Although portions of this report are used on occasion in Colorado Central Magazine, we do not publish the full report there, as we do on this website. It is prepared by Steve Glazer of Crested Butte and is distributed early each month via an email list. To subscribe to that list, email to <listserv@lists.sierraclub.org> with SUBSCRIBE RMC-CONS-WATER as the message.
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After four months of contentious negotiation, Gunnison Basin water users, a slate of environmental groups and the state have reached an agreement in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park water rights case. The agreement, which defines who must yield water rights to Black Canyon National Park, is the next step in resolving a larger case quantifying the park's 1933 water right. This will allow most of the 350 objectors to withdraw from the quantification case. link
A Durango-based water court judge ruled that when coalbed methane operators pump out groundwater during drilling, they are putting the water to "beneficial use," a legal ruling that gives Colorado's state engineer authority over the process, a position the state engineer disagreed with during the trial of the lawsuit brought by two farmers. Denver Post; July 3 link
The Colorado State Engineer's office said a state district judge's order that requires coalbed-methane gas producers to obtain water-well permits just as ranchers and others who drill for underground water must will essentially shut down g as production while the state processes water-well permits. Durango Herald; July 19 link
Xcel Energy officials aren't sure when the Shoshone Power Plant in Glenwood Canyon will be back online, but as upstream water users siphone the plant's share of Colorado River flows during the shutdown, downstream users may see a degradation of their water quality as lower flows will cause higher concentrations of pollutants. Grand Junction Sentinel; July 3 link
Phelps Dodge asked a federal court for earlier access to water in Colorado's Dillon Reservoir, which supplies water to 1.2 million of Denver Water Company's customers, for the mining corporation's planned molybdenum mine. Denver Rocky Mountain News; July 21 link
Colorado farmers aren't the only ones in the West to see their irrigation pumps shut down, as Idaho farmers are dealing with that as well, and as the drought continues and cities' need for water grows, more farmers in other western states could soon see their fields dry up. Denver Rocky Mountain News; July 9 link
Water for the project will be drawn down stream from the D enver Metro Wastewater Reclamation District's plant on the river. link link
Forests in Summit and Grand counties have been decimated by beetles, increasing the risk of wildfire in those Colorado counties where many of the pipelines and reservoirs that supply water to the Front Range are located. Denver Rocky Mountain News; July 13 link
At the meeting of the Colorado River Basin Roundtable, one of nine such groups formed to find new cooperative ways to share Colorado's dwindling water supplies, Western Slope water officials, ranchers and environmentalists all said they wanted to participate in the two-year study planned to quantify how much Colorado River water would be allocated for new development. Denver Rocky Mountain News; July 24 link
Durango's request for water rights to develop a kayak park along a 1,183-foot stretch of the Animas River that includes the popular Smelter Rapid won't be answered until August, after the Colorado Water Conservation Board decided that some technical issues need to be handled before the board can make a decision. Durango Herald; July 12 link
A powerful water rights group has endorsed the value of recreational uses of water in Colorado, a sign that attitudes about the importance of r ecreational water is changing. Vail Daily News; July 23 link
Under an agreement sealed Thursday, the Colorado Water Conservation Board will forgo filing for an in-stream water right to Pine River water in exchange for a donation of water from the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and Pine River Irrigation District from the Vallecito Reservoir. Durango Herald; July 13 link
Colorado officials want federal officials to hold off on their review of Fort Collins businessman Aaron Million's proposal to build a 400-mile, multibillion-dollar pipeline to ship water from a reservoir in southwest Wyoming to Colorado's Front Range cities to allow the state more time to consider the proposal. Vail Daily News; July 23 link
The Natural Resources Defense Council's new report, "In Hot Water: Water Management Strategies to Weather the Effects of Global Warming" said Western water utilities should form regional partnerships to address water shortage issues. Rocky Mountain News; July 11 link
A three- year study of snowpack in Colorado's San Juan Mountains proved the hypothesis of researchers from Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies National Snow and Ice Data Center at University of Colorado at Boulder: that dust from Arizona, New Mexico and Utah was causing snowpack in the mountains to melt 18 to 35 days early. Durango Herald; July 22 link
The first half of 2007 was the wettest in New Mexico for the past seven years, and there are no fire restrictions in place anywhere in the state. Santa Fé New Mexican; uly 5 link
The Snowy River, a two-mile stretch of sparkling subterranean crystalline discovered in 2001 in a passage of the Fort Stanton Cave in New Mexico, is once again flowing with water. Albuquerque Journal (AP); July 24 link
Approval and construction of the pipeline would reduce the risk of Navajo making potentially larger claims which most likely would affect the available water supply for non-Indian uses. Gallup Independent link
This water supply project would require a 75 percent federal cost share. The state would take on 15 percent and the authority members would handle 10 percent and all operating costs following construction. The project has an estimated $432 million price tag. Portales News-Tribune link
Environmentalists who oppose the proposal to build a coal-fired power plant on Navajo Nation land in northwestern New Mexico said they are afraid San Juan water rights received under a settlement under consideration in Congress would be used for the Desert Rock plant, but a spokesman for Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. said that would not be the case. Santa Fé New Mexican (AP); July 23 link
An exploratory well drilled by Sandoval County discovered the potential for about 50,000 acre feet of water annually for 100 years at 3,770 feet; the N.M. county plans a second exploratory water well to determine exactly how much water is available--an important issue in an area where water s upplies are dwindling. Albuquerque Journal; July 22 link
Some might think fewer rodents would be a good thing, but scientists are concerned about the dwindling populations of two small creatures on New Mexico's list of endangered mammals. Loss of riparian habitat along streams and rivers is cited as a primary cause for the decline of meadow jumping mice and montane voles. link
A weak winter snowpack and weeks without rain are just the beginning. Experts warn the region's dry conditions likely will continue for months. Salt Lake Tribune link
Salt Lake City residents may escape the need to keep their yards green now that the Utah city's council voted to allow xeriscaping on front and side yards. Salt Lake Tribune; July 11 link
About 1,500 of the 1,860 homeowners in Mapleton are paying triple-digit water bills to use high-priced culinary water to keep their lawns green, a practice that wastes precious treated drinking water, so officials of the Utah city decided to buy an 18-acre reservoir of irrigation water it had sold years ago to bring pressurized irrigation water to its residents. Salt Lake Tribune; July 3 link
Salt Lake City and Utah officials believe a heavy concentration of nitrate, a primary ingredient of fertilizer, is responsible for a widespread fish kill in Parleys Creek in June, but they do not know yet what caused the temporary spike in nitrate levels. Salt Lake Tribune; July 3 link
The Mountainland Association of Governments, representing Summit, Wasatch and Utah counties, recently voted to send a letter to the U.S. Forest Service to ask that none of the 21 segments of rivers in those Utah counties be included in the National Wild and Scenic River System. Deseret News; 7/11 linklink
We should be maintaining the natural ability of streams to manage flood waters. Salt Lake Tribune link
Shoshone National Forest officials said that the North Fork of the Shoshone River in Wyoming won't be considered as a candidate for protection under the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, but did say that if public support for such a designation increased in the future, the river could be reconsidered as a candidate. Billings Gazette (AP); July 11 link
Water temperatures in some rivers in Yellowstone National Park have reached 82.4 degrees, killing hundreds of trout. Billings Gazette; July 11 link
Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality personnel said a spray plane at the Pinedale airport reported problems with its equipment at about t he same time they received reports about a pesticide spill in the Green River killed about 300 brown trout and whitefish. Casper Star-Tribune; 7/31 link
For the third year in a row, the San Pedro River is in danger of running dry at a key monitoring station northeast of Sierra Vista. Federal hydrologists say the river could dry up at the Charleston gauge by mid July if monsoon rains don't start falling. The San Pedro, the Southwest's last free-flowing desert river, has lost 80 percent of its summertime flow over 70 years. Arizona Daily Star link
There are about 300,000 backyard swimming pools in Phoenix, with another 20,000 or so being built every year, and while Arizona officials say they'd prefer new pools not be built, they understand why desert residents would want one, and they're encouraging the use of pool covers to cut down on evaporation. Arizona Republic; July 16 link link
Copper, cotton, citrus, cattle and climate are the underpinnings of Arizona's economy, but the first four elements are heavily dependent on water, and with demand ever growing for the increasingly smaller supply, perhaps it's time the state reconsiders how much water should be used for copper mining. A column. Arizona Daily Star; July 27 link
Southern Nevada Water Authority has already secured a deal to pump 13 billion gallons of groundwater annually from Spring Valley, located at the north end of a proposed $2-billion pipeline to ship water to Las Vegas, and now SNWA wants to obtain another 11.3 million gallons from three valleys in central Nevada, a plan that has ranchers and environmentalists teaming up to fight the proposal. Reno Gazette-Journal (AP); July 30 link
Members of Utah's Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Interim Committee have asked the state's congressional delegation to sponsor legislation for funding a study of the aquifer under the Snake Valley in western Utah to help them assess the effect of Southern Nevada Water Authority's pumping of 40,000 acre-feet of water annually from the aquifer. Salt Lake Tribune; Aug. 1 link
Attorneys for Nevada urged a federal district judge to deny the Department of Energy's request for an injunction that would allow continued use of groundwater for drilling near the proposed nuclear waste repository near Yucca Mountain. Reno Gazette-Journal (AP); Aug. 1 link
Just six months after river flows were returned to a 62-mile stretch of the Owens River in California, the riverbed is overflowing with striking displays of birds, fish and insects. Los Angeles Times; July link
Ten percent of the area burned by the Angora wildfire last month occurred in the watershed that already contributes a quarter of the p ollutants and run-off that threaten water quality in the cobalt-blue Lake Tahoe, and federal, state and local officials have already begun work to combat erosion. Christian Science Monitor; July 5 link
Many of the residents who lost their home to the Angora Fire that burned through South Lake Tahoe blamed policies of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, an environmental agency created in the 960s to protect the lake's water clarity, for the buildup of fuels that fed the wildfire, and the governors of Nevada and California have agreed to review those policies. Reno Gazette-Journal (AP); July 6 link
Efforts have been ongoing since 1952 to prevent the Devils Hole pupfish from becoming extinct, but at last count there were only 38 remaining fish in the 10-foot-by-70-foot thermal pool in Death Valley National Park. USA Today; July 10 link
An Associated Press story described the die-off: "Millions of tilapia died over the weekend in the annual summertime Salton Sea fish kill in what was described as one of the largest die-offs ever at the giant desert lake." News reports of another massive fish die-off at the Salton Sea earlier this week were "overstated," said the man who reportedly is the only known eyewitness to the incident. link
The U.S. government appears poised to turn over the rights to billions of gallons of water to a politically connected group of farmers in California, where most people are being asked to conserve. link
The U.S. House water and power subcommittee heard testimony Tuesday on a bill that would allow California, Nevada and Arizona to restore riparian areas along the stretches of the Colorado River from Lake Mead to the U.S-Mexico border to benefit threatened birds and fish for 50 years. Las Vegas Review-Journal; July 25 link
Citing public safety needs, Cascade County planning officials heard testimony about revisions to subdivision regulations that would require major subdivisions to have 10,000 gallons of stored water, in addition to the existing 500 gallons-per-lot requirement. Great Falls Tribune; July 18 link
The U.S. Forest Service said the earthen Mike Horse Dam built across a tributary of the Blackfoot River in Montana should be removed and the mining waste held back by the dam should be removed and hauled to property owned by mining company Asarco, and that Asarco, and possibly the Atlantic itchfield Co., should foot the bill. Missoulian (AP); July 25 link
The median flow for Montana's Gallatin River in July is 1,880 cubic feet per second, but on 7/2, the flow was already down to 879 cfs, prompting ater commissioners to shut down some irrigators, with indications that more shutdowns would be issued soon. Bozeman Daily Chronicle; July 3 link
National Park Service officials asked anglers in Yellowstone National Park to voluntarily halt fishing on many rivers and streams within the park in the afternoons, but Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials said all fishing restrictions announced by that agency would be mandatory. Great Falls Tribune; July 7 link
Montana wildlife officials said heat and low water were stressing fish and ordered the entire Thompson River off limits to fishing between the hours of 2 p.m. and midnight. Missoulian; July 10 link
The entire Jefferson River in Montana is off limits to anglers between the hours of 2 p.m. and midnight beginning 7/11. Bozeman Daily Chronicle; July 10 link link.
Rogers Lake has been used as a brood lake for arctic grayling in Montana, but with this summer's hot temperatures, the water in the lake is now about 80 degrees, much too warm for the cold-water fish, and residents who live near the lake said the fish are dying by the hundreds. Missoulian; July 25 link
Yellowstone cutthroat trout are losing ground to rainbow and cutthroat trout in Montana, and state wildlife officials are working to reintroduce the native trout in a couple of lakes in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness in an effort to boost the number of the fish and keep the species off the federal endangered species list. Billings Gazette; July 5 link
Yellowstone cutthroat trout are "holding their own" in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming despite threats ranging from habitat loss and disease to hybridization with other species, state and federal fisheries biologists said. link link
Concerns about the impact subdivisions may have on their water rights, a group of Absarokee-area ranchers and landowners filed a lawsuit against the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to force the department to perform assessments of the impact new wells will have before approving the wells. Billings Gazette; July 27 link
The decision by Dave Tuthill, director of the Idaho Department of Water Resources, to rescind his earlier order to shut off groundwater pumpers today if water calls by two trout farmers weren't answered, means that 16,000 acres of cropland will get the water they need. Idaho Statesman; July 6 link
After Idaho Gov. Butch Otter told water users this spring to come up with new ways to manage the state's water or he'd do it for them, the Idaho Department of Water Resources Board is contemplating a slate of changes to water policy, the likes of which haven't been seen since the 1960s. Twin Falls Times-News; July 19 link
A 1984 agreement between Idaho and Idaho Power Co. requires the state to maintain Snake River flows at 3,900 cubic feet per second for use in Idaho Power's Swan Falls hydropower facilities near Murphy, a deal that is currently the subject of litigation between the state and the utility, and the ongoing drought is further muddying the issue. Twin Falls Times-News; July 6 link
A retired architect was hired by Twin Falls in April to enforce the Idaho city's water ordinances, and now the city is contemplating hiring another "water cop" to work weekends. Twin Falls Times-News; July 16 link
Eagle city officials want to buy the private water company that provides water to most of the residents of their Idaho city, as well as its commercial core, and while they have not yet decided how they'll come up with the $6.3 million needed, they may explore a bond issue. Idaho Statesman; July 23 link
Residents of Idaho's cities and towns should take note of the battle over agricultural water in southern Idaho because it's a battle every Idahoan will eventually have to wade into, as the weather in the state heats up and dries out, and more demands are placed on a finite resource. Idaho Statesman; July 5 link
Idaho is in the process of updating its rules on groundwater protection rules which currently provide an exemption for mining activities, and environmental groups want those exemptions removed but mining companies said removing the exemptions will cost the state billions of dollars in revenues. Idaho Statesman; July 30 link
The largest dam removal in the Pacific Northwest in 40 years began recently with blasts of 4,000 pounds of explosives, the dam's owner, Portland General Electric, said. link link
With water battles mounting, drought ongoing and salmon numbers still dropping, science is still on the side of removing the four dams on the lower Snake River in Washington--and ten years after the proposal was first made, it's still the best option for saving salmon. Idaho Statesman; July 23 link
The Endangered Species Act has generated a lot of controversy since it was enacted in 34 years ago, but these days the debate is centered around whether scientific findings were altered by non-scientists, and if Vice President Dick Cheney interceded into the Klamath Basin water dispute in 2002 when low water flows led to the death of 70,000 salmon. Christian Science Monitor; 7/25 link link
The Pacific Salmon Commission declared that the early sockeye salmon run into the Fraser River, a major Vancouver Island population, and Columbia River sockeye going into Lake Washington via Oregon and Washington State were all below pre-season estimates, with only 13,000 fish returning out of a pre-season estimate of 45,000. Vancouver Sun; 7/31 link
Rain stopped falling 7/4 in northeastern Oklahoma and some bloated rivers had crested, but many evacuees were unable to return to flooded homes in a three-state region and experts warned conditions may yet worsen. link
On a one-acre site alongside a string of shrimp boats docked on the Brownsville ship channel stands a $2.2 million assembly of pipes, sheds, and humming machinery - Texas' entree into global efforts to make sea water suitable to drink. Physorg.com link
The Great Lakes are being depleted at a faster rate than they are naturally replenished, said Max Muller of Environment Illinois. An agreement between the eight Great Lakes states and Ontario, Canada, will severely limit any Great Lakes diversion out of its ecological and geographical region. Lake Forset News link
All 100 N.C. counties are in some stage of drought for the first time this year. Moderate drought, which covers the Charlotte region, has moved eastward toward to the Greensboro and Raleigh areas. The western tip of North Carolina is in extreme drought, while other mountain counties and the northwestern tip of South Carolina are in severe drought. Charlotte Observer link
The region's most severe drought in over a century has farmers here averting their gaze from a future that looks as bleak as their fields. NY Times link
Costs are up and work is delayed, except for water supply projects, a federal report says. St. Petersburg Times link
Decades of damming and dredging have turned the big rivers into shipping channels. But in recent years, competing interests have argued in defense of other uses of the rivers. In the first of three reports, Kevin Lavery looks at how those groups seek to balance the economy and ecology. link
Ponds that have provided summertime water in the high arctic for thousands of years are drying up as global warming advances, Canadian researchers say. link
Despite Bolivian concerns about the environmental impact of two dams slated for construction in the Amazon region, Brazil's foreign minister said they would be built as planned. link
Chinese scientists have warned that rising temperatures are draining wetlands at the head of the the country's two longest rivers, choking their flow and imperilling water supplies to hundreds of millions of people. link
Beaver activity can alleviate serious water problems - and even help combat the climate crisis, according to a talk by Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife (BWW) biologist Sharon Brown at a recent environmental conference in China. link
Congress passed the 1972 Clean Water Act to set a national standard protecting all the nation's waters. Last year, the Supreme Court threw it all into confusion. In a contentiously split decision, the court mandated that, for the present at least, questions of Clean Water Act jurisdiction over many wetlands will have to be thrashed out on a case-by-case basis in the lower courts. Recently introduced legislation confirms that Congress meant what it said in 1972: The Clean Water Act applies to all the nation's waters and not just some. The Clean Water Restoration Act of 2007 reaffirms the traditional scope and clear purpose of the Clean Water Act. link
Earlier this year, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia invalidated a 2001 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rule clarifying when redeposits of dredged material require a permit under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. The decision reopened the debate over when such redeposits constitute "additions" of pollutants under the Clean Water Act. link
Last year's Supreme Court ruling in Rapanos v. United States left regulators, activists, and landowners nationwide scrambling to understand the scope of Clean Water Act jurisdiction over wetlands and streams. Unless and until Congress amends the law to clarify its intended coverage of the "waters of the United States," we are left to sort out the present law. There is now a comprehensive resource designed to shed light on the topic, the Clean Water Act Jurisdictional Handbook, just released by the Environmental Law Institute. link
A stakeholder group spanning two states has hired a watershed coordinator to guide their efforts. Farmington Daily Times link
$23.9 million for cleanup is among millions the Senate is appropriating for various projects. Deseret News link
There are an estimated 500,000 abandoned hard rock mines in the United States, and waste from those mines contaminate nearly 16,000 miles of waterways in the Rocky Mountain West, a problem many groups have volunteered to help clean up, but Congress first needs to pass a law that limits the liability of such "Good Samaritans." Denver Post; July 3 link
Since coalbed methane operations have begun in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, state officials said 4.1 billion barrels of groundwater has been dumped on the surface, and State Engineer Pat Tyrrell's idea of allowing energy companies to dig ditches through the property of landowners who don't want the water got mixed reviews from the Legislature's Coal-Bed Methane Task Force. Casper Star-Tribune; July 20 link
Montana mining regulators will reopen an historic coal mine near Belt to look for water leaks that are contaminating Belt Creek, and they are considering planting fields with alfalfa to soak up the toxic soup of water loaded with acid and heavy metals, the first time such a method would be used to clean up coal mine run-off. Great Falls Tribune; July 8 link
Residents who live around Georgetown Lake packed a hearing on a proposed subdivision that they said would degrade the Montana lake's water quality. Montana Standard; July 6 link
Florida water and wildlife managers are taking advantage of a drought by removing life-choking muck from the 730-square-mile Lake Okechobee, Florida's largest. Its removal over several months will return the bottom to a more natural sandy base and create clearer water and better habitat for plants and wildlife. link
In the escalating debate over the environmental impacts of the nation's thirst for bottled water, PepsiCo officials announced that its Aquafina bottles will soon carry "Public Water Source" on their labels. Vancouver Sun; 7/27 link
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