming Gorge reservoir levels and risk a host of potential environmental problems, from invasive species and water quality decline in the Green River's famous fishing waters to degraded wildlife habitat all along the 560-mile route.

   Moreover, this project is also lining up fierce opposition all along its route, from towns, communities and Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal who rightly worry about the environmental and economic costs of this boondoggle in the making.

   Front Range communities should first consider simpler, less costly measures to meet our region's water needs, such as conservation, aquifer recharge and leasing. What's needed most is comprehensive regional water planning, not pie-in-the-sky schemes.

Drew Peternell, director

Colorado Water Project

Trout Unlimited

http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2010/01/24/editorial/doc4b5b971364daf581933349.txt

Million defends Flaming Gorge water proposal

By CHRIS WOODKATHE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

“Front Range communities should first consider simpler, less costly measures to meet our region's water needs, such as conservation, aquifer recharge and leasing. What's needed most is comprehensive regional water planning, not pie-in-the-sky schemes,” Drew Peternell of Trout Unlimited wrote in a published letter to The Chieftain.

http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2010/01/29/news/local/doc4b62a2d7376ef917368797.txt

Grand County hopes to benefit from Front Range water-firming projects

By Tonya BinaSky-Hi Daily News Grand County, CO Colorado

Attorney Mely Whiting of Trout Unlimited stressed along with county officials that any allowance for Denver to take more water from the river should be tied to a “reopener clause,” in which stakeholders would revisit the project if degradation of the river reached beyond what was predicted in the NEPA process.

“Our resource is at a critical tipping point,” said Manager Underbrink Curran. “We should all argue that if the predictions that are made in the EIS are not good, and are not solid and do not work out like is being predicted, people have to come back and re-look at it. And we, and Denver and the Corps and everyone needs to sit down and say: How are we going to fix this resource? This is critical, not only to Grand County, but to the state of Colorado.”

“This is a grave situation,” said County Commissioner Nancy Stuart. “In my opinion, it's the life and death of our rivers. So we really need to think about the statements that we make, and I'm putting faith in the Corps that they will listen.”

http://www.skyhidailynews.com/article/20100115/NEWS/100119903/1079&ParentProfile=1067

Colorado & Western Water Project Notes

December 2009 We attended a national staff communications meeting in Santa Fe, NM, and brainstormed with the group on a range of communications issues, including how to better coordinate messaging themes across programs, how to make better use of video and social media, and new ideas for the Web site and Trout magazine.

TU staff continues to provide environmental perspective on several large cooperative endeavors including the Halligan Seaman Shared Vision Plan and the Colorado River Wild and Scenic Management Plan Alternative. TU  is also continuing to evaluate and/or monitor the progress of several Environmental Impact Statements for various water development projects around the state such as the Windy Gap Firming, Denver Moffat Expansion, and Northern Integrated Supply Project. The deadline for submitting comments on Denver’s Moffat Expansion is currently set for the end of January 2010.

TU staff continues to work with state and local governments, water providers and other environmental groups to draft an Upper Colorado River Wild and Scenic Management Plan Alternative (MPA). Most recently, the east slope and west slope water users have been trying to finalize a concept for protecting the outstandingly remarkable recreational fishing and floatboating opportunities.

We have been working with several other conservation groups and a contractor on an analysis of the gap between water supply and demand on Colorado’s Front Range. We submitted two letters to the state – one on future water demands and the other on tools for meeting that demand.

TU staff and local chapter members are working within the Chatfield Reservoir Reallocation process to negotiate winter baseflows in the South Platte River below Chatfield Reservoir.

We have had several discussions with other conservation groups, the Yampa Valley Agricultural Alliance and faculty of Colorado State University about designing a study of opportunities for making irrigation water available for stream flows without requiring the complete dry-up of irrigated lands.

TU and the Forest Service completed a number of culvert removal projects in Colorado River cutthroat trout habitat in the South Fork Slater Creek basin. We will be removing a number of additional barriers in cutthroat habitat in the Elkhead Creek drainage next summer. We recently submitted a pre-proposal for an exclusionary fencing project to benefit cutthroat on the South Fork Little Snake River.

Meyers: No easy solution for fish kill

By Charlie MeyersThe Denver Post

Help may be on the way in a Denver Water plan to boost West Slope diversion through the Moffat Tunnel, boosting storage in Gross Reservoir. A companion arrangement would allow the water suppliers for the cities of Boulder and Lafayette to utilize storage in the reservoir.

The potential to use this to enhance winter flows has caught the attention of Trout Unlimited, which long has sought a solution to the South Boulder Creek puzzle.

"If we can use this increased storage to boost flows in the creek," this would be something we could support," said Drew Peternell, director of TU's Western Water Project.

But Peternell's concern also extends to a larger matter, which is a Denver Water push to acquire more water from the upper Fraser River basin, then deliver it through the Continental Divide via its Moffat Tunnel complex.

http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_13904847

Public input sought on Gross Reservoir expansion

By Laura Snider Camera Staff Writer Denver Water plans to make up almost half of its projected water shortfall in 2030 with water conservation methods, which is laudable, according to Drew Peternell, director of Trout Unlimited's Colorado Water Project.

"I think Denver deserves credit for good conservation," he said. "But more can be done."

Peternell said Denver Water should look at other ways to meet its growing demand -- including more water-reuse projects and agriculture water-sharing arrangements -- before sucking more water out of tributaries to the Colorado Rivers, including the Fraser.

"The Fraser River is the river in Colorado that is the most heavily depleted," Peternell said. "It's just really beat up."

http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci_13885451