Good Samaritans could be answer to old mines

By ROBERT E. ROBERTS

Something big happened in Washington, D.C., this week - something with the potential to move the earth - actually to move contaminated dirt and rock, and a lot of it, in communities throughout the Rocky Mountain West.

You may not have noticed, but on Wednesday the Environmental Protection Agency released a “Model Good Samaritan Agreement” for its regional offices to use to encourage volunteer efforts to clean up contaminated mine sites. This action is a long-awaited policy tool that will help accelerate the pace of environmental progress in watersheds across the West.

There are an estimated 500,000 abandoned mines nationwide, mostly hardrock sites, and most in Western states. These sites - piles of crushed rock and barren areas tinted with telltale shades of orange, yellow and red - litter the mountainsides in historic mining districts. They often contain harmful metals such as lead, arsenic, cadmium or zinc. When it rains, and when snow melts, the acid runoff they produce can render local rivers and streams lifeless.

EPA and its partners have worked on this problem for decades, and we have been able to clean up many of the biggest and worst mine sites by making the companies responsible for pollution pay for cleanup actions. But for most of these sites - called “orphan sites” - the company that operated the mine is long gone. There is no responsible party to fund the cleanup.

An unintended consequence of the Superfund law is that volunteers who want to clean up such sites face the possibility of taking on responsibility for all the past and future pollution. These Good Samaritans have nothing to do with the pollution that has already occurred or will occur. And they certainly have no interest in contributing to further pollution. But the size of the potential liability they may take on by working on the site makes most of them unwilling to take on such projects.

EPA's release of the Model Good Samaritan Agreement is a big step toward eliminating that obstacle. This tool will allow Good Samaritans who want to work on orphan mines to enter into agreements with EPA that minimize the Superfund law liability concerns. Beneficial cleanup projects, many with blueprints that have been sitting on shelves for years, now have the green light to proceed.

As one watershed group leader from Colorado exclaimed upon hearing the news, “It feels like someone has taken my handcuffs off.”

President Bush and the EPA are clearing legal roadblocks to help protect America's watersheds. While additional obstacles for Good Samaritans remain, legislation that will provide further relief for mine cleanup projects is now pending in Congress. Our continued progress on this issue is good news for everyone who cares about clean water.

Robert E. Roberts is regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 8, which includes Montana.

70% of Roan to drillers

The ruling allows immediate drilling on the Western Slope plateau for a likely mother lode of natural gas. Foes consider lawsuits.

By Nancy Lofholm Denver Post Staff Writer

Article Last Updated: 06/09/2007 12:25:16 AM MDT

From the halls of Congress to living rooms in Garfield County, criticism is being heaped on the Bureau of Land Management for its decision to allow immediate drilling on nearly 70 percent of the Roan Plateau.

The controversial plan, announced Friday after a more than seven-year battle, places restrictions on drilling and puts some areas of the plateau along Interstate 70 west of Rifle off-limits. But critics charge the decision was made without proper comment and ignores requests from Gov. Bill Ritter's office and some of Colorado's congressional delegation to hold off on drilling.

"BLM's decision contradicts years of public involvement and should not stand," said Duke Cox of the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance, one of the groups considering a lawsuit to block implementation of the decision.

The decision pertains to more than 50,000 acres of the 73,602 acres included in the Roan planning area. The other 21,000 acres are being set aside for two more months of public comment.

The plan allows only 350 acres of the plateau to be drilled at one time. Drilling will take place in stages and will be done directionally to minimize surface disturbance.

Evan Dreyer, a spokesman for Ritter, expressed strong disappointment that the BLM issued the decision without giving the governor time for review as he had requested last week.

"This is one of the most important public-policy questions facing the state of Colorado right now. There was no imminent crisis. There was no reason for the BLM to rush a decision on this," Dreyer said.

"We are now reviewing all of our options."

Sen. Ken Salazar, who had joined Ritter in asking for a four-month review of the Roan Plateau Management Resource Plan, said he will look at options to stop the imminent drilling.

"The BLM has failed to establish a pressing need for such a rushed process and immediate development," Salazar said.

The Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, the only group publicly applauding the decision Friday, issued a statement saying the plan provides "limited and balanced energy development" of what the group considers probably the richest unleased reserve of natural gas in the Lower 48 states, holding enough natural gas to heat 4 million homes for up to 20 years.

The Roan has been a flash point in oil and gas development in the Piceance Basin because the plateau soars to 9,000 feet in places and is home to rare fish and plant species. It is one of the few nearly untouched places in an area dotted with 20,000 gas wells. The Roan has long been used for hunting and recreation. Some drilling has taken place on private land on the plateau.

The plan approved Friday was crafted nearly a year ago after more than five years of public-comment gathering. Of the 75,000 comments submitted, 98 percent opposed drilling on the top of the plateau.

None of the plans the public reviewed were chosen.

Instead, a group of cooperating agencies, including the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, issued a plan in 2006.

The public did not have a chance to comment on that plan.

In releasing the record of the decision Friday, the BLM called the plan "the result of a highly collaborative public-planning process."

BLM opening Roan Plateau to drilling

By Nancy LofholmDenver Post Staff Writer

Article Last Updated: 06/08/2007 02:43:52 PM MDT

var requestedWidth = 0;

if(requestedWidth > 0){ document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.width = requestedWidth + "px"; document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.margin = "0px 0px 10px 10px"; } The Bureau of Land Management will open up the Western Slope's Roan Plateau to gas drilling under a decision released today.

Drilling at the plateau, west of Rifle and north of Parachute, will be restricted and done in stages.

Under the decision, only 350 acres of the plateau can be disturbed at one time. No drilling will be allowed on steep slopes, and most of it will be done directionally, which causes less surface disturbance.

The BLM also said no drilling will be allowed now in 21,034 acres of critical habitat. Those acres are being set aside for more consideration.

The Record of Decision was released after several years of tussling between the Bureau of Land Management, the oil and gas industry, and environmental and conservation groups, as well as local municipalities and state and federal representatives.

There has been heavy opposition to drilling on top of the plateau, which holds some critical habitat and unique fish and plant species.

Environmental coalition honors water activist

http://www.aspendailynews.com/archive_20037

Carbondale water has a friend in Ken Neubecker. The 55-year-old Carbondale resident was named Conservation Activist 2007 last week by the Colorado Environmental Coalition (CEC).

The award was presented in Denver at the group's annual Rebel with a Cause gala dinner. Three hundred people were in attendance, including Gov. Bill Ritter, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, and U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter. The eponymous Rebel with a Cause award went to Denver-based nature photographer and author John Fielder.

"Ken has been a tenacious voice for Colorado's rivers and wild places for more than 20 years," said T.J. Brown, the Front Range field director for the CEC. Neubecker was picked over 30 other nominees from the CEC's 90 member organizations.

The current vice president of Colorado Trout Unlimited, Neubecker founded the Eagle River Watershed and Trout Unlimited chapters in Eagle and Granby. Recently he has worked to protect the Roan Plateau as the environmental representative on the Colorado River Basin Round Table, a state-appointed planning group that advises state agencies on matters pertaining to the river basin. Set up by House Bill 1177 (the Colorado Water for the 21st Century act), nine such round tables exist in river basins throughout the state, operating on a total annual budget of $40 million.

"I helped draft the environmental impact statement for the oil and gas development on the Roan Plateau, along with about 75,000 other people," quipped Neubecker on Tuesday. "When the BLM turned in a management proposal that was completely different from what we expected, I wrote the protest letters."

When he's not fighting to keep Colorado waters clean, Neubecker works as a land surveyor for an engineering firm in Glenwood Springs. He holds 1870s surveyor Ferdinand Hayden as one of his mentor/heroes and even named the Roaring Fork and Eagle Valley chapter of Trout Unlimited after "that other surveyor-not (John Wesley) Powell."

"Hayden was the first to survey this entire area, between here and Yellowstone, in a scientific way at least," said Neubecker. "He was also the first to locate and document and the Mount of the Holy Cross in the Holy Cross Wilderness. Spanish conquistadors looking for gold had mentioned seeing a mountain with a crucifix shaped by couloirs, but no one knew for sure if it was a myth until Hayden."

"Ken is a thoughtful advocate for non-consumptive needs and advises the other (Colorado River Basin Round Table) councils. He informs and educates so they learn to work within the system. It's invaluable work," said Becky Long, water caucus coordinator for the CEC.

Session hailed for being "green"

A survey supports claims it was Colorado lawmakers' top pro-environment gathering ever, led by renewable energy.

“Environmental groups, including Colorado Trout Unlimited and the Sierra Club, judged lawmakers' votes on nine bills - such as renewable energy, greener building codes and protecting wildlife habitat.”

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_6078948

Environmental groups are calling the past legislative session Colorado's greenest ever - and a survey released Wednesday offered some proof.

State lawmakers, on average, voted for pro-environment bills 77 percent of the time, according to an analysis by Colorado Conservation Voters. That was up 12 percentage points from 2006.

Environmental groups, including Colorado Trout Unlimited and the Sierra Club, judged lawmakers' votes on nine bills - such as renewable energy, greener building codes and protecting wildlife habitat.

Republicans, who often fared poorly in earlier conservation rankings, had their second-highest rating in the 11-year history of the scorecard. Among Republicans in the House, votes in favor of the environmental agenda increased by 14 percentage points compared with last year.

"The story that this scorecard tells is that conservation values are not Democrat or Republican; They are Colorado values," said Carrie Doyle, executive director of Colorado Conservation Voters. "The voters spoke pretty clearly in the elections that they think Colorado should be a renewable energy leader," Doyle said. "Lawmakers got that message."

Most Democrats scored 100 percent, voting for all nine bills that made up the core of the environmental agenda. Republican legislators topped out with 80 percent or 90 percent, though a few scored the equivalent of D's and F's. Republicans' average score was 47 percent.

Rep. Rob Witwer, a Republican from Golden who scored a 90 percent, said improved Republican marks point to a return "to the principles that have always been there in our party."

"Democrats don't love the environment more than Republicans," he said. "It's a matter of what kinds of policies do you support to get there."

Republicans are more likely to favor tax incentives to encourage people to conserve - not mandates, especially ones that infringe on private property rights, Witwer said. GOP lawmakers are more cognizant of costs, said Luke Shilts, chairman of the Colorado Federation of Young Republicans, a statewide 40-and-younger group.

The hallmark of the legislative session, which ended a month ago, was renewable energy. One new law says investor-owned utilities must produce 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. Lawmakers passed a water-quality measure that environmental groups pushed for seven years. The bill lets water courts consider water quality before deciding on large transfers. The state also has new laws to ensure more protection of wildlife habitat during oil and gas drilling and secure a spot for an environmentalist on the state oil and gas commission.

Western Slope lawmakers spearhead conservation reform

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/06/07/6_7_enviro_scorecard.html

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Western Slope lawmakers helped spearhead “the most pro-conservation legislative session in our state’s history,” according to a Colorado Conservation Voters report released Wednesday.

The “2007 Conservation Scorecard,” which tracks House and Senate votes on environmental, energy, water and wildlife reforms, shows that more than half of the region’s 11 lawmakers were strong supporters of conservation values throughout the legislative session.

“I think Western Slope lawmakers have showed real leadership on conservation issues,” said Carrie Doyle, executive director of Colorado Conservation Voters. “That leadership happened for a reason: Western Slope districts were on the front lines of many of the conservation issues being debated this year.”

The report card highlights the roles Western Slope lawmakers played in pushing conservation measures, including Reps. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, Dan Gibbs, D-Silverthorne, Al White, R-Winter Park, and Sens. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, and Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village. Each lawmaker, according to the report, had conservation scores of 70 or more on a 100-point scale. Buescher, Curry, Gibbs and Schwartz recorded perfect scores.

The report says they played crucial roles in pushing surface-rights legislation, open-space protections, oil and gas drilling reforms, and water-quality protections this year.

“In 2007 we saw … what happens when strong policy is aligned with bold political leadership,” the report said. “We believe that 2007 marks the beginning of a new conversation about how we work together to protect what is most precious about Colorado.”

Duke Cox, president of the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance, attributed the session’s conservation credentials to the leadership of Gov. Bill Ritter in pushing energy reform as a priority and the Legislature’s willingness to work with him.

“The big difference is Bill Ritter,” Cox said. “And the Democratic Legislature weas not afraid to take on the oil and gas lobby because they knew they had the people behind them.”

Cox said the session was a victory for Colorado “grass-roots” who pushed, particularly on the Western Slope, for more energy-industry oversight.

“The government, oddly enough, listened to the will of the voters and changed things,” he said.

The report is not so glowing for every Western Slope lawmaker.

The report singles out an amendment Sen. Josh Penry, R-Fruita, offered during an April 23 debate on House Bill 1037, which directs the Public Utilities Commission to develop rules for a program promoting energy efficiency for natural gas distributors.

Penry’s amendment, which failed in a 17-18 vote, would have capped the amount of energy efficiency that the bill could achieve, according to the report.

Based on this and other floor votes, the report ranks Reps. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, and Ray Rose, R-Montrose, with scores of 50.

Penry and Sen. Jack Taylor, R-Steamboat Springs, received scores of 60, according to the report.

Penry, however, discounted the report.

“Colorado Conservation Voters are very nice people, but they are a blatantly partisan organization focused on electing Democrats, so I don’t put a lot of stock in their report,” Penry said. “I think my values on the environment are probably a lot more in line with Western Slope voters than the Colorado Conservation Voters.”

CTU 2007 Legislative Report

Attached is Jen's Final Legislative Report, as presented in the CTU ExComm meeting tonight.CTU 2007 Legislative Report

Neighboring states face irrigation well problems

“…which also included an overview of problems in other western states by Melinda Kassen, Western Water Project director for Trout Unlimited.”

http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070605/NEWS/106050077

June 5, 2007 ESTES PARK -- Colorado is not the only state dealing with the shutdown or curtailment of irrigation wells.

But neighboring states are addressing the problem at the state level and finding ways to mitigate present and future problems for the advantage of both surface and ground water users.

That was the emphasis Monday at the summer conference of the Groundwater Management Districts Association at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. About 125 water users from Colorado as well as Mississippi, Texas, New Mexico, Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming and Idaho registered for the three-day conference, which concludes today.

Monday's sessions concentrated on irrigation well shutdowns or curtailment of irrigation wells in Nebraska, New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho and Colorado, which also included an overview of problems in other western states by Melinda Kassen, Western Water Project director for Trout Unlimited.

Kassen said ground water in the 1950s was seen as a new source of water, but only recently have Western states come to the realization that ground and surface water are connected and that pumping of wells has an effect on river flows. In Colorado, only 22 percent of the state's population depends on ground water for domestic needs, but in New Mexico, 90 percent of the population depends on that source while 96 percent of Idaho's residents use ground water.

That, combined with a drought that signaled the start of the 21st century, has led to the shutdown of wells, such as those along the South Platte River last year.

"Colorado's regulatory system should have prevented that catastrophe, but it did not," Kassen said. "That was an extraordinary wake-up call."

The over-use of ground water supplies is creating problems for many states west of the Mississippi River. Kassen said one river in Arizona has lost all but two of 13 native fish species, while in northern Montana, a developer was denied a permit for a golf resort along the Gallatin River until it could come up with a water replacement plan for the wells it wanted. That led to the Montana legislature passing a new ground water measure this year.

In Nebraska, where the number of high capacity wells increased from about 6,000 in 1975, to more than 103,000 by this year, many areas are facing moratoriums, said Jim Goecke with the University of Nebraska.

"Nobody wants moratoriums," he said, but as water levels continue to decline in major aquifers, that may happen.

In southern New Mexico, along the Rio Grande, the state legislature is helping to developing surface water treatment plants for use by municipalities and industry to ensure the continued use of wells in a highly productive agricultural area, said Gary Esslinger, manager of the Elephant Butte Irrigation District of Las Cruces.

While no wells have been shut down in Nebraska, Goecke summed the problem.

"Droughts become teachable moments," he said.

'He was one of a kind'

Leo Gomolchak’s conservation efforts are still being felt today

It was Gomolchak, along with the late Jim Belsey and Steve Lundy, who really gave Colorado Trout Unlimited its boost toward its present standing of being a major player in the state’s conservation scene.

http://www.gjsentinel.com/sports/content/sports/stories/2007/06/03/6_3_OUT_sunday_column_WWW.html

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Every time an angler catches a healthy trout from Colorado’s rivers and streams, a small voice of thanks ought to go to Leo Gomolchak, the ardent coldwater conservationist who died on May 23.

A career military man who was proud but not prideful about his service to his country, Gomolchak, 81, rarely mentioned those times. Instead, he preferred to focus on whatever conservation battle was at hand, which more often than not was protecting this state’s coldwater fisheries for the future.

And some of the battles, notably about the state’s decision to stock whirling disease-infected trout, were memorable, indeed.

David Nickum, executive director for Colorado Trout Unlimited, recalls a wildlife commission meeting in 1994 when the panel was discussing whether or not to continue stocking whirling-disease infected fish in certain closed-basin waters.

Gomolchak ardently was opposed to stocking more WD-positive fish, particularly on the Western Slope, but the commission went ahead and approved a limited stocking plan that left Gomolchak red-faced.

“He always was frustrated that they didn’t come around faster on whirling disease and didn’t get a handle on it before it affected so many rivers,” said Nickum.

Rebecca Frank of Grand Junction was on the wildlife commission at the time and remembers that particular vote as one of the most-difficult she faced during her 12-year tenure.

“Leo was a key person in leading the charge” to do something about whirling disease, Frank remembers. “Early on, he wanted nothing to do with whirling disease and we should have listened to him.

“The good thing that came out it is we finally got a (whirling disease) policy adopted and the money (around $8 million) to clean up our hatcheries and get them ready for this century.”

That day was only one of the times the commission and state biologists were on the receiving end of Gomolchak’s pro-conservation scoldings.

Former state fisheries manager Eddie Kochman, one of those who felt the sting from Gomolchak’s arguments, called Gomolchak’s persistence “truly exceptional” while never showing a lack of respect for his opponents.

“Some of our greatest, more bitter arguments were about whirling disease,” Kochman remembered. “And in the end, we have to say Leo was right. He was one of a kind. I have never seen anyone so dedicated and persistent.”

Frank said Gomolchak remained receptive even during the most-heated discussions.

“He was so tenacious but he also was so gentlemanly,” Frank said. “At the end of the day, no matter how heated things got, you wanted to sit down with him and drink a beer and mull over the day.”

That tenacity earned Gomolchak the nickname “Pit Bull,” and his adversaries, nearly all of who became his friends, too, said he never let go of his main cause, conserving coldwater fisheries.

“You always knew that when Leo got up in front of the wildlife commission, he always was speaking on behalf of the resource,” Frank said. “There was no other agenda.”

It was Gomolchak, along with the late Jim Belsey and Steve Lundy, who really gave Colorado Trout Unlimited its boost toward its present standing of being a major player in the state’s conservation scene.

As a continuation of Gomolchak’s legacy, CTU recently established the “Gomo Grant” program to provide seed money grants for chapter conservation projects.

“He was one of the few folks who understood that to have a presence, you need to be present,” Nickum said. “We still miss having someone who has that fire and drive.”

Kochman agrees.

“I don’t see that today as much,” he said. “Between Leo and Belsey and Lundy, there was a level of accomplishment I had never seen before and probably never will see again.”

Among Gomolchak’s triumphs, including the state’s reversal on its whirling disease policy, are the roles he played in defeating Two Forks Dam, obtaining miles of public fishing waters in South Park and easing the “Row vs. Wade” controversy on the Arkansas River, when it was being debated whether water flows should be managed for anglers or recreational boaters.

“He would always ask us, ‘You guys sure you’re doing the right thing?’ ” recalled Doug Krieger, senior fisheries biologist for the Colorado Division of Wildlife’s Southeast Region. “He was one of the few guys eager to find out the details and go over the data and he really kept an open mind that way.”

While Gomolchak was a skillful negotiator, “There were some areas he felt there was no room for compromise,” Krieger said.

That including whirling disease, but he wasn’t hesitant to applaud the DOW when it adopted what Gomolchak thought was the right policies.

“He told me, ‘Kochman, you’re a slow learner but at least you learned,’ ” Kochman said.

It’s rare that a single voice can have such an impact, particularly one that rarely grabbed the spotlight and in fact purposely avoided being the center of attention.

Government agencies at all levels have much inertia to overcome, but like a small tugboat guiding a battleship into harbor, one persistent voice can help an entire agency change direction.

“His greatest attribute was his persistence,” Kochman said. “When it’s all over, if you look back and can say you made a difference, that’s all that matters. In Leo’s case, it was a big one.”

At 45, Fry-Ark not so golden

Drew Peternell, director of the Trout Unlimited Colorado Water Project, called for a programmatic environmental impact statement on the Fry-Ark Project to look at how it has changed over the years.

http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1180771084/1

Concerns for the future of the project are weighed down by the need for water for growth.

By CHRIS WOODKA THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

A congressional hearing Friday began with a film of President John F. Kennedy at Dutch Clark Stadium on a hot August day in 1962, heralding the cooperative spirit of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project.

The hearing ended in a less cooperative spirit after a morning that proved the testimony of one witness who said Colorado water is a geographic, rather than political concern.

“To make life better for some of the people is to make life better for all of the people,” Kennedy said, outlining the benefits of the project for the farms and cities of the Arkansas Valley in his riveting speech.

The words drew applause from a crowd 45 years later as a field hearing of the water and power subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee opened at Pueblo Community College.

“This is our future,” said committee chairwoman Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-Calif. “It was just as evident and true then as it is today.”

Napolitano said the hearing in Pueblo is the second she has held - the first was last year in Pomona, Calif. - to assess the water needs of Western states. About 150 people attended the 3-hour event.

People from Leadville, the Lower Arkansas Valley, Colorado Springs, Aurora and Pueblo came to hear public statements on rating the success of the Fry-Ark Project.

The hearing took on shades of partisanship, more from a geographic standpoint than by political parties, as described by Wally Stealey, former president of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, who told the committee water is a geographic issue.

Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., promoted his version of a Fryingpan-Arkansas bill through his statements and questions of witnesses throughout the hearing, making no bones about his defense of agriculture and small communities.

“I believe it is immoral for large cities to rob small towns for the sake of growth,” said Salazar, who represents Pueblo, the San Luis Valley and the Western Slope. “To add insult to injury, the Bureau of Reclamation has not made the case that it can contract with entities outside the basin.”

Holding a golden frying pan, he told the story of John Singletary, chairman of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, who helped his parents sell the pans to promote the project in the 1950s.

“John Singletary didn’t help his parents sell golden frying pans so the water could be sold out of the Arkansas Valley,” Salazar said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Doug Lamborn, the lone Republican on the committee, was equally vigorous in promoting the interests of Colorado Springs, which he represents. He is sponsoring competing legislation that adheres to past intergovernmental agreements for the Preferred Storage Options Plan.

At one point Lamborn labeled the negotiations over PSOP as being stalled by “a few obstructionists” and promoted the view that the Fry-Ark Project should focus on future growth.

“The old adage of build it and they will come no longer applies to Colorado. They’ll come anyway,” Lamborn said.

Rep. Ed Perlmutter, Salazar’s Democratic colleague, disagreed with Salazar’s view that the Fry-Ark Project originally was intended primarily to benefit agriculture. Perlmutter, who represents Aurora and other growing areas in the Denver suburbs, focused on Kennedy’s statement that Fry-Ark was an “investment in the growth of the West.”

“I believe there is a real opportunity to find a compromise. I would love to see a solution,” Perlmutter said.

Finally, Democratic Senate Candidate Mark Udall gave a nod to Western Slope interests in the Fry-Ark Project, but generally took the high road in his comments and questions.

“Nothing is more important to us in the West - it is our lifeblood - than water,” Udall said.

Testimony followed lines of self-interest as well, as most of the 11 witnesses struggled to conform to guidelines that allowed only five minutes of testimony.

Jay Winner, general manager of the Lower Ark district, drew spontaneous applause for his testimony lamenting the decline of agriculture and the increasing burden of small communities in dealing with water quality as the Fry-Ark Project has aged.

Colorado Springs has worked for its own benefit, rather than with Fry-Ark partners and Aurora has “bullied its way into the valley,” Winner said.

The exchanges of the cities have hurt water quality, he said.

“When we talk about water quality, here’s a good example of what has happened,” Winner said, holding up jars of muddy water from the Lower Arkansas Valley and clean water from mountain lakes. “They bought this (the dirty) water and took this (the clean water). . . . I’m told over and over (by the cities) it’s too expensive to clean up the water, so the burden falls on the Lower Arkansas Valley.”

Mayors Lionel Rivera of Colorado Springs and Ed Tauer of Aurora urged the congressional delegation to look to the future and needs of growth, rather than dwelling on the past. Both emphasized their significant financial contribution to repayment of the project - Colorado Springs through taxes, Aurora through contracts.

“For all the rhetoric and misinformation that has been spread about our city, the truth is that Colorado Springs has historically sought to avoid relying on the transfer of agricultural water rights to provide a water supply for the city,” Rivera said.

Napolitano took Rivera to task, asking why the city has not dedicated more effort to reusing its supply.

Rivera responded that the city reuses 13 percent of its water supply for public landscapes and power plants and touted the city’s conservation efforts, sewage and stormwater control.

Tauer described the Fry-Ark Project as a “series of pipes, pumps and buckets that allow people to move water and defended Aurora’s right to contract with Reclamation for excess-capacity space. He praised intergovernmental agreements Aurora has made in the valley to attempt to address ill effects of water transfers.

“Aurora will continue to cooperate with all involved entities to promote the Bureau’s goals of maximum utilization of existing infrastructure,” Tauer said.

Napolitano asked Tauer if Aurora isn’t creating a situation in the Arkansas basin similar to the Owens Valley in California, which was dried up by Los Angeles. Tauer said the IGAs prevent Aurora from taking more water from the valley.

Bill Long, president of the Southeastern District, said the construction of the Arkansas Valley Conduit is the most important piece of the Fry-Ark Project that has yet to be developed.

The conduit was part of the 1962 legislation, but never built because communities could never afford it.

“If we don’t get the conduit, the project will ultimately be used to move water out of the valley,” Long said.

Terry Scanga, executive director of the Upper Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, said the project has changed over the years, providing water for the growth of a recreation industry and new growth in the upper end of the river.

Pueblo District Attorney Bill Thiebaut said the major new challenge of the project is water quality.

“The quality can change as fast as the use,” Thiebaut said.

Drew Peternell, director of the Trout Unlimited Colorado Water Project, called for a programmatic environmental impact statement on the Fry-Ark Project to look at how it has changed over the years.

Chris Treese, manager of external affairs for the Colorado River Conservation District, said the original Fry-Ark Project was intended to market water to an oil shale industry that has not materialized. He asked Congress to look at the repayment plan for Ruedi Reservoir to avoid higher lease rates in the future as interest piles up.

Sandy White, a lawyer representing The Pueblo Chieftain and other valley water interests, challenged Reclamation’s authority to enter contracts with Aurora, saying Aurora circumvents state law with federal contracts.

“The Bureau essentially is on an adventure of its own,” White said.

Mike Ryan, Great Plains regional director for the Bureau of Reclamation, defended contract policies, saying the Fry-Ark Project is not harmed by the bureau’s actions.

Stealey, however, disagreed.

“The biggest danger we’ve got is diminishing the taxpayers’ role in the Fry-Ark Project by diluting the stock,” Stealey said. “When does it quit becoming the Bureau of Urban Development? Some of us are very angry.”