COLORADO UPDATES ITS BASIC SURFACE WATER QUALITY STANDARDS
In a marathon two-day rulemaking hearing, the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) reviewed and revised its Basic Classifications and Standards for Surface Water. There were some significant improvements and some relaxation of current levels of protection. The areas of improvement were in pathogen limits and anti-degradation review. Secondary drinking water standards for manganese, sulfate and iron were relaxed. A decision on new mixing zone limits was postponed to allow for more input from a working group on this topic.
The WQCC has adopted a dual (transitional) reporting of fecal coliform and e-coli measurements. The Commissions guidelines will differentiate between actual recreational use and potential recreational use with actual use standards being the default. This puts the burden of proof on dischargers to show recreational use classification is not attainable or the use doesn’t exist. New requirements for anti-degradation review will take into account cumulative impacts of increased concentration of pollutants.
Two controversial proposals attempting to deal with impacts created by increased growth pressures were rejected by the Commission. One of these proposals tried to protect existing water quality from exchanges of upstream river water with wastewater discharges. The proposal was to use a stringent Total Organic Carbon Standard to require treatment plant operators to remove more organic compounds from their discharge. The other proposal asked for more stringent standards for nutrients and fecal coliforms.
AURORA’S CONJUNCTIVE USE PROJECT (CUP) GOES TO TRIAL
After 4 years of study, Aurora’s CUP water right application is being challenged in an 8-week trial in Fairplay. Aurora wants to pump 6,000 af/y of groundwater under Sportsman’s Ranch in Park County during dry years and replenish it during wet years with surface flows. This will be a battle of computer models prepared by the applicants and opponents. A question to be resolved by the court is whether there is sufficient water during wet years to be able to recharge the groundwater without adversely affecting senior rights and well permits in the Upper South Platte Basin. The hydrologic cycles indicate there are more dry years than wet ones.
EPA TO REGULATE AGRICULTURE AND URBAN RUNOFF
The EPA has side-stepped Congress and imposed new rules to regulate runoff from farms and cities that make an estimated 40 percent of the nation’s waterways too polluted for fishing or swimming. Congress is trying to undue a recent court decision saying EPA has authority to regulate nonpoint source pollution through Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) provisions of the Clean Water Act. Congress tried to delay the new rule from being implemented by restricting appropriations to EPA but EPA finalized the rule before the rider on an appropriations bill was signed by the President.Washington Post; July 12
The final rule: http://www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/finalrule/finalrule.pdf
A fact sheet: http://www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/finalrule/factsheet1.html
COLORADO RIVER INTERIM SURPLUS CRITERIA
The Bureau of Reclamation has published its Draft EIS on how it will determine whether surplus water is available for use in the Lower Colorado River Basin during the next 15 years. This criteria is critical to California for implementing is “4.4 Plan” which hopes to reduce its current depletions of the river from 5.2 maf/y to its allocation of 4.4 maf/y. The Draft EIS is now available for viewing at http://www.lc.usbr.gov and http://www.uc.usbr.gov. Further information about the DEIS and the schedule of public meetings on the Criteria http://www.lc.usbr.gov/surpdeis.htm.
Copies of the DEIS, in the form of a printed document or on compact disk, are available upon written request to the following address: Ms. Janet Steele, Attention BCOO-4601, PO Box 61470, Boulder City, Nevada 89006-1470, Telephone: (702) 293-8785, or by fax at (702) 293-8042.
Send comments on the DEIS to Ms. Jayne Harkins, Attention BCOO-4600, PO Box 61470, Boulder City, Nevada, 89006-1470, or fax comments to Ms. Harkins at (702) 293-8042. Comments must be received no later than September 8, 2000.
SALE OF WATER A DEVIL’S BARGAIN FOR COLORADO COMMUNITY
More than 60 farmers around tiny Rocky Ford, CO, are selling their water rights to the growing city of Aurora, 160 miles away. For the farmers, the revenue will pay off decades of agricultural debts, but the loss of the water could ruin land values and the local economy. High Country News; July 5
KANSAS VS COLORADO
After Kansas prevailed in the first part of its suit, claiming groundwater pumping in the Lower Arkansas River was injuring Kansas water users, Colorado wanted to compensate Kansas with increased water deliveries. How much money Colorado will have to pay is still in court. Colorado claims it only owes $4 million whereas Kansas wants as much as $65 million.
THIRSTY COLORADO TOWN IS AN OMEN
The Colorado mountain town of Gypsum is low on water, the result of junior water rights, poor planning and rapid growth. And it’s a harbinger for the rest of the state. Denver Post; June 30
AS COLORADO GROWS, WATER WILL BECOME EVEN MORE PRECIOUS
Some say there’s not enough water on Colorado’s east side to meet demand without huge projects to pump Colorado River water over the divide.
One agency predicts that in 40 to 60 years, it will take twice as many rivers to meet demand. A detailed look at the issues. Westword; June 22
CO RARE FISH HATCHERY OPENS
The state of Colorado just dedicated a $6 million “rare aquatic species hatchery,” the first wholly state operated “hatchery of its kind in the nation” says the Pueblo Chieftan 6/24. The hatchery will eventually raise “27 species on the federal and state threatened and endangered list” beginning with the Rio Grande sucker and chub and plains minnow. Other species soon to be raised for reintroduction include the bonytail, humpback chub, razorback sucker and pike minnow, all Colorado River species. The hatchery is located in the San Luis Valley, south of Alamosa.
SETTLEMENT REACHED OVER MINE POLLUTION
Battle Mountain Gold Co. has agreed to pay a mear $100,000 to settle a state complaint over a backfilled leaching pit leaking into Rio Seco Creek. The fine includes $71,700 civil penalty and $30,000 to be paid to the Costilla County Water And Sanitation District to improve it treatment plant near San Pablo. The discharges included dissolved solids, manganese and sulfate.
URBAN RUNOFF CAUSING A NEW STRAIN OF ALGAE
Stormwater runoff is causing the formation of gomphonema in Greeley’s water treatment plant. Urban residents dump fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides on their lawns, their cars leak oils onto city streets, and pet waste is left on the ground. All this ends up in the storm drains leading to the Big Thompson and Poudre Rivers. The city is asking its residents to pay more attention to what they dump and is installing signs near storm drains to remind people that the water goes directly to the rivers without treatment.
HUGE ICEBERG SPOTTED
An enormous iceberg, measuring 23 miles by16 miles, has broken off the ice cap in Antarctica. It is estimated to contain an equivalent amount of fresh water as falls on all of the land masses on earth in any given year.
ENDANGERED SPECIES IN MEXICO THE TARGET OF LAWSUIT
An international coalition of 8 conservation groups has sued five federal agencies to provide more water for rare species in the “ailing Colorado River Delta” says the Las Vegas Review-Journal 6/28. The Delta, “once a vast system of wetlands” covering 1.9 million acres has “shrunk” to a meager 150,000 acres because of federal water diversions for agriculture and the “booming Sunbelt metropolises.” The lawsuit, spearheaded by the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club, focuses on whether the ESA “requires federal agencies to take into account the effects of government actions on species outside U.S. borders.” [At issue, is whether the federal government has a higher obligation to meet its responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act than it does under the Colorado River Compact to make deliveries to the states.]
SUPREME COURT DECISION A KEY PIECE IN COLORADO RIVER WATER SETTLEMENT
The U.S. Supreme Court has given an Arizona tribe the right to pursue control of 25,000 acres near the California border and as much as 78,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water — a landmark decision that is one of the final pieces in settling river claims among three states and dozens of tribes. Arizona Republic; June 20. The Tohono O’odham Nation filled its irrigation ditches with Colorado River Water for the first time since a landmark 1982 settlement. The tribe wants to grow cash crops as an economic alternative to its two casinos. Arizona Daily Star; June 30
UTAH RIVER GROUP WRESTLES GOLIATH IRRIGATION AUTHORITY
A small nonprofit conservation group took on the mighty Central Utah Project and won its fight to block a dam on one of the state’s last free-flowing rivers. Now, it’s taken on the mighty irrigation district again, over plans for dams on the Bear River. High Country News; July 5
BROWN-OUTS BEING PREDICTED
Hydroelectric power generation is being curtailed at the major dams on the Colorado River to help recover endangered fish and their habitat. Because demand has been under-estimated by the major utility providers, new natural gas power generation will not come on line quick enough to meet the power demands in Phoenix and other major cities in the Southwest. The utility companies are predicting there will be brown outs this summer until more power plants come on line.
PULL-THE-PLUG SENTIMENT SPREADS TO FLAMING GORGE
Reclamation is studying how to operate Flaming Gorge Dam to benefit four endangered fish species, and some groups want to destroy the dam and drain the reservoir. Salt Lake Tribune; July 9
DRAINING LAKE POWELL GENERATES BITTER DEBATE
The notion of draining Arizona’s Lake Powell is gaining steam as campaigns pro and con organize, raise funds and trade accusations. And with new calls for a similar treatment of Flaming Gorge Reservoir, it could be the onset of a region-wide battle over Western dams. Arizona Republic; July 13
FEDERAL ORDER DEFIES NEW MEXICO WATER LAW
Reclamation ordered one Rio Grande water district to make sure enough flow stays in the channel to protect endangered silvery minnow, an order that ignores dozens of other jurisdictions with more junior water rights and threatens New Mexico’s system of water law. Reclamation’s actions are in response to a lawsuit by environmental groups led by Defenders of Wildlife and recognizes for the first time federal ownership of the irrigation works and responsibility to leave enough water in the Rio Grande to protect endangered species. Albuquerque Journal; July 9
“EXTINCTION IS FOREVER, DAMS ARE NOT”
An op-ed in the LA Times 6/30 says that “the full environmental bill” for damming and diverting most of California’s rivers is coming due and the price is the extinction of wild salmon. The article goes on to point out that an unknown number of the state’s estimated 1,395 dams are approaching or at the end of their “life span of 50 to 100 years” and argues that removing rather than rebuilding some of them may be the only way to keep the wild salmon. A state bill (SB 1540) would identify which ones are “abandoned, obsolete or poorly functioning” and thus likely candidates for removal.
IDAHO MAY BE DEALING SNAKE RIVER WATER ON THE SIDE
Despite their oft-repeated opposition to leaving irrigation water in the Snake River to help restore salmon runs, Idaho officials have apparently been negotiating to trade some irrigation water for the dismissal of the federal government’s and Nez Perce Tribe’s far greater water claims. Spokesman-Review; July 11
SALMON KEYSTONE SPECIES
A new report from the Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, “Pacific Salmon and Wildlife,” finds that salmon are an “ecosystem keystone” species that “more than 137 species of fish and wildlife from orcas to caddisflies” depend on for their survival says ENS 7/6. The report which “brings together 500 scientific studies and decades of research” finds salmon recovery is about more than just “a single species,” but saving whole ecosystems.
Among the species “now struggling” because of salmon declines are the “bald eagle, grizzly bear, black bear, osprey, harlequin duck, Caspian tern and river otter. For a copy of the report email: johnsdhj@dfw.wa.gov
ANOTHER LISTING DECISION ENDS UP IN COURT
The Montana Rivers Coalition is taking the FWS to court for delaying a decision to list the sicklefin and sturgeon chubs says the Billings Gazette 6/27.
According to the lawsuit, the ESA required the FWS to make a decision on the listing petition by August 1995 and the almost 5 year delay has resulted in “dozens of major private, state and federal actions that hurt the chubs.” The court action is partly in response to concerns over federal legislation to transfer ownership of the Glendive Intake Diversion Dam to a local irrigation district. A 1998 diversion at the dam affected some 162,500 sturgeon chub with unknown numbers of the chub surviving.
NV HIGH COURT ASKED TO DECIDE FATE OF TROUT
The Walker Lake Working Group has asked the Nevada Supreme Court to force the state to take emergency action to save threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout says the Las Vegas Review-Journal 6/27. Walker Lake has “dropped 130 feet since the early 1900s because of upstream diversions” imperiling the trout as well as resident and migratory birds such as common loons, American white pelicans and white-faced ibis.” Federal and state efforts to get more water for the desert lake “are taking too long” and could threaten the fishery since the lake only gets water during floods or high snowpack years. In most years, the state has “issued far more water rights for the river than there is actual water.”
AQUATIC BIOLOGISTS BATTLE INTRODUCED CRAYFISH
Introduced crayfish are wreaking havoc on the West’s streams. They eat all the vegetation within reach, the insects and larvae that feed trout, and young fish and other vertebrates. They turn clear mountain streams into muddy messes that harbor little other than crayfish. High Country News; June 20
SALMON SUMMIT CAMPAIGN PROMISE
Vice President Gore campaigning at the nation’s newest national monument, Hanford Reach, promised to hold a salmon summit if elected to resolve “the crisis over survival of Northwest salmon” says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer 6/10. Hanford Reach, one of four national monuments designated by the President is the largest remaining undisturbed stretch of the Columbia River and habitat for the “last great wild chinook run” on the river.
HARMING SALMON TO BECOME CRIMINAL
For the first time, harming protected salmon or steelhead will be a crime under new rules, the follow-up to the government’s listing 15 months ago of six salmon and steelhead runs as endangered. Portland Oregonian; June 14. The NMFS also releases new rules for protecting 14 West Coast populations of salmon and steelhead on state and private lands in WA, OR, ID, and CA says AP Seattle Times 6/20. The 4(d) rules, which define how ESA protections are applied, give local governments wide latitude to prepare their own specific protection regulations. Once approved by the NMFS, any activities that conform to the local rules would be considered “exempt” from ESA enforcement. Because of a lawsuit settlement, the steelhead rules will go into effect in 60 days, while the salmon rules won’t take effect until December.
CONTROVERSY SURROUNDS NEW SALMONID RULES
Environmental and property rights groups are lining up to legally challenge the newly released 4(d) salmonid protection rules says AP SF Examiner 6/19. The Washington Environmental Council is “ready to sue on grounds that the endangered and threatened fish won’t be adequately protected.” Siding with environmentalists who say that the NMFS is “foot-dragging,” Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund is also preparing to go to court to get the salmon rules put into effect immediately. Property rights groups have likewise threatened to sue and the “Washington congressional delegation” has gone on record that local governments should have “more time” to come up with “plans to meet the rules requirements.”
“FISH FARMS DEVASTATE WILD STOCKS”
A report published in the journal Nature finds that commercial fish farms are having a “disastrous impact on both the environment and stocks of wild fish” says BBC News 6/28. The fish farm impacts include wetland conversion, pollution, escape of farmed species and the use of “huge quantities of wild fish” for fish meal. According to the Toronto Globe and Mail 6/29, every kilogram of farmed salmon produced requires 5 times that amount of fish caught from the sea.
FISH FARMS GET EVICTION NOTICE
Environmentalists and fishermen joined the Musgawmawg Tsawataineuk Tribal Council in a protest against the rapid growth of salmon fish farms along the British Columbia coast says ENS 6/21. Some 26 fish farms are currently operating in the Broughton Archipelago, “a B.C. Marine Provincial Park and wilderness area” now with “the highest concentration of fish farms in the world.” Despite government promises that the farms “would be moved out,” four more are planned. According to the local protesters the farms are responsible for “toxic algae blooms, diseased Atlantic salmon escaping and breeding in Pacific streams, displacement of killer whales by acoustic harassment devices and plummeting populations of wild salmon.”
THE LAKE POCKET BOOK, A NEW SCIENCE-FOR-THE-CITIZEN BOOK
Laugh at the cartoons as you enjoy its plain English explanations of aquatic chemistry, the Five Kingdoms, your lake’s biotic zones, trophic states, and more.
Recognizing that “people, not science alone, determine the ultimate fate of your lake,” scientists Martin Kelly of the South Florida Water Management District and Nancy Phillips of the University of New Hampshire collaborated with a journalist and an editor to write this fun-to-read 116-page guide to understanding and managing your lake.
It also includes a reprint of the acclaimed Organizing a Lake Association, a practical guide to working with your neighbors to protect your lake, and a compliment to the popular Lake Smarts!
To order your copy, or for more information, contact Terrene Institute, (800) 726-5253 or terrinst@aol.com.
ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL RIDERS
Some 44 anti-environmental riders objectionable to the national environmental community have been active on the various spending bills. A running list of the riders is maintained by Defenders of Wildlife using write-ups received from numerous groups in the conservation community. For complete information on the various riders see the GREEN website http://www.defenders.org/grnhome.html or the defenders website http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/riders/riders.html
Several anti-environmental riders will severely restrict the Administration’s effort to meet the Clean Water Act goal of making American waters fishable, swimmable and drinkable. The House would delay cleanups of PCB-contaminated sediments in rivers lakes and streams. The House voted to prevent the EPA from protecting the American public from arsenic in drinking water.
The spending portion of EPA’s appropriation bill approved by the House amounts to a 10 percent cut to EPA’s basic environmental and public health programs, which are the backbone of the Agency’s work.
EVENTS
MANAGING RIVER FLOWS FOR BIODIVERSITY – A CONFERENCE ON SCIENCE, POLICY, AND CONSERVATION ACTION
July 30 – August 2, 2001, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado PRESENTATION TOPICS: Plenary sessions on: 1. The nature of real and perceived conflicts between meeting ecosystem needs and human demands for water,
2. The state of science and policy with respect to flow requirements for biodiversity conservation;
*Symposia of case studies where practitioners are working to meet human demands for water while also providing for ecological needs;
* An educational field trip to nearby Rocky Mountain rivers.
To receive further information through email, leave a request at nsilk@tnc.org
*** NOTICE
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. ***
