EPA view heartens foes of water plan

By Monte WhaleyThe Denver Post

Updated: 11/21/2008

The EPA said the Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP) "will have substantial and unacceptable impacts to aquatic resources of national importance."

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_11037046

CRWCD board rep warns of water 'call'

Ouray County Newspapers November 21, 2008 Samantha Tisdel Wright

It's not just the cities downstream in the Colorado River watershed that have cast a larcenous eye upon the pristine water of the San Juans. Sprawling Front Range Colorado communities are equally thirsty and greedy, often exhibiting what Mueller called a "buy it and dry it" mentality when it come to water rights.

http://www.ouraynews.com/Articles-i-2008-11-21-187926.112113_CRWCD_board_rep_warns_of_water_call.html

Desperate measures

With water shortages a constant, Westerners are looking at wacky (and not so wacky) ways to squeeze more water out of the sky and land. High Country News - by Jonathan Thompson

(This is idea 10 - click on the link below for the others; ed) Modern-day cloud seeding may have its roots in the mysterious craft of Charles Mallory Hatfield. Back in the early 1900s, Hatfield built a tower in the San Gabriels from which he disseminated his secret concoction of 23 chemicals into the air in order to create rain. After a storm came, local ranchers paid him $1,000 for his "moisture acceleration" talents. Later, the city of San Diego hired him. A few days after he set up his tower, a deluge struck, breaking a dam and wreaking havoc. The city never paid him.

http://www.hcn.org/issues/40.21/desperate-measures

The Sober Science of Migrating Rubber Duckies

Wall St. Journal Online An Armada of Tub Toys Sets Sail in New Research Discipline, 'Flotsam Science,' and Helps Unravel Enduring Planetary Mysteries

Consequently, Dr. Behar and his colleagues at the University of Colorado this past August released 90 yellow rubber ducks into the melt water flowing down a chasm in the largest of Greenland's 200 glaciers -- the Jakobshavn Isbrae -- which has been thinning rapidly since 1997...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122660041840925005.html

Is West's water supply at risk?

Editorial - By The Denver Post

Congress should revisit whether a controversial natural gas drilling method pollutes groundwater in Colo. and elsewhere....

Specifically, Congress ought to repeal the exemption that allows hydraulic fracturing to escape regulation by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_11015962

Trout habitat improved by altering river's flow

By TRACY HARMONTHE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

Thanks to three local Trout Unlimited Chapters, the Canon City Recreation and Park District and the Colorado Division of Wildlife, the $20,000 trout habitat improvement project should be done by Wednesday.

http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2008/11/16/news/region/doc491fbde45d97b128839957.txt

Can the Forest Service get back on track?

Chris Wood is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Çountry News (hcn.org). He is a former Forest Service staffer who's now the chief operating officer of Trout Unlimited. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Since 2001, stopping fire has grown from about 15 percent of the agency's budget to nearly 50 percent today. Without forward-thinking leadership, the Forest Service agenda will continue to focus primarily on this one reactionary activity. Yet there is enormous potential for the agency and its 35,000 employees who manage public lands that exceed the size of Texas. Agency staffers could be turned loose to do good work on the ground.

http://www.denverpost.com/writersontherange/ci_10897698

Importance of Ground Water to Colorado

Tuesday, November 18, 2008, 11:00 AMLory Student Center, Room 213

Guest Lecturer, Robert A. Longenbaugh, Consultant Water Engineer is a two-time CSU Alumni and ex-professor.  He has over 47 years experience working in the ground water profession with 19 years teaching and applied groundwater research at Colorado State University (1960-1980); followed by 11 years (1981-91) as Assistant State Engineer for groundwater for Colorado.

As Assistant State Engineer he coordinated the Engineering data analyses and testimony in the US Supreme Court Law suite by Kansas against Colorado on the Arkansas River Basin.  Since 1991, he has done part time groundwater consulting and conducted a variety of educational classes.

Lecture topics

Description of the major aquifers in Colorado and current issues controlling their use

History and issues of conjunctive use in Colorado

Focus on alluvial aquifers, such as the South Platte

Need for legislative and administrative change to allow us to optimize the use of both ground and surface water

Discussion on potential employment for both graduate and undergraduate students in the ground and surface water fields

Event Contact: Domenico Bau can be reached at (970) 491-6060

Sponsored by Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Every Coloradan has a stake in healthy rivers

Opinion piece from Drew Peternell, Director of TU's Colorado Water Project: Re: “Diversions,” Oct. 26 Perspective article.

As the state’s leading coldwater fisheries conservation group, Trout Unlimited shares the concerns expressed in Gretchen Bergen’s commentary about the potential impact of the Windy Gap and Moffat Tunnel water diversion schemes on the health of the Colorado and Fraser Rivers and the wildlife and communities that depend on them.

http://blogs.denverpost.com/eletters/2008/11/10/every-coloradan-has-a-stake-in-healthy-rivers/

Forest Service echoes concern over Ritter plan

by David Frey, Aspen Daily News Correspondent

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Environmentalists have gotten some support from Forest Service officials who agree that the state’s plans to overhaul protections for roadless lands across the state could hurt wildlife.

“I think the state has been on a learning curve with this,” said Sloan Shoemaker, executive director of Carbondale-based Wilderness Workshop, which says the state’s roadless protections are too weak. “Initially Gov. Ritter and the Department of Natural Resources had the perception that this was a no-brainer because there was a perception of 100 percent consensus and buyoff from all the stakeholders, but in fact that wasn’t really the case.”

Environmental groups have panned Ritter’s proposed roadless rules, meant to replace federal rules that have been at least temporarily struck down by federal court, as too full of loopholes to adequately protect 4.4 million acres of Colorado forest land free from roads.

In recent weeks, Trout Unlimited and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), both environmentally oriented sportsmen’s groups, have released studies critical of the plan.

“We are concerned that the current draft rule has too little focus on protecting these valuable areas and too much focus on granting exceptions — some exceptions that are very broadly worded and could significantly undermine conservation of backcountry habitat,” David Nickum, executive director of Colorado Trout Unlimited, wrote to the Forest Service.

http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/130451