Pipes OK’d for effluent to dump in Lake Mead; Mohave County Supervisor says the move damages water quality for downstream users
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 17, 2008 at 6:30 amFrom the Lake Havasu’s Today’s News-Herald:
The U.S. Interior Department is allowing construction through public lands of a treatment plant and pipeline that will dump effluent into Lake Mead and the Colorado River.
The Bureau of Reclamation and National Park Service Final Environmental Impact Statement Clean Water Coalition Systems Conveyance and Operations Program record of decision was dated Sept. 3. It states the Bureau of Land Management will issue a right-of-way permit to the Clean Water Coalition to construct and operate the “Boulder Islands North Alternative” on BLM land. The pipeline will replace the discharge of effluent through the Las Vegas Wash.
The Clean Water Coalition is made up of the wastewater divisions of the City of Las Vegas, the City of Henderson, Nev., and the Clark County (Nev.) Water Reclamation District.
According to the record of decision, the reason the Interior Department is allowing the use of public lands is “to maintain water quality standards and National Park Service (NPS) recreational and resource values by operating a system that would allow for flexible management of wastewater flow from the Las Vegas Valley to Lake Mead.”
But Mohave County Supervisor Buster Johnson, R-Dist. 3, said the move actually damages water quality. “Hundred of millions of gallons of effluent being dumped into our drinking water at a time when we are trying to clean up the river and protect our drinking water in Mohave County shows the lack of concern for downriver users. I have tried to get other users of the river water to voice their concerns but the Phoenix mayor’s office and others have remained silent,” Johnson said in a press release.
Read more from the Today’s News-Herald by clicking here.
Crucial Grand Canyon sandbars have rapidly eroded
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 10, 2008 at 6:16 amFrom the Associated Press:
Newly built-up sandbars crucial to wildlife in the Grand Canyon have rapidly eroded in the last four months, some shrinking back to the size they were before a costly manmade flood.
Torrents of water were released from the Glen Canyon Dam on the Arizona-Utah line in March to mimic natural flooding and rebuild sandbars along the 277-mile river in the Grand Canyon, where the ecosystem was forever changed by the dam’s construction more than four decades ago.
Officials had expected erosion following the three-day flood, but they hadn’t expected so much so fast. “Circumstances conspired against our being able to protect the beaches as long as we had hoped,” Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Steve Martin said Tuesday. “Substantial erosion has occurred.”
The accelerated erosion is the result of a requirement to release extra water from Lake Powell above the dam into the Colorado River, said John Hammill, chief of the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center. The requirement says that when Lake Powell has extra water, some of it needs to be released and go to Lake Mead on the Arizona-Nevada line. The requirement is designed to ensure that Colorado River states all get an equal share of water, a precious and limited resource in the West.
Read more from the Associated Press by clicking here.
Colorado’s west slope eyes ‘water bank’; Pool of senior water rights could avert drought cuts
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 2, 2008 at 6:29 amFrom Colorado’s Summit Daily News:
Colorado water users could avoid drought shortages by pooling resources to buy or lease senior water rights and hold them in a new Western Slope “water bank,” according to officials with the Colorado River Water Conservation District. Those collective water rights, established prior to a 1922 interstate agreement, would be an insurance policy against downstream demand from California, Arizona and Nevada, said Jim Pokrandt, education specialist with the river district.
“It would be an aggregation of pre-1922 water rights that could be used in case of a compact call,” Pokrandt said, explaining the potential for downstream states to “call” on their water rights at the expense of Colorado’s water users.
Under the 1922 interstate contract, Colorado is obligated to deliver an average of 7.5 million acre feet of Colorado river water downstream annually. In a worst-case scenario, Colorado water users could be forced to cut some of their existing uses if the downstream states demand their full allotment. Water rights established before the compact was signed are not subject to the agreement.
Stored in a water bank, those senior rights could be used to provide water for Western Slope municipalities — even if the downstream demands cut into Colorado’s allotment of water, said Boulder water attorney Glenn Porzak.
Read more from the Summit Daily News by clicking here.
Water washes away Democrats united front
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 27, 2008 at 12:26 pmCan you stand another story about John McCain’s statement about renegotiating the Colorado compact? Well, here’s another, this one from the blog “DMC @ the Conventions” but this one isn’t as much about McCain’s statement as it is about the background and history behind the issue:
But whether it was a calculated statement, or an inadvertent slip of the tongue, McCain brought up an uncomfortable and, at least among non-politicians, an undisputed truth: Colorado has the water and the lower basin states have the people. To the extent that there is available, unappropriated water in the Colorado River basin, it belongs to Colorado and the upper basin states.
Along with McCain’s home state of Arizona, California and Nevada have struggled as booming populations and regional droughts have exacerbated the impact of stagnant or diminishing water resources. Renegotiation of the compact might substantially benefit Arizona and its neighbors, and might also damage the interests of the upper basin states.
But as Western Water Assessment Director Brad Udall said last year, Colorado and Arizona may be fighting over phantom water. The drought of the past several years, Udall said, had resulted in the loss of 30 million acre feet of water from storage in Lake Mead and Lake Powell, meaning that any unappropriated water in the Colorado exists only on paper. And while last year’s wet winter has improved storage in both reservoirs, the underlying situation is unchanged.
During the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week, Colorado Rep. John Salazar and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano offered very different perspectives about the continuing regional water wars.
“Water is the lifeblood of Colorado,” Salazar said. “That’s a bipartisan coalition. Without water, we don’t have an economy, there’s no more room to develop. (Renegotiating the compact) would devastate this state.”
Napolitano’s position was more nuanced, and she cited the fact that the compact has already been revised. “I don’t think that Sen. McCain was aware of this, but we just redid the Colorado River compact in 2007,” she said. “That was signed. The Colorado River is not the most important source (of Arizona’s water). There are lots of pieces to the water puzzle other than the compact. There’s recharge, growth management techniques, re-use - just ways that we use water more efficiently.
“There are lots of things to the water puzzle beyond the Colorado River, but, as I said, we just reinked new amendments to the Colorado River Compact.”
However ‘re-doing’ isn’t quite the same as renegotiating, this blog post points out, and continues on with a very level-headed discussion of the Colorado compact. A good read - worth the click through. Read more from the DMC@the conventions blog by clicking here.
Amid dry times in the West, a lake raises spirits
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 24, 2008 at 5:12 am
From the New York Times:
The story of water in the West is largely one of boom and bust, and lately, during a persistent drought, it was mainly bust. But now and then the rains and snow come, the streams and rivers gush, the huge lake here expands and the rhapsody of the rise commences. “The red sands, the cliffs,” said Bill Floor as he readied his boat for a jaunt through a channel not open in years because receding waters left it dry. “Lake Powell has its own special spirit.”
Such excitement abounds in this summer of bountiful water, at least on the lake. That is right: in a drought, Lake Powell, unexpectedly and improbably, has risen to its highest point in six years, in the biggest increase since the dry period began in the fall of 1999. Euphoric locals organized a contest to guess the precise time when the waters, swelled by higher than normal mountain snows this past winter, would fill Castle Rock Cut, the channel through which Mr. Floor prepared to pass.
Boaters who had stayed away are flocking back. Hotels are full and booked a month in advance, although it is difficult to discern how much of that is because of the lake or the surge of European tourists — “they love the heat and Westerns and anything having to do with cowboys and Indians,” one merchant said — taking advantage of the weak dollar.
Water managers are watching for signs of a long-term letup in the drought. For now, caution rules the day. “The nature of the beast is we don’t know if we are in or out of a drought until a couple of years go by because we are talking about long-term trends,” said Barry Wirth, a spokesman for the Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency that manages the system of dams and reservoirs on the Colorado River that provides water for 25 million people in seven states, and includes Lake Powell. “We could have a good year in the midst of bad years,” he said. “We just don’t know.”
Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.
BOR to hold meeting in Laughlin regarding wells & the Colorado River
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 22, 2008 at 5:15 amFrom the Mojave Daily News:
Well owners will get a chance Monday to get information on a federal attempt to further regulate Tri-state well water.
The Bureau of Reclamation will hold a meeting Monday in Laughlin to answer public questions on a proposed rule concerning the use of the Colorado River. The meeting will be held from 1-3 p.m. Monday in the Taos 1 and Taos 2 conference rooms at the Edgewater Casino, 2020 S. Casino Drive in Laughlin. Other meetings will be held Wednesday and Thursday in Parker, Blythe and Yuma.
The rule would determine which wells in the lower Colorado River are pumping river water. There will also be options for illegal well users to legitimize their use of Colorado River water. The accounting surface involved in the rules stretches along the Colorado River from Hoover Dam to the Mexico border south of Yuma. In the Bullhead City area, the area involves the Colorado River aquifer from Davis Dam to Parker Dam.
BOR’s lower Colorado Region Director Lorri Gray said the primary goal is to legalize the use of well water so it can be accounted for. BOR estimates there are 9,000 to 15,000 acre feet of water being unlawfully used. Most of that can be legalized through new contracts between the well owners and the BOR, Gray said.
Read more from the Mojave Daily News by clicking here.
Do uranium mines belong near Grand Canyon? Mining companies stake claims on federal land adjoining the park, while opponents say drinking water will be at risk
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 20, 2008 at 5:36 amFrom the Christian Science Monitor:
On a ragged outcrop just a short walk from a Grand Canyon overlook where millions of visitors annually come to gawk at one of the world’s most stunning vistas sits the old Orphan uranium mine. Soil radiation levels around it are 450 times higher than normal. It’s encircled by a protective fence.
A sign warns: “Remain behind fence – environmental evaluation in progress.” In the canyon hundreds of feet below, another sign by gurgling Horn Creek instructs thirsty hikers not to drink its radioactive water.
Even so, Horn Creek eventually splashes its way to the canyon bottom and into the Colorado River, a vital water source for 25 million people from Las Vegas to Los Angeles to San Diego. In that mighty river, the Orphan’s radioactive dribble is diluted to insignificance.
But what if a dozen or even scores of new uranium mines were leaching uranium radioisotopes into this critical water source? That is what Arizona’s governor, water authorities in two states, scientists, environmentalists, and Congress are all worried about. Should they be?
Everybody from mining-industry officials to environmentalists agrees that the Orphan mine is a poster child for the bad old days of uranium mining going back to the 1950s. Today’s regulations and newer mining techniques make such pollution far less likely, industry officials say, though environmentalists vehemently disagree. The question remains: Is Orphan only a vision of the past – or is it a vision of the future, too?
The US Southwest may be about to find out. Driven by soaring uranium prices and fresh interest in nuclear power, mining companies have staked more than 10,600 exploratory mineral claims – most of them smaller than five acres – spread across 1 million acres of federal land adjacent to the Colorado River and Grand Canyon National Park, a federal official told Congress in June. Most are uranium claims, though some may be for other metals, observers say.
Read more from the Christian Science Monitor by clicking here.
McCain campaign on damage control; Here’s what he really meant
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 20, 2008 at 5:32 amApparently regretting his comments to the Pueblo Chieftain, the McCain campaign speaks out about what he really meant. From New West:
McCain set off a firestorm last week when he suggested that the 86 year old agreement that allocates the scarce resource of the Colorado River among the seven states of the Colorado Basin “obviously needs to be renegotiated” because of “new realities of high growth, of greater demands on a scarcer resource,” he didn’t mean it should, you know, be renegotiated, really, to make sure that the high growth states of California, Nevada, and Arizona got more of that scarce resource. But that’s sure how it sounded to the people of Colorado.
So here comes the McCain campaign with what he “really” meant:
Tom Kise, the McCain campaign’s Colorado spokesman, said McCain was not proposing that the 2007 agreement be reopened or any immediate talks on the compact.
“He’s talking about ongoing conversations, conversations that happen this year, next year, 10, 20, 30 years down the road,” Kise said.
Kise said McCain knows global warming is changing water conditions in the West, and that means the states need to talk. “As long as water is going to be an issue in the West, there should be an open conversation among all parties,” Kise said.
Frankly, that’s hard to buy. There is no other reasonable interpretation of his statement that the Compact should be reopened because of the reality of growth in the Lower Basin. Certainly he is not suggesting that the Lower Basin states should cede some of their rights. And as to the states needing to talk, well, they have.
More from New West by clicking here.
And Mitt Romeny clarifies McCain’s statements in this story from Colorado’s Channel 9:
“Senator McCain has no interest in reopening the compact,” Romney said. “Senator McCain believes as I do that a compact that’s been worked out between the governors and between the states is the right way to go. States are the ones who build these kinds of understandings. The federal government shouldn’t meddle in that compact.
“I think the senator recognizes that way down the road there may be changes and that states will come together to reconsider the settings at that point, but there’s no reason on the senator’s mind to re-open the compact or to insert federal interests. This is an issue that’s been resolved by the states and should stay resolved as it has been by the states.”
The response from one of McCain’s top surrogates did little to assuage Colorado Democrats.
“Sen. McCain made a major blunder and now Gov. Romney is trying to provide some political cover,” wrote Ritter’s Communications Director Evan Dreyer in an e-mail to 9News. “It won’t work. Sen. McCain showed his true colors: he’s a Lower Basin Senator trying to grab up as much Upper Basin, Colorado water as possible. Coloradans won’t take kindly to that.”
“Senator McCain said very clearly that he believes the Colorado River Compact should be opened for renegotiation,” wrote Salazar’s Press Secretary Matt Lee-Ashley in an e-mail to 9NEWS. “Either Senator McCain is so out of touch with Western water issues that he needs the former Massachusetts governor to defend him, or he really has some interest in overhauling the law of the river that has been in place since 1922. Both scenarios are troubling.”
More from Colorado’s Channel 9 by clicking here.
Dam fails, scores are evacuated; Flash flood warning still in effect in tribal area
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 18, 2008 at 6:07 amFrom the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Days of heavy rain around the Grand Canyon created flooding that caused an earthen dam to fail Sunday, and helicopters plucked scores of residents and campers from the gorge. No injuries were immediately reported.
The dam break caused flooding in a side canyon containing Supai village, where about 400 members of the Havasupai tribe live, said Gerry Blair, a spokesman for the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department. Crews airlifted 170 people from the village and nearby campgrounds. Evacuees were bused to an American Red Cross center, officials said.
There were no confirmed reports of damage in Supai, which is on high ground, Blair said, and many residents and campers chose to stay. “We’re not as concerned about it as we initially were,” he said, adding that the dam isn’t a “huge, significant” structure.
Still, a flash flood warning remained in effect, and search and rescue teams stayed in the village overnight.
McCain’s fightin’ words: Renegotiate the 1922 Colorado Compact; Over my dead body, says a Colorado senator
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 16, 2008 at 7:01 amUh-oh. Another presidential candidate makes remarks about water that ignite a firestorm. This time it’s John McCain, who spoke by phone to the Pueblo Chieftain:
The water compact that Colorado and other upper basin states have with California and Arizona should be renegotiated, U.S. Sen. John McCain said Thursday. In a telephone interview with The Pueblo Chieftain, the presumptive GOP candidate for president said the water sharing agreement reached in 1922 between seven Western states doesn’t take into account increases in population and the changing water needs.
As a result, the governors of those states should get together to talk about how best to use this precious resource, he said.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt the major, major issue is water and can be as important as oil. So the compact that is in effect, obviously, needs to be renegotiated over time amongst the interested parties,” McCain said while on his way to the Aspen Institute. “I think that there’s a movement amongst the governors to try, if not, quote, renegotiate, certainly adjust to the new realities of high growth, of greater demands on a scarcer resource.
“Conditions have changed dramatically, so I’m not saying that anyone would be forced to do anything because I’m a federalist and believe in the rights of states,” he added. “But at the same time there’s already been discussion amongst the states, and I believe that more discussion amongst the governors is probably something that everybody wants us to do.”
Perhaps that’s true among people in water hungry cities in Southern California or Phoenix, but it isn’t in Colorado, U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar said. The San Luis Valley Democrat and former state attorney general who has dealt with water law for much of his career said opening up the compact is the last thing Colorado or the other upper basin states want because they would be the likely losers in any renegotiated deal.
Read more from the Pueblo Chieftain by clicking here.
Colorado officials had this to say in this article from the Associated Press & the San Diego Union Tribune:
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, called the idea of renegotiating the compact “sheer folly,” saying last year’s agreement has all seven states working cooperatively.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said McCain’s proposal “is absolutely wrong and would only happen over my dead body.” “In my view the compact is sacrosanct. I will fight tooth and nail to make sure that it is not opened up,” he told the Chieftain.
Tom Kise, the McCain campaign’s Colorado spokesman, said McCain was not proposing that the 2007 agreement be reopened or any immediate talks on the compact. “He’s talking about ongoing conversations, conversations that happen this year, next year, 10, 20, 30 years down the road,” Kise said.
More from the San Diego Union-Tribune by clicking here.
McCain’s words are fightin’ words in this editorial from the Denver Post:
As a senator, McCain has long represented a state, Arizona, that would love to steal Colorado’s water. But now, he wants our votes. Apparently, nobody bothered to brief the candidate who Paris Hilton called “that wrinkly, white-haired guy” that stealing Colorado’s water to benefit Arizona, California and Nevada isn’t as popular an idea in Colorado as it is in Arizona, California and Nevada.
Who knew?
As Ashby notes: “The Colorado River compact allocates 7.5 million acre-feet of water to California, Nevada and Arizona. Anything left over is split between Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming.”
None of the latter four upper basin states whose snowmelt feeds the river is ecstatic about giving up our meager share of our birthright to fill those artificial lakes beloved by Las Vegas casinos. By the time Ashby’s story finishes rocketing around the Rockies, McCain’s name will be McMud among the water buffaloes.
The problem, from Colorado’s perspective, is that in the 76 years since the compact was signed, California, Nevada and Arizona have grown much more rapidly in population — and political power — than the upper basin states. So when the lower basin states talk about “renegotiating” the compact, that’s their code for a process of give and take — in which Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming give and California, Arizona and Nevada take.
Read more of this editorial from the Denver Post by clicking here.
Mines still threaten Colorado River, foes say
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 11, 2008 at 6:36 amFrom the Arizona Republic:
Federal officials plan to remove more than 16 million tons of abandoned uranium waste from a mining site on the banks of the Colorado River, but environmental groups warn that new threats of toxic pollution lurk downstream from future mining activity.
The pile of uranium waste near Moab, Utah, will be hauled away by train, but the move could take a decade or longer. The abandoned mine, environmentalists say, highlights the risk of other mines near the river.
The Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization, compiled a database of mining claims on public lands and found more than 5,500 hard-rock mining claims within 10 miles of the river and nearly 1,200 within 5 miles. Claims for uranium, gold and other metals have doubled along the river in the past five years as demand for the materials rose.
Environmental groups say mines too close to a river could contaminate the water and damage fragile ecosystems. The Colorado River supplies water for drinking and irrigation to more than 25 million people in Arizona, Nevada, California and four other states.
Existing laws permit mining on public lands with only a few restrictions. Attempts to protect rivers or to close ecologically sensitive areas to mining have failed in the past. A broad rewrite of the laws was passed this year in the House but seems unlikely to even come up for a vote in the Senate, where mining enjoys stronger support.
“The Colorado River is the lifeblood of the West,” said Dusty Horwitt, an analyst for the Environmental Working Group. “The Senate’s failure to pass the mining law (would leave) citizens virtually powerless to protect drinking water.”
Read more on this story from the Arizona Republic by clicking here.
Fix agreed for landfill fouling California, Southwest drinking water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 10, 2008 at 6:36 amFrom the Environment News Service:
The operator of a closed landfill near Las Vegas that has been leaking contaminants into the lake that provides drinking water to Las Vegas, Phoenix and southern California has agreed to construct and operate a $36 million remedy for the site and to pay a $1 million civil fine.
Republic Services of Southern Nevada is the current operator of the Sunrise Mountain Landfill, an unlined 440-acre closed municipal solid waste landfill located three miles outside the Las Vegas city limits. It contains over 49 million cubic yards of municipal solid waste, medical waste, sewage sludge, asbestos, construction waste and soil contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons.
The landfill cover failed during a series of storms in September 1998, sending waste into the Las Vegas Wash, which discharges directly into Lake Mead.
In a consent decree, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, Republic Services agreed to implement extensive stormwater controls, an armored engineered cover, methane gas collection, groundwater monitoring, and long-term operation and maintenance, the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today.
Read the full text of this article from the Environment News Service by clicking here.
Lake Powell rebounds: Wettest winter in a decade raises water level to 6-year high
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 5, 2008 at 6:23 amFrom the Arizona Republic:
Lake Powell has reached its highest level in six years, a sign that the Colorado River is recovering from one of the worst dry spells on record.
The giant reservoir hit its peak for the year late last month, 45 feet higher than it was in March before the river swelled with melted snow from the wettest winter on the Colorado watershed in a decade.
The runoff boosted water storage for Arizona and the other states that rely on the Colorado River and improved conditions for boaters and anglers, many of whom had stayed away from the drought-stricken lake since its decline.
The higher water levels also triggered new water-management rules for Lake Powell and downstream sibling Lake Mead, less than half a year after the seven river states agreed on a plan to operate the two reservoirs as one storage system.
“I don’t think anyone anticipated that within months of them signing (the plan), it would be in effect,” said Barry Wirth, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Salt Lake City. The agency oversees water storage on the Colorado.
Lake Powell’s level is the highest it’s been since August of 2002; it is now 63% full, just 67 feet below the ‘full’ mark. Read more from the Arizona Republic by clicking here.
Feds pushing crackdown on wells tapping into Colorado River water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 29, 2008 at 6:20 amFrom the Arizona Republic:
Hundreds of people who illegally pump water from wells along the lower Colorado River could face a tough choice soon: Pay to acquire rights to the water or turn the spigot off.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees the river in Arizona, Nevada and California, has proposed new rules that target the well owners, who drain as much as 5 billion gallons of water a year from the Colorado. Most of the well owners are private citizens who have drilled their wells too close to the river. Instead of pumping groundwater, to which landowners have a right, they are drawing water from the river’s subsurface flow. Well owners must get approval to siphon water from the river’s surface or subsurface.
To comply with the new procedures, well owners can seek an individual water right, join an existing water district or become a customer of a city or other provider with rights to Colorado River water. They could continue to pump water from the well but only within the limits of the water right or provider. Well owners who can’t acquire water rights can’t continue to use their wells.
The bureau is trying to figure out how many wells have tapped the river or the exact amount of water pumped. Hydrologists estimate the annual losses at 9,000 to 15,000 acre-feet, enough water to serve Lake Havasu City for most of a year. More than half the wells identified are in Arizona.
The federal crackdown comes at a time when the bureau and the seven Colorado River states are trying to stretch water supplies to meet growing demand and avert drought-related shortages.
Read the rest of this story from the Arizona Republic by clicking here.
Bush proposes rules on oil shale development in Colorado Basin states
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 23, 2008 at 7:20 amThe Bush administration has proposed new regulations for oil shale development on public lands in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming. A study last year estimated that the lands could potentially yield 800 billion barrels of oil, but whether or not it could be extracted is an open question, with one of the unanswered questions: is there enough water to do it?
Oil shale development would require massive amounts of water that simply may not be available. In an April 8 letter to the BLM, Utah Public Lands Policy Coordination director John Harja said his office didn’t understand if there were sufficient physical water, let alone water rights, “to support the scale of development contemplated and the effects this level of water demand might have on agriculture or wildlife [especially endangered fish] inhabiting lands and waters in the area.”
Harja said Tuesday that he had been in on meetings about the proposed rules, but that none of the issues raised in his letter were addressed. “It’s a simple question,” he said. “Where’s the water going to come from?”
More on this story from the Salt Lake Tribune by clicking here.
A river runs through it: Even with increased water on the Colorado, southern reservoirs at below normal levels
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 17, 2008 at 7:33 amFrom Lake Havasu’s Today’s News-Herald:
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is projecting that, for the first time in seven years, more water is flowing through the Colorado River. June run-off down the river from snow pack is running about 117 percent above normal, and the projected run-off from April to July is expected to be about 111 percent of normal.
But even with the increased water, two of the four major storage reservoirs along the lower Colorado River remain significantly below normal. According to the July 14 Lower Colorado River Water Supply report, Lake Powell is 37 percent below capacity while Lake Mead is 54 percent below full.
In April, the Bureau of Reclamation announced that high snow pack, about 122 percent of average, resulted in increased releases from Lake Powell to Lake Mead. An additional 653,000 acre-feet of water was released, elevating Mead by about six feet.
However, Lake Havasu is at 94% capacity:
The Lake Havasu reservoir is the withdrawal point on the river for both the Metropolitan Water District, which serves Los Angeles and San Diego, and the Central Arizona Project, which serves Phoenix and Tucson.
Lake Havasu’s maximum elevation is 450 feet, minimum 445. The Bureau of Reclamation showed the current elevation, as of Tuesday, at 447.74 feet.
Now that’s precision! Also included in this article is an update on the Drop 2 Reservoir project, scheduled to begin construction next month:
According to the project description, the 8,000 acre-foot Drop 2 Storage Reservoir “would store Colorado River water that has been released from Parker Dam to meet downstream water orders but cannot be delivered for various reasons, such as changed weather conditions, high run-off into the river, or a number of other factors. This water typically is not put to beneficial use within the United States due to the lack of sufficient storage capacity below Parker Dam.”
In the past, that ‘non-storable’ water would have flowed to Mexico. Read more from Today’s News-Herald by clicking here.
BBC diary: Colorado River drought
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 16, 2008 at 7:15 amFrom BBC News:
The south-western US is suffering its eighth consecutive year of drought. There are concerns that the Colorado River, which has sustained life in the area for thousands of years, can no longer meet the needs of the tens of millions of people living in major cities such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
The BBC’s Matthew Price is travelling along the river to investigate the scale of the problem and is sending a series of diary items from there.
Day 1 - Page Arizona:
It takes several hours to get to Page, Arizona. From anywhere. The drive, though, is far from dull. It’s one of those journeys that can make you feel incredibly insignificant. Vast landscapes dwarf everything made by man. The cars and trucks speeding along the desert highways appear as small as model vehicles. You could stick the skyscrapers of Manhattan, from where I flew in a few hours earlier, next to the immense rock formations, and they would look like Toy Town.
In places the landscape falls sharply away into canyons, in others it rises up towards plateaus, and everywhere the geological history of the place is obvious.
Today, as I walked alongside the Colorado River just outside the town of Page, I saw two prints in the red Navajo sandstone, each with three “toes”. It was the fossilised footprint of a dinosaur which had stood at the same spot many thousands of years before me.
This land is sacred to the Native Americans who live here. Shana Watahomigie is a park ranger with the National Parks Service. She is also a member of the Havasupai tribe, which still lives alongside the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Havasupai means “people of the blue-green water”, and, as we dip our toes in the chilly river, Ms Watahomigie tells me the Colorado is part of her history.
“It’s my lifeline, my bloodline. We have a lot of respect for the river, water and the earth.”
Read more from BBC News & view video clips by clicking here.
Lake Powell is at highest level in 6 years
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 8, 2008 at 8:31 pm
From the San Jose Mercury News:
This is a good summer to take in the sunshine and canyon country scenery around Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona line (assuming you’ve budgeted for gasoline) because the water in the lake is at its highest level in six years and rising.
What’s the big deal? The most prominent effect, according to Friends of Lake Powell—http://www.lakepowell.org/—is that Castle Rock Cut, a major shortcut between sections of the reservoir, is now open to all boats. It also means there’s now enough water to float your boat farther back into some of the canyons that make the lake so much fun to explore.
There’s a lot of shoreline to tour, whether you bring your own power boat or rent one of the many houseboats available. The Lake Powell Guide—http://www.powellguide.com/—says the lake that was formed when the Glen Canyon Dam plugged the Colorado River has nearly 2,000 miles of shore, with 96 major canyons. Get an idea of how jagged the lake is by checking out their map. There’s a directory of outfits that provide land, water and air tours, but the “Fishing” and “Recreation” links all seem to end in dead ends.
The Lake Powell Guide also has a directory of boat rental companies. And yes, you need a boat to see most of the area around the lake because there are few roads in this region. Even Rainbow Bridge National Monument—http://www.nps.gov/rabr/—is
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accessible only by boat, unless you get a backpacking permit from the Navajo Nation and hike in. However you get there, you’ll be rewarded with views of the world’s largest known natural bridge.
Read more from the San Jose Mercury News by clicking here.
New mining claims banned in region around Grand Canyon National Park
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 25, 2008 at 8:11 pmFrom the Las Vegas Sun:
A House committee today invoked rarely-used powers to ban new mining claims on about a million acres adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park.
The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental group that has been tracking a surge in uranium mining claims near the rim of the canyon spurred by high prices of the element, applauded the 20 to 2 vote, which prompted the minority to walk out in protest.
The resolution by the House Natural Resources Committee, which forces Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to enforce the ban, is binding, according to the group. But the Grand Canyon Trust said in a statement Wednesday that Kempthorne and the Bush administration may choose to ignore it. When Secretary James Watt made a similar refusal in 1983, Arizona Congressman Mo Udall and the National Wildlife Federation successfully sued the Secretary and compelled him to comply, the statement said.
Between January 2003 and January 2008, the number of claims within 5 miles of Grand Canyon National Park increased from 10 to more than 1,100, according to Bureau of Land Management data compiled by the Environmental Working Group.
Southern Nevada Water Authority had written to Kempthorne expressing concerns about the effect uranium mining might have on the Colorado River, which provides 90 percent of the valley’s water supply and drinking and irrigation water for more than 25 million people in the Southwest.
“This emergency action will help prevent uranium mining from harming the Grand Canyon and polluting drinking water for millions,” said Dusty Horwitt, Senior Public Lands Analyst with the group in a statement Wednesday. “The Senate should stop stalling and reform the 1872 Mining Law so that all Western public lands have full protection.”
Read the full text of this story from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here.
L.A. County hopes to fend off drought with cloud-seeding program
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 16, 2008 at 7:15 am
From the Los Angeles Times:
Hoping to wring water from the skies, a parched Los Angeles County plans to launch an $800,000 cloud-seeding project in the San Gabriel Mountains that officials believe will boost rainfall and raise the levels of local reservoirs.
The project, which will rely on injecting clouds with silver iodide particles, has won county supervisors’ backing and is slated to begin this winter. “We’re basically coaxing Mother Nature to give us 15% more rain than there would be otherwise,” said county civil engineer William Saunders. He said the county did seeding for several decades, beginning in the 1950s. This time, officials decided to resume the program after a seven-year lapse caused by concerns over mudslides in some mountain areas ravaged by brush fires.
With California gripped by dry weather and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declaring a statewide drought, cloud-seeding is attracting both fresh attention and skeptics.
Critics throughout the West have long dismissed seeding as a dubious technological rain dance. They worry it can trigger landslides, such as the deadly one in the San Gabriel foothills 30 years ago.
Some water experts, including Peter Gleick at the nonprofit Pacific Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Oakland, believe public funds would be better spent promoting proven water-conservation measures, such as low-flow toilets. “It’s a bit of a sign of desperation,” Gleick said. “They’ve been doing cloud seeding for decades, but we’ve never clearly been able to show if it’s what we’ve done or what nature has provided.”
That’s because researchers who try to prove seeding’s efficacy face unique roadblocks. Rain forms in nature, not in a laboratory, and scientists can’t very well seed one cloud and leave another one unseeded as a “control cloud.”
Also, cloud behavior varies widely. “To have them be in the right place at the right time, that’s where it gets really complicated,” said scientist Daniel W. Breed, who studies cloud physics and precipitation at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a federally funded center in Boulder, Colo.
Read more on this story from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Does cloud seeding really work? Well, no one really knows. The New Zealand Herald tries to answer that question, plus notes that China is utilizing it for the Olympics:
With the Olympics on the way China has been trying to find ways to cloud seed - not just because they need rain - but also to remove it from clouds to prevent rain ruining the opening of the Olympics. In fact, they’ve guaranteed fine weather for that historic day!
Spending 50 million US dollars a year as part of their “weather modification project”. The project covers drought affected areas but also covers Beijing. The Chinese Government fires rockets into the sky and they believe they’re achieving more rainfall leading to neighbouring countries to accuse them of “stealing rain”. Of course rockets aren’t the safest form of doing this and a number have gone off target and slammed into houses… and people.
You can read more from the New Zealand Herald by clicking here. Also, Popular Mechanics has an article on cloud seeding - click here.
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