Closing navigable waters on the Colorado River will hurt Yuma
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 5, 2008 at 5:28 amThis is the first I’ve heard about this. From the Yuma Sun, this commentary:
Yuma Bassmasters wants to express our vehement opposition to closing navigable waters on the Colorado River to raise endangered species of fish under Endangered Species Act.
Our main concern is that both state and federal agencies are attempting to permanently cordon off virtually all of the navigable back waters from Lake Havasu to the Imperial Dam on the lower Colorado River.
Please note this includes both the Arizona and California back waters that are presently enjoyed by thousands of taxpaying citizens who frequent these waters for sporting and pleasure! Additionally, and most disturbingly, these agencies are planning to barricade these back water lakes and channels for a minimum of 50 years and will destroy all existing species of fish in these waters to “sterilize” them so that they can raise endangered Humpback chubs and carp.
Yuma Bassmasters is but one of about a dozen bass fishing clubs that fish tournaments on the lower Colorado on a regular basis. These clubs are responsible for the infusion of hundreds of thousands of dollars into our local and state economy.
Add to that the thousands of other people from all over the United States who play on our river throughout the year and you can quickly visualize the tremendous negative economic impact that would result if the proposed back water lakes and channels were permanently closed.
Read more from the Yuma Sun by clicking here.
Colorado & water: the biggest questions are hardest to answer
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 3, 2008 at 6:30 amFrom the Pueblo Chieftain:
Should Colorado curtail growth in cities to avoid drying up farms? Should Colorado set aside water for energy development? Has growing corn become energy development? Should cities remove green belts or landscaping at shopping centers to conserve water? Most importantly, does the state even have any say on issues like these or will the march of progress dictate future water development? Those were the types of questions members of the Colorado Water Conservation Board and Interbasin Compact Committee grappled with at a joint meeting last week.
Without much resolution.
There is agreement that the state is headed for a train wreck if cooperative solutions cannot be found. The South Platte and Arkansas rivers have been overappropriated - meaning there are more water rights claimed than water is available for except during floods - for more than a century. The Colorado River is not overappropriated, but California, Arizona and Nevada have grown more quickly and are already using their full share of the river. Climate change could mean the flows of the future are much less than historical flows. A call by the downstream states could reduce the amount of water Front Range cities depend on to fill out their supplies.
In short, there is not enough water to go around.
“None of us have recognized what the real problem is,” said Gunnison rancher Bill Trampe. “We have to change incrementally.”
More from the Pueblo Chieftain by clicking here.
Future oil and Colorado’s water needs might not mix
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 22, 2008 at 5:26 amFrom the Rocky Mountain News:
In 40 years, will Colorado have a greater need for oil or for water? The state may not be able to have both, a draft of a new study suggests. An analysis of the water needed to produce oil shale indicates that most of the remaining flows in the Colorado River and two of its tributaries, widely viewed as the state’s last source of new water supplies, would need to be tapped to mine the energy-rich shale.
According to the assessment, as much as 410,000 acre-feet of water would be required to produce 1.5 million barrels of oil from shale annually by 2050. That’s enough H20 for about 820,000 households. Most of the water would be used to cool coal-fired power plants that supply the electricity needed to extract oil from shale.
“Oil shale is the real 800- pound gorilla out there,” said Jim Pokrandt, a spokesman for the Colorado River District and member of the panel that commissioned the study. “We’re not advocates for or against oil shale. But if its requirements are as large as it looks like they’re going to be, we ought to be looking at it now. We can’t just say we’re going to have oil shale tomorrow.”
So what’s the big deal about Colorado’s oil shale anyway?
Much of the fascination with oil shale lies in the sheer volume of Colorado’s reserves. Some 800 billion barrels of oil are contained in the Green River Formation, which spans Utah, Wyoming and Colorado. About three-fourths of that shale lies in northwestern Colorado.
That is enough oil to supply the nation for 110 years, Boyd said, an amount about three times the size of Saudi Arabia’s reserves.
“The richest, most prolific resource on Earth is in the Piceance Basin in Colorado,” Boyd said. “That’s why there is so much focus on this resource.”
But the giant water diversions would put the water supplies of Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins, among others, at risk because they, too, rely on the Colorado River and they’re counting on its remaining supplies to stave off future water shortages.
More from the Rocky Mountain News by clicking here.
Climate change threatens to dry up the Southwest’s future
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 17, 2008 at 6:10 amFrom AlterNet:
At Lake Las Vegas, a multi-resort and casino about 30 miles from the city center, grass lines the roads and a faux waterfall tumbles down boulders at the resort entrance. Across town, on the city’s affluent west side, sod decorates the front of auto dealerships. Homeowners at a gated community called “Beach View Estates” enjoy private docks on their local fake lake. Driving Las Vegas’s broad boulevards, the green tops of palm and pine trees often obscure the bare, red mountains that ring the city.
This amazing oasis is made possible by Lake Mead, located a 45-minute drive from the Strip. The lake — which stretches for 110 miles when full — is a marvel of modern engineering. Capable of holding nearly nine trillion gallons of water, the lake stands out like a vast sapphire amid the rust-colored cliffs and sharp peaks.
Lake Mead is so huge that for generations it was difficult to conceive that it would ever be at risk of being drained. Now, something is amiss. From the shore, even a casual glance reveals that the lake is shrinking. A bright white stripe encircles the lake edge, marking the more than 100-foot-drop from the “normal” water level. Ancient desert spires, once submerged, have reappeared, now as islands. Lake Mead is only half full.
The bleached white rock surrounding the lake marks a sharp dividing line between a now-evaporating era when the Southwest exploded in population and an uncertain future that is forcing the region’s leaders to ask whether they can keep the water flowing.
Read more from AlterNet by clicking here.
6 radical solutions for U.S. Southwest’s peak water problem
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 16, 2008 at 6:05 amFrom Popular Mechanics:
About 38 million people in California, Nevada, Arizona, four other states and Mexico depend on the Colorado River for their water supply. As increased usage and years of drought diminish the river’s flow, states are forming strategies to deal with what some experts call peak water—the point at which the demand exceeds the supply.
The conditions already threaten Las Vegas, which draws water from the Colorado-fed Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir. During the past decade Mead’s level has fallen more than 100 ft., and the basin is now just over half full. The Southern Nevada Water Authority draws nearly all of its supply from the lake through two intakes, one of which is just 60 ft. below the current water line; the second intake is 50 ft. below the first. If the lake keeps shrinking, by 2012 the upper intake may suck only air. Local authorities have embarked on an $800 million–plus project to bore a 3-mile-long tunnel beneath Lake Mead to tap the lower reaches of the lake (see below).
Although the Colorado rose in 2008, its flow can double one year and drop by half the next. During the past eight years the river has carried less water than at any similar period in its recorded history. “With demands increasing, droughts are going to hit harder,” says Terry Fulp, deputy regional director of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Read more from Popular Mechanics by clicking here.
Grand Canyon uranium mining ban should stay, says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 13, 2008 at 6:24 amFrom the Arizona Republic, this editorial:
The Bureau of Land Management is rushing through a rule change that would overturn a temporary ban on uranium mining near the Grand Canyon.
Never mind that the drinking water of more than 25 million people, served by the Colorado River, is at risk. Or that Arizona Game and Fish warns about the impact on wildlife. Or that Grand Canyon National Park is still dealing with the toxic mess from past mines.
High prices for uranium have spurred thousands of claims on public land across the West. No wonder. Under the antiquated 1872 mining law, companies don’t have to pay royalties or worry much about environmental consequences.
But the watershed of the Colorado River, with its interconnected system of faults, fractures and sinkholes, is a questionable place for uranium mining.
We don’t need another giant contamination threat like the 16 million tons of uranium tailings that sit 750 feet from the Colorado River near Moab, Utah. The cleanup from that mining operation will take decades and hundreds of millions of dollars.
Read more of this editorial from the Arizona Republic by clicking here.
If you want to comment on the proposed rule change, you must do so now: The public comment period on removal of the ban is extraordinarily short, ending on October 25th. Send your written comments to: Director (630), Bureau of Land Management, 1620 L St., NW, Room 401, Washington, DC 20036, Attention: RIN 1004-AEO5.
BLM issues new volley in the move to stop mining near the Grand Canyon; agency raises constitutional issue while mining permits continue to be issued
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 10, 2008 at 7:54 amFrom the Arizona Republic:
Federal officials moved Thursday to abolish a rule that allowed a congressional committee to try to block future uranium mining around the Grand Canyon.
The plan by the Bureau of Land Management has outraged conservationists, who said the Interior Department and the Bush administration are advancing business and energy interests at the expense of the environment. “They behave more like real-estate agents than stewards of those lands,” said Rep. Raul Grijalva, the Arizona Democrat who invoked the arcane emergency declaration during a June committee meeting.
In that meeting, committee members passed a resolution that ordered Interior Secretary Dick Kempthorne to immediately ban new mining claims on more than 1 million acres of federal lands north and south of the Canyon for up to three years. Lawmakers invoked a little-used rule in Section 204 of the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act that allows House and Senate natural-resources committees to take emergency action to protect threatened public lands.
But the Interior Department questioned the constitutionality of the rule and continued to authorize additional mining claims and permits near the park. Environmental groups sued, and the case is pending in U.S. District Court as permits continue to be issued.
There is concern that an increase in uranium & hard rock mining activity in the Grand Canyon’s nearby lands will pollute the Colorado River, the drinking water source for millions of people. Read more from the Arizona Republic by clicking here.
Chinese beetles enlisted to fight harmful tree in West
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 6, 2008 at 7:39 amFrom the Salt Lake Tribune:
Chinese beetles are being enlisted to fight an invasive tree species that is choking stream banks across the West. Officials looked to the ladybug-sized beetles when they looked for ways to combat tamarisk trees. The trees are Asian natives that have choked out native life on stream beds from Fountain Creek in Colorado to the Arkansas River basin.
In Asia, Chinese beetles have a taste for the leaves of the tamarisk, so agriculture and forestry officials are putting the beetles on tamarisk trees here. So far, scientists are happy with what they see. “It’s virtually free,” said Dan Bean, director of Colorado’s Palisade Insectary, where the beetles are bred. “Compared to going with bulldozers, it’s way cheaper. The beetles defoliate the trees, and they’re extremely specific.”
Colorado agriculture officials started using the beetle control this summer by releasing more than 26,000 of them near Pueblo. In Utah, land managers have been using the tamarisk beetle, or salt cedar leaf beetle, to control tamarisk trees since 2006.
Read more from the Salt Lake Tribune by clicking here.
Economies of shale: The possible production of oil from shale in Colorado raises questions about whether the state can afford to sacrifice the water needed to develop it
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 1, 2008 at 7:22 amFrom Colorado Biz Today:
The Colorado River during spring runoff this year ran full-bodied. It had been a snowy winter at the river’s headwaters in Aspen, Vail and Summit County, among the best in decades. By late May the Colorado was crowding its banks, spilling onto green-grassed low-lying pastures along Interstate 70 as it hurried toward Rifle and then beyond to Grand Junction and into Utah.
The notion of water shortages seems faintly ridiculous in such times of plentitude. It defies the feast of evidence. Yet such water shortages are becoming the major question as Colorado entertains the latest surge in excitement about its vast deposits of oil shale north and west of Rifle.
That excitement is likely to last as long as oil prices remain above $30 a barrel, a bottom-line benchmark once cited by leaseholder Royal Dutch Shell. With commercial production at least a decade away, the company has since backed away from that number even as a barrel of oil remains near $100.
Much is still unknown. Oil companies remain tentative about extraction methods, electrical demands and even water needs. For that matter, Colorado is unsure how much water remains available for development under interstate compacts governing the Colorado River Basin.
But growing cities fret that even a modest-sized oil shale industry could overstress the demand for water and narrow their options.
“I think there’s going to be a tussle about who gets to develop that last drop of water,” says Dan Birch, deputy general manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District.
Read more from Colorado Biz Today by clicking here.
Public Television Stations to Air ‘THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST: ARE WE RUNNING DRY?’ A New One-Hour Documentary
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 23, 2008 at 6:35 am
From the California Chronicle:
The Chronicles Group and presenting station Vegas PBS announce that beginning this fall, public television across the United States will air the new documentary, THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST: ARE WE RUNNING DRY?, about drought and water management hosted and narrated by actress Jane Seymour. Viewers learn about conservation, land use planning, how relentless drought and low precipitation have depleted water levels on vital sources throughout the western United States, such as Lake Powell, Lake Mead, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta system, the Rio Grande and the Colorado River. A web page dedicated to THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST: ARE WE RUNNING DRY? is available at http://www.runningdry.org/ that contains more information, downloadable photos, trailers and content.
Desalination, rainwater harvesting, green construction, and individual conservation are discussed. Find out more from the California Chronicle by clicking here.
Oil shale water woes: Denver, Western Slope officials cite huge demands for resource
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 21, 2008 at 7:37 amFrom Colorado’s Steamboat Pilot & Today:
Snarfing down an entire bag of potato chips shouldn’t make you feel as guilty anymore, thanks to Denver Water and Frito-Lay. It’s not about the oil the chips are fried in, but the water used to wash the potatoes, Melissa Elliott told 200 water leaders gathered at Grand Junction’s Two Rivers Convention Center on Friday. “At the Frito-Lay plant in Denver, potatoes are washed in water that has been washed and recycled,” Elliott said. “They save about 40 acre-feet of water a year.”
That’s enough to meet the annual needs of 40 households.
However, the water required by snack food companies adds up to small potatoes when compared to the “800-pound gorilla” Dan Birch described to those attending the annual water seminar hosted by the Colorado River Water Conservation District.
And the “800-pound gorilla” is oil shale development:
The Piceance Basin in Western Colorado has the potential to yield 1 trillion barrels of oil and for every barrel of oil, the industry might require as much as 1.5 barrels of water, Birch told his audience.
Bottom line: The nation’s hunger for more oil someday could swallow all of Colorado’s remaining undeveloped water under the Colorado River Compact of 1922. “Oil shale is the 800-pound gorilla,” Birch said, adding that the power demand associated with shale — whether from coal or natural gas-fired power plants — represents an enormous demand for water.
Read more from the Steamboat Pilot & Today by clicking here.
Thirsty Utah aims to conserve water, too
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 19, 2008 at 7:33 amFrom the Salt Lake Tribune:
The front lawn kept bleaching beige under the high-desert sun’s August assaults. They opened the nozzles, flushing more of the Wasatch Mountains’ limited snowmelt through sprinkler heads and onto the bluegrass and the hot sidewalk, holding their ground in an east-side Salt Lake Valley neighborhood of chemically enhanced greens. It took hoses and watering cans to slake the nagging brown splotches. No wonder Utah is second only to Nevada in per-person water use.
Bob Grant and Marilyn Smith stopped fighting. “We just could not throw enough water onto it,” Grant said of their Millcreek burden. Time for a radical lawnectomy. The retired couple called a xeriscaping firm in 2001 and set in motion a makeover that substituted arid grasses, native desert shrubs, fruits, flowers and trees. They blew Utah’s per-person conservation goals out of the water while creating a hummingbird haven that they prefer anyway.
“Our neighbor is always on his knees,” working his turf, Smith said. “I tell him: ‘You’re praying to the sprinkler god.’ ” It’s all in fun - until Utah runs out of water.
Here in the state’s largest metropolitan valley, 1 million Utahns have about 11 years until H2O judgment day. At current watering rates and with projected population growth, that’s when Salt Lake County’s biggest water district either must enforce water rationing or spend $1 billion on new supplies, including a pipeline from the sensitive Bear River, northern Utah’s migratory-bird oasis.
The Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District wants to push back the Bear River expense until about 2035 by getting everyone to cut back 25 percent on the water they averaged in 2000. That’s also the state’s goal for 2050. Jordan Valley is trying to get there by 2025.
Read more from the Salt Lake Tribune by clicking here.
Time for the Pacific Northwest to cash in its water?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 15, 2008 at 7:40 amFrom the Newhouse News Service:
When parched Southwest states recently considered ways they might bring more water to the overtaxed Colorado River, they imagined snaking a fiberglass straw up the Pacific coast and sipping from the Columbia River. That’s probably a pipe dream, but it’s also a recurring vision the drenched Northwest might not want to laugh off forever.
When desert cities — enduring record drought — reach the breaking point, water will have to come from somewhere. And water in the West is largely a zero-sum game: For someone to get it, someone else will have to give it up.
Although the Northwest appears to be swimming in water, rapid growth and salmon demands mean most of it is spoken for in summer. But if some is up for grabs at other times, what should be done with it? Is water the new oil, and could Oregon become the new Texas? Could the Northwest sell some of its wealth of water the way Alaska sells oil from its pipeline?
At least one Oregon lawmaker says so, seeing water sales as a way to fund public services without raising taxes. But a veteran of Northwest salmon fights warns the region to resolve its internecine bickering over fish and water so it can mount a united defense if the Southwest comes knocking.
Because, in a drier future, the choices are few: Either people move to the water, migrating northwest as the Southwest runs dry. Or water moves to the people, through a new generation of long-distance pipelines and canals.
“There will be nothing done with water in the West without there being winners and losers,” says Patrick O’Toole, a Wyoming rancher and president of the Family Farm Alliance.
Read more from the Newhouse News Service 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.
Utah columnist asks the question, what if the water runs out?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 24, 2008 at 6:10 amFrom the Salt Lake Tribune, this column which discusses both Utah’s proposed pipeline from Lake Powell, and Las Vegas’ pipeline from rural Nevada:
Consider, for example, the irony of Utah’s proposed pipeline from Lake Powell to provide water to southwestern Utah. In a dry cycle, of which there have been many, the water districts and big cities might accomplish what environmentalists have not been able to do. They could drain Lake Powell. Or, what about the potential damage to the Great Basin from Las Vegas’ scheme to transfer underground water to Sin City?
Everything I know and read tells me that this water is a finite resource that could take hundreds, if not thousands, of years to recharge. The possibilities of screwing up the Great Salt Lake and Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, not to mention creating a huge dust bowl that could affect the Wasatch Front’s already polluted air, are real.
No one proposing the two newest of dozens of massive water schemes seems to be able to answer a basic question: What if the water runs out?
What if Las Vegas is allowed to grow based on the presumption that water from the West Desert aquifer will be available, only to discover it is a limited resource? What if the Colorado River Basin hits a dry spell and there is not enough water to meet the needs of all the cities and farms that rely on it? Water rights are useless when there is no water.
No one knows this better than the Mormon pioneers who used their knowledge of water to turn arid Utah into a thriving state.
Neither the proposed Lake Powell nor Great Basin pipelines make sense in the likely reality they will fuel growth that can’t be sustained when drought hits the Colorado River Basin or when the Great Basin aquifer gets tapped out.
Outdoor lovers and, for that matter, all taxpayers should oppose these two projects.
Researchers study effects of flooding in Grand Canyon
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 12, 2008 at 7:21 amFrom the Christian Science Monitor:
With quick flicks of his Japanese calligraphy brush, Dave Rubin sends dry sand particles flying into the wind. He’s crouched in a four-foot-deep sand trench with a trowel in one hand, brush in the other, and the Colorado River flowing behind him. Dr. Rubin, a US Geological Survey senior scientist, leans back and studies the sand layers, trying to read their story – the tale of this year’s three-day high-flow experiment that thundered down the Grand Canyon.
The trench is dug into a bankside sandbar, a highly desirable feature of the Grand Canyon for habitat, archaeological preservation, and recreational camping. Sandbars once peppered this stretch of the river, but the closing of the Glen Canyon Dam in 1963 began trapping millions of cubic yards of sand that had nourished them. In the last 12 years, three high-flow experiments have tried to re-create the floods that used to deliver the sand. The most recent one was in March.
Now scientists have descended on the canyon to study the outcome using a host of technologies, from simple shovels to underwater scans of the riverbed. Their findings, and their resulting suggestions on how to restore the canyon’s diminished sandbars, will then be thrown into the caldron of river and canyon management, where 25 stakeholders weigh such things as the interests of electrical power and water against the need to preserve a natural wonder and endangered species. Close to $80 million has been spent in the last decade on sedimentology and hydrology research. Environmentalists say the need for restoration is losing out to the need for electricity and water.
Read the full text of this article from the Christian Science Monitor 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
Advertisement
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.
Can you own the rain that falls on your roof? Not in Colorado, where you can be fined $500 a day for harvesting rainwater
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 29, 2008 at 6:58 amFrom the Denver Post:
Kris Holstrom lives with her husband and two children in a solar-powered home in rural San Miguel County. Committed to promoting sustainability, she grows organic produce year-round, most of which is sold to local restaurants and farmers markets.
On a mesa at 9,000 feet elevation, however, water other than precipitation is hard to come by. So Kris did what thousands of farmers before her have done: She applied for a water right. Except instead of seeking to divert water from a stream, she sought to collect rain that fell upon the roof of her house and greenhouse. To her surprise, the state engineer opposed her application, arguing that other water users already had locked up the right to use the rain. The Colorado Water Court agreed, and Kris was denied the right to store a few barrels of rainwater. If she persisted with rain harvesting, she would be subject to fines of up to $500 per day.
How could this happen?
Like other western states, Colorado water law follows the prior appropriation doctrine, of which the core principle is “first in time, first in right.” The first person to put water to beneficial use and comply with other legal requirements obtains a water right superior to all later claims to that water.
The right to appropriate enshrined in Colorado’s Constitution has been so scrupulously honored that nearly all of the rivers and streams in Colorado are overappropriated, which means there is often not enough water to satisfy all the claims to it. When this happens, senior water-right holders can “call the river” and cut off the flow to those who filed for water rights later, so-called “juniors.”
Overappropriated rivers are not unique to Colorado. Most of the watercourses in the West are fully or overappropriated. Yet other western states allow or even encourage rainwater harvesting.
The obstacle for aspiring rainwater harvesters in Colorado is not the state constitution. It speaks only of the right to divert the “unappropriated waters of any natural stream.” The problem arises because Colorado’s Supreme Court has given an expansive interpretation to the term “natural stream” and coupled that with a presumption that all diffused waters ultimately will migrate to groundwater or surface streams. And because most streams are overappropriated, collecting rainwater is seen as diverting the water of those who already hold rights to it.
Believe it or not, in Colorado, roofs are considered tributaries. Click here to read the rest of this article from the Denver Post.
Curbing Utah’s wasteful water use would erase need for dams
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 29, 2008 at 6:46 amFrom the Salt Lake Tribune:
While scientists are predicting drastic changes for the water supply in the Colorado River basin, the Wasatch Range can realistically hope for better as our climate warms. If we use our scarce water resources wisely, we should have plenty of water for the rest of this century. Surprised? We’ve known this all along but our habits are hard to break.
With a growing population, we must use common sense and tap the ingenuity of the Beehive State and its industrious worker bees. In supplying a growing population with water, Utah’s water managers have historically applied a one-size-fits-all approach. Limited primarily to an engineering background, they see the solution to water needs as structural, which often proves to be expensive and static. The overwhelming mindset has been that new dams and diversions are the only way to assure our water future. While Utah gives lip service to water conservation as an alternative, it is clear where our priorities lie.
For example, the Utah Division of Water Resources spent nearly $8 million in 2007 to further the Lake Powell Pipeline and Bear River Water Development projects, but it spent a measly $250,000 on water conservation. The numbers speak for themselves.
The argument is one we here in California have heard plenty. By implementing conservation, water can be saved and dams not built. While Californians have made great strides on conservation already, apparently Utah has not, so the argument is particularly relevant, in light of these numbers:
Utah residents use far more water than is necessary or appropriate. Of the 60-70 percent of our water directed toward our lawns and gardens, approximately 50 percent is wasted. Furthermore, our per-capita use is significantly greater than that of other desert cities.
Read more from the Salt Lake Tribune by clicking here.
Aquafornia's Information Desk
Aquafornia Photos on Flickr
Upcoming Events
Check out the upcoming events from the Water Education Foundation.
Recent Posts
- C-WIN, CSPA file suit to end wasteful Delta diversions, protect public trust resources
- Angelenos heed water warnings
- Indian tribes awaiting Klamath Dam removal
- Whitaker-Bermite facility: The perchlorate cleanup plan is a reality, says commentary
- Suppliers seek approval for the “Delta Habitat Conservation and Conveyance Program”
- Salmon-tracking network challenges conventional wisdom
- State panel floats ‘litter tax’ to curb debris along coast
- Delta smelt closer to extinction
- Water settlement knots finally untangling
- Normal rainfall predicted for north state this winter
- Should we recycle urine on Earth, too?
- Who will be Delta’s keeper?
- Increasingly scarce water is the new California gold
- Californians need to worry about food security, says commentary
- Court rejects POWER appeal of All-American Canal case
Aquafornia's Mission
Aquafornia's mission is to educate readers about the complex and often controversial issues surrounding water in California.
Aquafornia is affiliated with the Water Education Foundation, an impartial non-profit organization, whose mission is to create a better understanding of water issues and help resolve water resource problems through educational programs.
Find It
Save / E-mail / Share Aquafornia
E-mail Newsletter
To receive email announcements from the Water Education Foundation, sign up here.
News Article Archives
- Agriculture
- Aquafornia Exclusives
- Biofuels
- Bottled water
- Climate change & water supply
- Commentary
- Conservation
- Delta Issues
- Desalination
- Development & Water
- Drinking Water
- Drought Tolerant Landscaping
- Drought, Weather & Snowpack
- Endangered Species & Wildlife
- Environment & Water
- Events
- General Water Issues
- Grandiose water plans
- Great Green Ideas
- Groundwater
- Indian Water Rights
- Infrastructure
- International Water Issues
- Invasive Species
- Levees
- Monterey Agreements
- National water news
- Oceans and Beaches (all)
- Odds and Ends
- Recycled Water
- Regional Water Issues
- All-American Canal
- Antelope Valley
- Bakersfield
- Bay Area
- Coachella Valley
- Colorado River Basin
- Imperial Irrigation District & Imperial Valley
- Lake Tahoe & the Sierra's
- Las Vegas
- Los Angeles River
- Northern California
- Orange County
- Owens Valley & Mono Lake
- Riverside - San Bernardino
- Sacramento
- Salton Sea
- San Diego
- San Joaquin Valley
- Southern California
- Southwest Water Issues
- Westlands Water District
- Stromwater & Urban Runoff
- Uncategorized
- Water & Energy
- Water & Investing
- Water Agency News (all)
- Water Banking
- Water History
- Water Legislation
- Water Quality
- Water Rights
- Water Storage
- Water Supply
- Water Technologies
- Water Transfers
- Weird & Wacky Water News
