Denver Post Opinion:Sallie Clark is an El Paso County Commissioner.
The signing of State SB141 was barely mentioned by most of our local media. It's not surprising; the legislature passes and the Governor signs many bills and only a handful make the front page. But I'm convinced that ten or twenty years from now, when we look back, we'll view the signing of SB141 as a major milestone.Read more
Steamboat Pilot and Today
Here in Northwest Colorado, where some of the last unallocated water in Colorado remains, we’ve had several recent wake-up calls. Read More
By Mark JaffeThe Denver Post
MONTROSE — A roaring white arc of water cascading over the Crystal Dam and into Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park on Wednesday was a sign of victory.
The National Park Service has been fighting for water rights for parks across the West for nearly 40 years.
"Whether it is a geyser at Yellowstone or the water that shapes and stabilizes Colorado's Great Sand Dunes, water is vital for the parks," said Bart Miller, an attorney with Western Resource Advocates in Boulder.
The Park Service already has won water rights for 25 parks in nine Western states, the last two for Colorado's Black Canyon and Great Sand Dunes. Eight more agreements are being negotiated.
It took 36 years and Colorado's biggest water-rights battle — with two court cases, more than 300 letters of opposition and 45 different parties in the final negotiations — for the canyon to get its water.
Hydropower agencies, ranchers, a Front Range suburban water supplier, conservation groups and federal agencies all were at the table.
"In the end we struck a balance," said Trout Unlimited attorney Drew Peternell. "Nobody got everything, but everybody got something."
By Mark JaffeThe Denver Post
MONTROSE — A whitewater torrent rushed over the Crystal Dam on Wednesday and coursed into Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
The release marked the end of a 36-year battle by the National Park Service to win an annual spring discharge from a series of dams upstream to cleanse and scour the river through the canyon.
"This has been one of the longest, most complex water-right battles in Colorado," said Drew Peternell, an attorney for the sportsmen's group Trout Unlimited.
By CHRIS WOODKATHE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
BASALT - While the Arkansas River basin celebrates its supplementary supply of water now being imported in sheets, the basin where that water chiefly comes from is raising concerns about its own water supply.
Water users in the Roaring Fork basin staged a summit of sorts Tuesday to consider the state of their watershed, an aspen-leaf shaped area of 1,453 square miles that, coincidentally, has Aspen at its heart.
Those who spoke at the meeting emphasized that leaving water in the river for recreational purposes is an important benefit to the Western Slope.
“We have to change the mindset we have in Colorado that water left in the river is a waste,” said Ken Neubecker, president of Colorado Trout Unlimited.
http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2009/05/13/news/local/doc4a0a598657d15540868905.txt
By Mark JaffeThe Denver Post
After one of the biggest water battles in Colorado history, extra water began flowing out of the Crystal Reservoir on Thursday to restore Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
Releases will increase over the next few days until the Gunnison River in the canyon rises to six times its current flow — aiming to simulate natural spring runoff and help restore the park's river ecosystem.
The National Park Service fought in state and federal courts for 36 years to obtain a water right for the park.
"This was bitterly fought and had more opposition than any other water right," said Drew Peternell, an attorney for Trout Unlimited.
Fly Rod & Reel The rebirth of a Colorado river begins this month, as water officials start to put the landmark 2008 Black Canyon of the Gunnison settlement into effect.
On May 7, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) operators made the first release in a new flow regime that is expected to help restore the Gunnison River canyon ecosystem and return it to a more natural state.
“After years of hard work by Trout Unlimited and other conservation groups, this is the payoff,” said Drew Peternell, director of Trout Unlimited’s Colorado Water Project. “With these renewed flows, the Gunnison River through the Black Canyon will experience a rebirth, and its priceless natural resources will be safeguarded for generations to come.”
Summit Daily News by Mely Whiting
A recent Denver Post article about the conflict over proposed Colorado Basin water diversions to the Front Range proclaimed that “Water war ends in deal.” As appealing as the headline may be, it is inaccurate.
No deal has been struck. No agreement reached. Denver Water and Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District did unveil last week a joint proposal to mitigate the impacts of their respective proposed transmountain diversion projects on the Fraser and Colorado headwaters. The proposal is promising, as is Denver and Northern’s good-faith effort to respond to concerns raised by many. But, far from a done deal, the proposal signals only the beginning of serious discussions.
Denver and Northern have an opportunity here to make history — to create transmountain water diversion projects that serve the needs of the Front Range, while protecting and even improving the rivers, their outstanding fisheries, and a quality of life for both county residents and visitors. Whether the Post’s optimistic headline comes true depends on the outcome of discussions slated to take place over the next several weeks. For those talks to succeed, anglers and other key stakeholders must be at the table. We urge Denver Water and Northern to extend an invitation to these stakeholders and make this a truly historic agreement.
Mely Whiting is an attorney for Trout Unlimited’s Colorado Water Project.
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20090506/LETTER/905059987/1025
The Denver Post
A $3 billion scrum of water projects is being developed along the Front Range — but their cumulative impacts, and whether there is water enough for all, remains to be sorted out.Still, from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs, the projects are moving forward, powered, attorneys and water managers say, by Colorado water law's first-come-first-served principle....
"We don't have a water plan; prior appropriation is our plan and it's every man for himself," said Melissa Kassen, a director of Trout Unlimited's Western Water project.
