CONSUMPTIVE USE MODELING
Water managers need crop consumptive use estimates to manage the competing demands of agriculture, population growth and wildlife. The widely-used Blaney-Criddle method estimates consumptive water use based on mean monthly temperature data, percentage of daylight hours during the period of interest, and a standard crop growth stage coefficient that describes changes in consumptive use as plants mature. Initial studies indicate the use of standard coefficients would have underestimated total consumptive use by 30 to 130% in high altitude, irrigated mountain meadows. Since consumptive use estimates will be needed to quantify irrigation depletions that would benefit from the Aspinall Unit subordination contract and to determine augmentation needs for down-stream senior calls, the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District has contracted with CSU Extension, with assistance from their Agricultural Experiment Station to get more accurate information within the Upper Gunnison Basin. Twelve lysimeters have been installed throughout the Upper Gunnison Basin to more accurately estimate consumptive use. Among the many variables in evapotransporation are crop height and ground cover density. It will be several years before reliable data will be available.
CWCB “CALLS” TO PROTECT ITS RIGHTS
For the first time since the inception of the Instream Flow Program, the Colorado Water Conservation Board asked for administration of its rights. On Hunter Creek, the Board has a senior donated right of 15 cfs from the City of Aspen with an 1886 appropriation date. Flows in Hunter Creek were as low as 1.5 cfs. After a field investigation and a thorough analysis of all water rights on the stream, the Division Engineer reported there were no junior users diverting water on Hunter Creek. The conclusion was that there was not enough water to satisfy all users as a result of low flow conditions.
COLORADO CONCERNED ABOUT GUNNISON AND COLORADO RIVER FLOW RECOMMENDATIONS
The Fish & Wildlife Service has issued draft flow recommendations for the gage at Whitewater of 2000 cfs for average years and 2500 cfs during wet years. In comments submitted to the USF&WS, the CWCB says, “Our studies indicate there is not sufficient reservoir storage available to provide the recommended base flows during late summer and through the winter. Furthermore, providing those flows substantially lowers the reservoir storage and has a strong negative impact on the ability to use the Aspinall unit to help sustain a high peak flow the following spring.”
SIERRA CLUB’S COLORADO RIVER TASK FORCE RELEASES ITS REPORT
The report identifies 9 issues of concern throughout the entire river basin and suggests actions, tools and allies for efforts to address these concerns. The report is not intended as an all-inclusive view, but is an educational tool to help activists understand how complex river management can be and help get more people involved in river protection. The report can be viewed at http://www.sierraclub.org/rcc/southwest/.
COLORADO RIVER HYDROLOGY
For the water year 2000, inflows to the Colorado River are projected at 62% of average or only 7.3 maf. During 1999, a wet year, the total consumptive use of the Lower Basin was 7,976,300 af. Deliveries to Mexico were 2,894,100 af and 78,700 af was delivered to the Sienega de Santa Clara.
ENDANGERED FISH RECOVERY FUNDING
HR 2348 and S. 2239 provide $100 million for the Upper Colorado and San Juan River Recovery Programs.
This money will be used for genetic diversity and conservation projects, the propagation of endangered fish species, restoration of floodplain habitat, fish passage, regulation and/or supply of instream flows, preventing fish entrapment in canals and for the removal or relocation of non-native fishes.
Non-federal partners must contribute $34 million of these expenditures. Colorado’s share of $9.1 million will come from the Native Species Conservation Fund. Colorado is also planning on lending $17 million to the Western Area Power Administration for the Colorado River Electric Distributors Association which will repay the loan through power revenues collected within the 50-year time frame established by the Colorado River Storage Project Act.
The Program Management Committee will be releasing draft recovery goals within a month for public comment.
CENTRAL ARIZONA PROJECT IS A VIOLATION
A federal judge has ruled that the Bureau of Reclamation and its Central Arizona Project has violated the ESA and are “jeopardizing the survival and recovery” of protected fish species in the Gila River says the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund 10/9. The massive project supplies drinking and irrigation water but also allows nonnative fish and other invasives to spread from the Colorado to the headwaters habitat of the Gila Basin. The judge has scheduled a hearing to determine what is to be done to correct the situation.
SALTON SEA AUTHORITY CHASTIZED BY CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE
ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT APPROPRIATION BILL, 2001, at page 93, Salton Sea Study, CA.
The Committee is aware of ongoing efforts by the Bureau of Reclamation to complete a feasibility study identifying potential options to stabilize and reclaim the Salton Sea. The authorizing legislation for this study (Public Law 105-372) expressly prohibits consideration of any option that relies on the importation of new or additional water from the Colorado River. The Committee is concerned that, in preparing its Draft EIS, the Bureau has expended funds to evaluate the potential use of flood flows from the Colorado River for the Salton Sea despite the clear prohibition expressed in the authorizing legislation, and the potential impacts to other lower Colorado River basin States. The Committee intends to carefully monitor this matter, and expects the Bureau to abide by the prohibitions expressed in Public Law 105-372.
CONGRESS COULD SCUTTLE FINAL PHASE OF MODEL COLORADO RECLAMATION PROJECT
The final phase of one of the nation’s most innovative mine cleanup plans, the sprawling Idarado claims in Colorado, is threatened by a lack of federal funds to help turn the area into a showcase for public recreation and wildlife habitat.
COLORADO TOWNS RUNNING DRY
Despite restrictions, six Colorado towns are close to running out of drinking water and one had to haul in water at a cost of $1,000 a day. Without a normal snowpack this winter, officials say, next summer could be grim. Denver Rocky Mountain News; Sept. 21
NEW MEXICO HAS $16 MILLION AT STAKE IN ENERGY BILL
New Mexico would get $16 million for restoration and habitat improvement projects along the Rio Grande. [The President vetoed the bill because of a rider restricting recovery actions on the Missouri River.] Albuquerque Journal; Oct. 3
MOAB TAILINGS MAY FINALLY BE MOVED AWAY FROM RIVER
A long-standing dispute over how to make safe 10.5 million tons of radioactive tailings on the bank of the Colorado River near Moab, Utah, may be over. The House and Senate are expected to pass bills to transfer jurisdiction to the Department of Energy and move the tailings away from the river. Deseret News; Sept. 26
CRITICS SAY UTAH WASTES ITS WATER
Water is cheap in Utah and residents use more water per capita than their neighbors in other states. Critics say the blame rests with water agencies that don’t encourage conservation yet demand expensive new projects. Salt Lake Tribune; Sept. 29
SURPLUS CRITERIA
“The adoption of surplus criteria will impact several related Colorado River issues, including the frequency and magnitude of space-building and reservoir spill (flood) flows, the availability of water for the Colorado River delta region, habitat availability and quality for federally listed species, off-stream storage, the lower Colorado River MSCP, the availability of surplus flows for Mexico, recreational uses along Lake Powell and Lake Mead, water quality issues, power generation, the probability of shortage conditions on the river, and others.”
The Pacific Institute’s comments identify several major flaws in the DEIS. These include: the failure to analyze the impacts of the 7 State Guidelines (likely to be the preferred alternative); the scope of the document; several of the modeling assumptions; the selection of the “75R trigger” as a baseline instead of the flood control trigger; the absence of an adequate cumulative impacts assessment; and a general disregard for the Secretary’s responsibility to “protect and enhance the environmental resources of the basin.”
GIANT SALVINA THREATENS LOWER COLORADO
An “invasive aquatic fern native only to Brazil” is threatening to choke out other life forms in “oxbows, backwaters and canals” in the lower Colorado says ENN 8/26.
According to the USFWS the plant, that has “little if any value to wildlife and fish,” dominates localized habitats, and causes eutrophication, “is poised to spread rapidly like it has in other parts of the country.”
PELICAN DEATH TOLL AT SALTON SEA MOUNTS
Despite constant rescue and rehabilitation efforts which have help save 850 endangered brown pelicans, “at least 339” have died of avian botulism this year at the Salton Sea says ENS 8/30. This year’s outbreak began earlier than usual and the high number of sick birds in part reflects the larger number of pelicans at the sea, “a sign of species recovery.”
SENATE PUTS BARGES BEFORE BIRDS
The Senate voted to keep a rider on the FY’01 energy and water spending bill that would prevent the Army Corps of Engineers from altering Missouri River flows to “replicate the natural flow of the river” and restore habitat essential to the survival and recovery of three listed species, the pallid sturgeon, least tern, and piping plover says AP 9/8. Although the close vote, 52-45, favored “barge and farming interests,” it was a short-lived victory. The president vetoed the bill and high level negotiations are now going on.
CA DAM BREACHING
California is set to breach two dams as part of efforts to halt “the environmental degradation of the Bay Delta region” says UPI 10/7. Removing the dams on a creek near Redding and one in Ventura County is part of the CAL-FED plan and would help “migrating schools of steelhead trout and other fish by allowing more water from tributaries to flow into larger rivers.”
JUSTICE WANTS JARBIDGE ROAD CLOSED
The U.S. Justice Department “worried about increasing harm to the threatened bull trout” have asked a federal judge to close “motorized access” on a national forest road along the Jarbidge River near Elko, Nevada says AP 9/14. In July, so called “Shovel Brigade” vigilantes removed large boulders that the USFS had used to “block vehicles from getting near the bull trout habitat” and now ongoing travel is “causing damage to fish habitat from repeated stream crossings” in violation of the ESA and Clean Water Act.
KEY SENATORS AND CONGRESSMEN DICTATE TO ARMY CORPS
The Army Corps of Engineers has become a pawn of two powerful Mississippi senators, and it’s a servant of Congress throughout the realm. Washington Post; Sept. 11.
NO WIGGLE ROOM
Corps officials are often powerless to resist, even when projects include environmental damage. Washington Post; Sept. 11 http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51707-2000Sep11.html
CORPS’ STAFFER, CONTRACTOR SAY DAM REPORT BIASED
Two insiders say the Army Corps study that recommended against breaching four Snake River dams was deliberately slanted and their findings were altered on orders from politicians. Washington Post; Sept. 12
ARMY CORPS NOMINEE PROMISES WILLINGNESS TO REFORM
The Clinton administration’s appointee to head the Army Corps of Engineers vowed to restore public confidence in an agency beset by years of political pressures. The last story in an excellent series. Washington Post; Sept. 15
SENATORS DERAIL PLAN TO REFORM ARMY CORPS
Senate leaders, including Montana’s Max Baucus, have blocked Congress’ attempt to revamp the Army Corps of Engineers, opting instead for a yearlong study. Washington Post; Sept. 22
JUDGES CHANGE ARMY CORPS’ VIEW OF THE YELLOWSTONE
For years, the Army Corps of Engineers rubber-stamped stabilization projects on the Yellowstone River until now long stretches look like channelized rock piles. But a couple of recent rulings require the Corps to look at cumulative impacts. Part of a Washington Post series. Billings Gazette; 9/29
ARMY CORPS BACKS OFF $1 BILLION PROJECT WITH FLAWED NUMBERS
The Army Corps of Engineers has asked for a one-year delay to reanalyze data on $1 billion in lock-expansion projects on the upper Missouri, after an independent audit confirmed the Corps own discredited economist’s findings that the projects were boondoggles. Washington Post; Oct. 5
SAVING SALMON BECOMES AN ISSUE FOR CATHOLIC CHURCH
Eight Roman Catholic bishops from four states and one province have spent three years traveling the Northwest, talking to parishioners talk about the Columbia River, its salmon and the effects of both on their lives. The result will be a rare and long-awaited pastoral letter. High Country News; Sept. 11
SALMON 4(d) RULES CHALLENGED
Pacific Northwest environmental groups, led by Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, are challenging new NMFS rules that define the measures developers, loggers and others must take to exempt their activities from ESA prohibitions against harming endangered and threatened species, in this case Pacific Northwest salmon says AP 9/12. According to environmentalists, these “exemptions” amount to “sweetheart deals for developers and the timber industry” and will actually put “the species in more danger” on the 160,000 square miles of WA, OR, ID, and CA where the new 4(d) rules are to be applied.
ADMINISTRATION’S ENVIRONMENTAL CHIEF SAYS TO BREACH DAMS
The Clinton administration’s highest environmental official endorsed breaching four Snake River dams to a Senate subcommittee, and the reaction from several Republican senators in Northwest states was immediate and hostile. Spokesman-Review (AP); 9/14
WHITE HOUSE SALMON PLAN UNDER ATTACK
During recent hearing, Senators from WA and OR have sharply criticized the federal salmon recovery plan released at the end of July as lacking “specifics on costs, recovery goals and time lines” for salmon recovery says AP 9/13. The two part plan, a NMFS biological opinion and separate recovery plan, “calls for improving salmon habitat, limiting harvests and reforming hatcheries” but stops short of calling for breaching the 4 lower Snake River dams for at least 5 years.
REAL SALMON PICTURE IS HEART-BREAKING
Nature gave Northwest salmon the best possible conditions the past few years, and just enough wild salmon returned to their Idaho spawning grounds to sustain a zero net gain in the population. This is the true test of the species health, not the upswing in the number of hatchery salmon that come back. High Country News; Sept. 29
TRIBAL VISION FOR SALMON PROTECTION
Among the salmon restoration plans in the Pacific Northwest is one by 13 American Indian tribes that features a “common sense, stick-to-your guns approach” to restoring Columbia Basin salmon says Indian Country Today 10/2. Although the plan has received a “warm welcome” from environmental groups and “local faith organizations” it has so far received “no response” from key federal agencies. This may be in part because the “Tribal Vision” paper “flies in the face of many current practices” and “actually demands that government regulations concerning habitat restoration, clean water and in-stream flows actually be adhered to.”
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP WANTS B.C. TO GET TOUGH WITH STREAM LAWS
The Natural Resources Defense Council says the British Columbia government is not enforcing rules designed to protect streams from logging, and it wants tighter regulation made a part of any new agreement allowing softwood imports into the U.S. Vancouver Sun; Sept. 22
CA FARM BUREAU ATTEMPTS TO TORPEDO DELTA RESTORATION PLAN
A lawsuit by the California Farm Bureau is jeopardizing a “fragile” agreement to end CA’s water wars and “restore the health of San Francisco Bay and its ecologically struggling delta” says the San Jose Mercury News 9/29.
The CAL-FED plan negotiated between farmers, various local, state and federal agencies, and environmentalists seeks to balance water use by cities and agriculture with the need to allocate more water to threatened and endangered species and restore habitat in the bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
DAVIS SAYS CALFED “WON’T BE DELAYED”
Although the California state legislature has refused to appropriate money or authorize a commission to implement CalFed, a controversial state and federal water management agreement, Gov. Davis has promised Senator Diane Feinstein that the “effort will go forward uninterrupted” says the Contra Costa Times 9/14. The program to “restore the Delta environment” will proceed using some of the $390 million already “made available” to “purchase water for endangered species.” In Washington, D.C., however, congressional funding is “stuck” by a controversial authorization bill that “would speed up the construction of reservoirs” and is opposed by the administration.
VOTERS’ CHOICE FOR SUPREME COURT ENDS UP HOGTIED
The Idaho Judicial Council has said the newest Supreme Court justice can’t hear water cases because his brother-in-law is the water court judge, then it removed the brother-in-law from Snake River adjudication, setting back that massive process. The lesson is that elections are no way to pick a judge. Idaho Falls Post-Register; Sept. 11
MINING COMPANIES SUE IDAHO OVER POLLUTION STANDARDS
Three mining companies have sued the state of Idaho over proposed limits on lead, zinc and cadmium in the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River, saying the state is siding with the EPA to impose standards the mining companies can’t afford. Spokesman-Review; Sept. 13
FROG GETS 5.4 MILLION ACRES
If finalized, a proposal to designate 5.4 million acres as critical habitat for the California red-legged frog would be the largest in the state and “among the nation’s biggest for a threatened species” says the L.A. Times 9/9. Environmentalists are calling the proposed critical habitat ” a very significant and important step” in the species’ recovery and for “turning around the decline” of CA wetlands, 70% of which have already been destroyed.
Although the building industry was strongly opposed to the protection of wetlands in so large an area, the USFWS was unable to continue to “dodge” the “awfully hot political potato” because of a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund and other environmental groups.
DAM THREATENS TROPICAL FOREST
A Canadian development company, Fortis Inc. and U.S. utility, Duke Energy Int., are planning a massive hydroelectric project that would “obliterate” one of Central America’s most important “undisturbed tropical floodplain habitats, the Macal River in Belize says Natural Resources Defense Council www.nrdc.org/wildlife/habitat/belize.asp
The area is part of the “government protected” Chiqui Forest Reserve and contains “unmatched” biodiversity including a rare subspecies of scarlet macaw, jaguars, ocelots, river otters, spider monkeys and Morelet’s crocodile, many of which have already been extirpated from former habitat by logging and development.
THE BEACH BILL AMENDS THE CLEAN WATER ACT
The bill requires ocean, bay, and Great Lakes states to adopt minimum, health-based criteria for water quality, comprehensively test recreational beach waters for pathogens and notify the public when contamination levels make beach water unsafe for swimming, surfing, and other activities. The bill authorizes $30 million annually in federal grants to help coastal states develop and implement effective water quality monitoring and public notification programs.
JELLYFISH PUZZLE
Good but puzzling news is that the Australian jellyfish swarming in large numbers in the waters near Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana suddenly disappeared… the puzzle is that researchers aren’t sure where they went. Some say they think they just died and sank to the bottom instead of taking off. But others say they can swim very fast so it is possible they are out in the Gulf somewhere. Will they come back? No one knows.
How big an impact the jellyfish epidemic might have on next year’s fisheries production isn’t known for certain. The jellyfish are actually related to coral, that the disappearance of the jellyfish could be a phenomenon related to coral bleaching and that studying what happened to the jellyfish could provide clue to coral bleaching.
We can’t just forget about the problems with nutrient enrichment that is leading to overpopulations of jellyfish. Although the alien Australian jellies are gone, there are now hundreds of thousands of the native moon jellyfish out there–far, far more than is normal for this time of year. Researchers have said the increasing populations of jellyfish are an indication of troubled waters…nutrient pollution that is upsetting the natural balance.
MERCURY POISONING LOONS
High levels of methylmercury, a toxic and naturally occurring form of mercury, have been found in the blood of loons all across New England says the Boston Globe 9/5. Hardest hit are loons in Maine where pollution from coal-burning plants and incinerators located to the south and west is affecting their breeding, altering behavior and disrupting their “development, immunity and long-term survival.”
N.M. SAYS EPA’S ARSENIC LIMITS UNREALISTICALLY LOW, NEEDLESSLY EXPENSIVE
Is it too much to ask that the EPA rely on sound science in setting arsenic levels, instead of sweeping generalizations that will double New Mexicans’ water bills? Albuquerque Journal; Sept. 22
DRINKING WATER ADVISORY COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS PUBLIC HEALTH PROTECTIONS
After 18 months of intensive negotiations, the Federal Advisory Committee on Microbial/Disinfection Byproducts (M/DBP) has completed final recommendations to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Dr. Cathey Falvo represented PSR on the committee. The recommendations include several new measures that will strengthen health protections for consumers, including vulnerable populations such as the immunosuppressed, infants and children, pregnant women and the elderly. These recommendations will form the basis for M/DBP proposed rules, to be issued by EPA by May 2002. Highlights of these new protections are as follows:
To reduce consumer exposure to high concentrations of DBPs in tap water, the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for the disinfection byproducts trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAA5) will be 80 ppb and 60 ppb, respectively. Epidemiological and toxicological studies point to significant adverse health effects from acute and chronic exposure to DBPs. These health effects include cancer, and potential reproductive and developmental effects.
To reduce potential health threats from Cryptosporidium, water systems serving more than 10,000 people must periodically conduct two years of monitoring to determine concentrations of this organism in raw (untreated) water entering the treatment plant. They must then apply specified levels of treatment based on Cryptosporidium concentration to remove or inactivate the organism in finished water. Infection by this Cryptosporidium can cause serious illness, and can be fatal in individuals with weakened immune systems.
EPA, in cooperation with stakeholders, will conduct a study to evaluate whether the bacterium E.coli is a suitable indicator for the presence of Cryptosporidium in source water. If so, small systems will be permitted to monitor their source water using this less expensive test. EPA will publish a guidance document on the use of ultraviolet light (UV) as an alternative method for microbial disinfection.
The final recommendations of the advisory committee should be available from EPA within a few weeks. For more information, contact EPAs Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 800-426-4791 or visit the web site for EPAs Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water at http://www.epa.gov/safewater.
ONLINE ACCESS TO A WEALTH OF WATER-QUALITY DATA
USGS Water Quality Data Warehouse: http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/data
A new online data warehouse of 6.5 million records enables water resource managers, scientists, and the public to find data about the quality of the water at 2,800 stream sites and 5,000 wells in 46 states, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The data were collected by the USGS National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program beginning in 1991 in 36 basins around the country, which are the basic study units (http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa) of the NAWQA effort. The data warehouse has been in use by USGS researchers since November 1999. Data from 15 additional study units, which began in 1997, will be incorporated later.
Data in the warehouse are from surface and ground water sources, not from finished tap water.
The data include about 15,000 pesticide and VOC (volatile organic compound) samples and about 26,000 nutrient samples collected from the water column, as well as about 1,200 samples from bed sediment and aquatic animal tissue, which were analyzed for trace elements and organic compounds that do not dissolve in water easily.
Most pesticide, sediment and tissue samples were analyzed for over 40 different compounds at the USGS National Water Quality Laboratory in Denver, Colo.
Types of information include:
* Site, well and network (groups of sites with similar characteristics or sampling regime) information and descriptive variables like land use.
* Daily streamflow and temperature information for repeated sampling sites.
* Chemical concentrations in water, sediment and aquatic organisms.
* Data can be compiled and summarized for geographic areas, such as for one or multiple states, counties, basins, or NAWQA study units. Examples of summaries include:
* Concentrations for groups of chemicals, like pesticides, detected in streams, streambed sediment/aquatic tissue and/or wells.
* Samples where the concentration of a specific chemical of your interest exceeds some value like a water quality standard.
* Counts of samples for one of the above examples.
The data can be easily exported in several formats to excel, or delimited ascii files.
Links are provided to other data from the NAWQA program, other water data from the USGS, as well as to the USGS home page, which provides a gateway to a wide range of scientific information from the biology, mapping and geology components of the USGS.
As the nation’s largest water, earth and biological science and civilian mapping agency, the USGS works in cooperation with more than 2,000 organizations across the country to provide reliable, impartial, scientific information to resource managers, planners, and other customers. This information is gathered in every state by USGS scientists to minimize the loss of life and property from natural disasters, contribute to the sound conservation, economic and physical development of the nation’s natural resources, and enhance the quality of life by monitoring water, biological, energy and mineral resources.
ON-LINE ADVOCACY
The Clean Water Network launched a new on-line advocacy section on their web site. If you go to and click on New! Legislative Action Center, you will find an on-line way to write to Congress, a guide to Congress including staff contact information, a guide to the media which allows you to directly contact media in your area, and an area for issues and legislation. This feature is still in its infancy, but check it out.
