Fishermen fret about Arkansas River flows

Pueblo Chieftain

By CHRIS WOODKA

Members of Trout Unlimited expressed concern that increased urban demand for water could harm fish  in  the  Arkansas River below Pueblo Dam.

“In the newspaper this morning was an article about how Woodmoor is planning a marathon (to acquire water rights),” Ted Sillox, a member of the Trout Unlimited Greenback Chapter, told state wildlife officials this week. “What’s the best route we can take to help stream flows?”

Sillox and several other members said the $7 million Legacy Project on the Arkansas River is threatened as more cities buy water rights and move the water out of the Arkansas Valley.

http://www.chieftain.com/news/local/article_668ca93e-04ee-11e0-8f6e-001cc4c03286.html

Settlement reached in Dry Gulch water case

By Randi Pierce

PagosaSUN.com staff

After years of litigation, the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation and San Juan Water Conservancy districts have agreed to the terms of a settlement with Trout Unlimited in the case of the proposed Dry Gulch Reservoir. The local chapter of TU brought forth litigation in 2004 over concerns that the then 35,000 acre-foot reservoir and accompanying rights for diversion and refill amounted to a water grab on the part of PAWSD.

“The settlement underscores that municipal water projects must be based on well-founded, substantiated data about future growth and water needs,” [Trout Unlimited’s attorney, Andrew] Peternell said in the press release. “In a time of water scarcity, Colorado must embrace water solutions that meet a range of needs, including municipal growth, agriculture and wildlife and recreation. No water user can take more than its fair share.”

http://www.pagosasun.com/archives/2010/12December/120910/pg1drygulch.html

 

Pagosa reservoir closer to reality

Durango Herald

By Patrick Young

“This is a victory for the San Juan River,” Drew Peternell, director of Trout Unlimited’s Colorado Water Project, said in a news release issued Friday. “The original application could have been devastating to fish habitat and the river ecosystem, but now we have a settlement that balances the districts’ need for water with the health of the San Juan.”

Trout Unlimited twice appealed the district court’s decision to award water rights for the project on the grounds that the districts were being too speculative in their predictions of population growth. In both instances, the Colorado Supreme Court sided with the environmental group and denied the project’s water rights.

As part of the deal, the water districts have agreed to draw no more than 11,000 acre-feet per year with a 10-year average of no more than 9,300 acre-feet per year. The districts also must maintain water levels in the San Juan equal to twice the flow required by the Colorado Water Conservancy Board’s in-stream flow requirements.

In-stream flow water rights are water rights held by the water conservancy board, mandating minimum water levels in the state’s waterways to prevent environmental degradation.

http://durangoherald.com/article/20101206/NEWS01/712069944/-1/s

Christo’s Plan for Arkansas River Wrapped in Controversy

New West

By David Frey

In its comments to the BLM, Colorado Trout Unlimited voiced concerns about 9,100 boreholes that would be put in the riverbank to anchor the cables. The group also worried about the possibility of fuel or chemical spills and the risk of a “catastrophic failure” of the project. “Long-lasting scars can remain in watersheds even after reclamation work is completed,” wrote Colorado Trout Unlimited Executive Director David Nickum.

http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/christos_plan_for_river_wrapped_in_controversy/C41/L41/

Clear Creek Recovery Project Helped by Fishing is Fun Grant

World Fishing Network News

A stream recovery project in downtown Idaho Springs has gotten an $80,000 boost from a Colorado Division of Wildlife Fishing is Fun grant.For decades, the health of Clear Creek in Idaho Springs was seriously impaired by mining runoff, inadequate sewage treatment and channelization from adjacent road and highway construction.

But in recent years, a broad coalition including the city, county, major businesses and environmental groups have made significant investments to help mitigate and reverse the damage. The result has been a dramatic improvement of Clear Creek. One local business, the Albert Frei and Sons Quarry, provided indispensible support for the project in the form of tons of rock that was used to create structure and stabilize the stream bank. Additional support came from the Trask Family Foundation, the Henderson Mine as well as the West Denver chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Clear Creek Watershed Foundation, which oversaw the project on behalf of the city. Frontier Environmental Services of Arvada, which performed the construction, donated its services for preliminary design and project development.

"Without the core support from Fishing is Fun, this project doesn't come together," said Miles Williams, a member of West Denver TU and the city's advisor on the project. "It helped all of our partners realize that we could really make this happen."

http://www.wfn.tv/news/index.php?blog=411668

SLV restoration project earns BLM award

Pueblo Chieftain VILLA GROVE —  Trout Unlimited’s Kerber Creek Restoration Project has received the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s 2010 Hardrock Mineral Environmental Award.

The BLM award is given to organizations that highlight environmental stewardship and acknowledges exceptional track records of meeting or exceeding federal, state or local reclamation requirements.

“This project would not have been possible without the dedicated efforts of our project partners at the BLM and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, as well as from local landowners who are invested in restoring the creek from the effects of mining,” said Elizabeth Russell, Trout Unlimited’s manager for the project.

http://www.chieftain.com/news/local/article_76db782c-dff2-11df-8570-001cc4c002e0.html

Cleaning up a mine field

Pueblo Chieftain

By CHRIS WOODKA

Cleaning up old mining districts in Leadville has been a contentious issue in the community.An Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site was set up in California Gulch more than 20 years ago following releases of toxic metals that killed fish in an 18-mile reach of the Arkansas River. Issues with blockage in the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Leadville Tunnel erupted two years ago, leading to a major drilling project to relieve pressure from water backed up in drain tunnels.

The goal of the Lake Fork group is to avoid the same sort of controversy over cleanup efforts by bringing agencies, landowners and environmental groups together, said Melissa Wolfe, another faculty member who works with the team.

“The outreach has been a challenge, but we’ve had good participation from the agencies that are involved,” Wolfe said.

 A core of landowners who helped form the working group are still active but do not attend meetings as often as in the past, said Cathy Patti, CMC contract administrator.

Federal agencies include the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Geological Survey, EPA, Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service.

State agencies include the Department of Public Health and Environment, Division of Wildlife and the Division of Reclamation and Mining Safety.

 Local government, landowners and Trout Unlimited are also connected to the process.

http://www.chieftain.com/article_cd1cc392-dfef-11df-83de-001cc4c002e0.html

Lightner Creek runoff fouling Animas River

Durango Herald Lightner Creek is at it again. It would be hard to be a resident of the area, or even a visitor, and not notice the "stain" of gray-brown water that Lightner Creek is introducing into the Animas. While it is normal to see Lightner run turbid, or "off-color," during the spring runoff season, this level of turbidity and general nastiness at this time of year is not normal and is a cause of concern.

Why is this sort of turbidity - what I choose to call the Lightner Creek problem - happening at this time of year? One possible cause of the current problem is a substantial rain event back on Sept. 13 that dumped upwards of an inch of water on Durango and the Perin's Peak area.

Opinion piece from Buck Skillen, past president and current board member of Five Rivers Trout Unlimited and a local volunteer with River Watch.

http://durangoherald.com/sections/Opinion/2010/10/24/Lightner_Creek_runoff_fouling_Animas_River/

Division of Wildlife considers impacts of Windy Gap project

By Laura Snider

Camera Staff Writer

According to Colorado Trout Unlimited, if both the Windy Gap Firming Project and a proposed expansion of the Gross Reservoir -- which feeds Denver residents with water from the Colorado watershed -- are approved, as much as 70 percent of the upper Colorado River's native water flow will be removed on average.

"It's not happening in isolation," said Erica Stock, outreach director for Colorado Trout Unlimited.

In particular, Stock said her organization wants to make sure that Northern Water uses an accurate historical baseline of the Colorado River's flow to determine impacts and that it uses an "adaptive management" strategy, which would allow the mitigation measures to be changed if ecological effects are worse than anticipated.

http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci_16390616

Colorado Water Diversion Proposal Brings More Controversy

Kirk Siegler (2010-10-21)

GRANBY, CO (KUNC) - A proposal to divert more western Colorado water to the thirsty Front Range is bringing renewed debate over the health of the Colorado River basin. State wildlife commissioners will take public comment Thursday night in Granby on a plan by Northern Water to build a new storage reservoir on the Front Range.

The plan would require more water to be diverted from tributaries feeding Lake Granby and other reservoirs in Grand County.

Erica Stock of Colorado Trout Unlimited says anglers and wildlife advocates are already worried about existing water diversions near the headwaters of the Colorado River, "Which currently remove over half of the Colorado River,."

"And what's going to happen if we take 20% more of the river, how is that going to affect the ecosystem health if we don't address the current ecosystem impacts that we're observing every day today," Stock says.

Stock says taking more water out of the river system could lead to even higher water temperatures and more algae; seen as a detriment to fish.

Wildlife commissioners will hold a public meeting tonight at 6 the Inn at Silver Creek, 62927 US Highway 40, in Granby. © Copyright 2010, KUNC

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kunc/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1715774/Regional/Colorado.Water.Diversion.Proposal.Brings.More.Controversy