How the West's Energy Boom Could Threaten Drinking Water for 1 in 12 Americans

[from Scientific American website]  A rush to develop domestic oil, gas and uranium deposits along the Colorado River and its tributaries threatens its future

By Abrahm Lustgarten and ProPublica

The river is already so beleaguered by drought and climate change that one environmental study called it the nation's "most endangered" waterway. Researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography warn the river's reservoirs could dry up in 13 years.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=how-the-wests-energy-boom-could-threaten-drinking-water

ISE Denver will Feature Photography Auction to Benefit Colorado’s Conservation Effort

(from the International Sportsmen'sExhibition Blog) An auction to benefit Colorado’s Conservation Effort led by Colorado Trout Unlimited, will be open to all attendees of the ISE in Denver, CO - Jan. 22-25. 

Colorado Trout Unlimited is the Colorado council of the national organization Trout Unlimited, which has more than 156,000 members nationwide.  For more than 35 years, CTU has made significant contributions to Colorado’s environment, including battling the effects of disease on wild trout, defeating harmful large dam and diversion projects, passing important stream flow legislation, spearheading youth conservation education, protecting water quality, restoring native trout, improving drought-stricken rivers, establishing healthy fishing regulations and promoting water conservation.

Photographers include, Jason Jagger, R. Valentine Atkinson, Jeff Stine, Dan Armstrong, Mark Lance, Patrick Clayton, Brian Grossenbacher, John Crane, Tosh Brown, and Brian O’keefe.

Click here to see the photo collections

Salazar knows Western political issues

By STEVEN K. PAULSON –

DENVER (AP) — Ken Salazar worked his way from a remote family ranch to become the state's first Hispanic U.S. senator — and along the way he's amassed an intimate knowledge of Western political issues.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jod0CIPSX7K1gH0Nc0nVsw9jgHqQD953FRFO0

Conservation groups give Salazar mixed welcome

Dec 17, 2008 4:00 PM (1 day ago) By JUDITH KOHLER, AP "On the whole, we're really optimistic that his appointment will translate into commonsense changes in the ways federal land is maintained in relation to fish and wildlife habitat," said Chris Hunt of Trout Unlimited's public lands initiative.

http://www.examiner.com/a-1750211~Conservation_groups_give_Salazar_mixed_welcome.html

Bureau of Reclamation releases final environmental impact statement for Southern Delivery System

December 13, 8:13 AM

by John Orr, Colorado Water Examiner

The preferred alternative still runs from Pueblo Dam through Pueblo County up the east side of Colorado Springs / Fountain area.

Read the article

A Holiday Gift Idea

This is an exerpt of Dave Buchanan's December 13 column in the Grand Junction Sentinel. Chris Hunt is Communications Director for TU's Public Lands Initiative. His book is available at Amazon.com or at www.flyfishscribe.com.

I just finished reading Chris Hunt’s entertaining new book “Shin Deep: a Fly Fisher’s Love for Living Water” (self-published, $16.99, 138 pp, softcover).The book is a compilation of some of Hunt’s essays on fly fishing, many of them written while he was still locked into a journalist’s job, or perhaps I should say “jobs.”

Throughout the 19 well-crafted stories runs the theme of conservation, not simply for trout but for wild places, wild water and the wild creatures who inhabit both realms.

Read the column

Landscope America

LandScope America — a collaborative project of NatureServe and the National Geographic Society — is a new online resource for the land-protection community and the public. Developed with generous support from the West Hill Foundation for Nature, LandScope America is designed to increase the pace and effectiveness of conservation action and investment throughout the United States.

http://preview.landscope.org/preview/Home.html

Springs lays out case for SDS pipeline

County staff wants concrete, enforceable mitigation rather than simple commitments. By CHRIS WOODKA THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

The total length of the pipeline would be about 50 miles, with two more pump stations in El Paso County and a treatment plant. In a few years, a terminal storage reservoir and an exchange reservoir are planned on Williams Creek.

http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2008/12/10/news/local/doc493f7e7c9ee76704242048.txt

Summit County: EPA promises ‘free’ cleanup of Penn Mine

County commissioners resist Superfund designation at abandoned mineBy Bob Berwyn summit daily news Summit County, CO Colorado

Even though the EPA is promising a “free” cleanup of the abandoned Pennsylvania Mine, local officials remain leery of a Superfund listing, citing concerns about potential human and social costs.

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20081210/NEWS/812099958/1078&ParentProfile=1055&title=Summit%20County:%20EPA%20promises%20%91free%92%20cleanup%20of%20Penn%20Mine

Colorado & Western Water Project Staff Notes December 2008

We went to DC to testify to the Roadless Area Conservation National Committee (RACNAC) on a provision in the proposed CO Roadless Rule that would allow roads to be built into roadless areas to build future water pipelines and diversion structures for which no water right exists today. For more on the roadless issue in Colorado: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_11142283

http://www.cotrout.org/Conservation/CTURoadlessComments/tabid/301/Default.aspx

As part of the visit to DC, we also met with Hill Staff Clean Water Restoration Act:

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_bills&docid=f:h2421ih.txt.pdf

TU and most of the other parties to the Colorado water court proceedings to quantify the Black Canyon reserved water right have reached agreement on a proposed decree. The water court has established a 30-day period for any party to object to the proposed settlement. If there is no objection, the court should sign the decree before the end of the year.

http://www.cotrout.org/LinkPages/BlackCanyon/tabid/144/Default.aspx

We have been reviewing and commenting on a bill to be introduced in the 2009 Colorado General Assembly legislative session that would allow small-scale precipitation harvesting on a pilot basis: http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_9712027

We have met with representatives of Colorado Springs Utilities to discuss mitigation for the Southern Delivery System project:

http://www.sdswater.org/

http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2008/12/10/news/local/doc493f7e7c9ee76704242048.txt

The water court judge issued a ruling on the Supreme Court’s remand of the Dry Gulch case. The ruling on remand awards the applicants more water than is justified under the Supreme Court opinion. We have appealed the remand decree back to the Supreme Court.

http://www.cotrout.org/LinkPages/DryGulchGoestotheSupremeCourt/tabid/189/Default.aspx

We are working on comments on the draft EIS for the Windy Gap Firming Project (WGFP), released by the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps earlier. Using Reclamation facilities, the project would take additional flows from the headwaters of the Colorado River and across the Continental Divide to supply municipal water to the metro area. The WGFP would utilize a concept called “prepositioning” to increase the firm yield of the very junior Windy Gap water rights. The increase in firm yield would result in further depletions to the Colorado River. Ongoing transmountain diversions already take over 50% of the Colorado’s native flows and a higher percentage of its tributary, the Fraser River.  Both rivers support highly valued recreational trout fisheries. The draft EIS does a very poor job assessing direct and cumulative impacts to the fisheries. The proposed action alternative also raises serious legal federal and state law questions. Comments are due December 29, 2008.

http://www.cotrout.org/Conservation/WindyGapCommentExt/tabid/310/Default.aspx

We are in contact with the Bureau of Reclamation and its contractor (Northern) for the Colorado-Big Thompson (C-BT) Project to modify project operations to ameliorate its impacts on the headwaters of the Colorado River and its Gold Medal trout fisheries. At a recent meeting, Northern unveiled a proposal to make up to 6,000 acre-feet of water a year available to deal with late summer low flow issues.

http://www.usbr.gov/dataweb/html/cbt.html

We are significantly involved in a stakeholder effort to develop a stream management plan for a section of the Colorado River being considered for potential WSRA designation. The group has representation from water suppliers, local governments, recreation, and conservation groups. A draft plan that includes measures to protect flows and water quality through the reach has been submitted to BLM, but many issues still need to be worked out. A final plan is due June 2009.

http://www.gjsentinel.com/hp/content/news/stories/2008/12/06/120708_5A_wild_scenic.html

TU staff met with upper management of the Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) and Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) staff to discuss ways in which DOW can help promote efforts to obtain water leases for instream flow purposes. DOW is in a very good position to promote the program and seek opportunities, as many of its field and regional staff live and work in localities where leases may be needed/desirable, and it already has a realty program that promotes and engages in land conservation transactions. TU will continue to work with DOW and CWCB to expand the program.

http://cwcb.state.co.us/StreamAndLake/WaterAcquisitions/

TU is participating in a “Shared Vision Planning” (SVP) process on the North Fork Cache la Poudre River near Ft. Collins, Colorado. SVP is a collaborative approach to formulating water management solutions that combines three disparate practices: 1) traditional water resources planning, 2) structured public participation and 3) collaborative computer modeling. The goal of SVP is to improve the economic, environmental and social outcomes of water management decisions. SVP is intended to facilitate a common understanding of a natural resource system and provide a consensus-based forum for stakeholders to identify tradeoffs and new management options. http://halligan-seaman.org/page.asp?pgID=48