HYDROLOGIC CONDITIONS
Snowpack conditions continue to improve in most basins in Colorado. The snow/water equivalent of average, as of 3/1: Gunnison, 76%; Upper Colorado, 86%; South Platte, 93%; Laramie/N. Platte, 94%; Yampa/White, 97%; Arkansas, 72%; Upper Rio Grande, 51%; and San Miguel/Delores/Animas/San Juan, 58%. Reservoir storage remains above average. Recent storms in southern Colorado have improved snowpack in those basins.
COLORADO GROUP EYES BAN ON CYANIDE AT MINES
A newly formed Colorado group wants to limit the use of cyanide in mining operations and could have an initiative ready for the ballot by November. The cyanide ban, similar to one Montana voters approved in 1998, would also limit expansion of Colorado’s only operating mine that uses cyanide. Boulder Daily Camera; Feb. 28 (See other stories about cyanide gold mining below.)
ANIMAS-LA PLATA
The comment period for the Draft SEIS has been extended to 4/17. Comments should be sent to Pat Schumaker, Bureau of Reclamation, 835 E 2nd St., Suite 300, Durango, CO 81301-5475 or . The Dept. of Interior has proposed $2 million in its 2001 budget and is carrying over about $5 million from past budgets. If legislation is passed authorizing construction, addition funds will have to be appropriated. The Preferred Alternative is pegged to cost $254.6 million.
INSTREAM FLOW WORKSHOP
At a meeting attended by 6 CWCB members, the staff revealed that currently there are over 600 stream segments identified for investigation for appropriation. Dan Merriman, the chief of the Stream and Lake Protection Program, indicated that the new rules governing filing of new appropriations limits the current level of staffing to doing only 25-30 segments/year. The purpose of the workshop was to listen to suggestions for establishing criteria to prioritize filings. The participants also suggested which segments should be identified for this year’s staff workplan. Suggested criteria included segments within state parks, segments with sensitive, endangered and threatened native species, and segments designated as critical habitat.
COLORADO’S INSTREAM FLOW AND NATURAL LAKE (ISF) PROGRAM
Public trust is not recognized in Colorado water law. There is no public interest review in the appropriation process. In 1973, the legislature adopted the ISF Program to recognize “the need to correlate the activities of mankind with some reasonable preservation of the natural environment.” This removed the diversion requirement for appropriations and added instream purposes to the definition of beneficial uses. The Program has appropriated water to “protect” over 8000 miles of streams, almost exclusively in cold water fisheries.
(An attempt in 1995 to appropriate water to recover endangered fish was abandoned.)
The Program has been amended several times: 1981, 86, 87, 94, and 96. It wasn’t until 1993 that the CWCB established rules and regulations governing certain procedures for the Program. Many of the changes to the Program are perceived by some [including this writer] as weakening the Program. Others contend the changes improved the Program by making it more acceptable to water users and giving it more credibility.
The current organizational structure of the ISF Program Section within the CWCB includes: new appropriations, quantification methodology and biology, acquisitions, enforcement and monitoring, and legal protection. New appropriations require coordination of field data collection and recommendations made by the Division of Wildlife, Parks and Outdoor Recreation, BLM, public and private organizations and individual citizens. The CWCB, once a year, prioritizes a workplan to instruct the staff what segments to work on during that year.
The most-used methodology to quantify instream flow recommendations is R2CROSS. The staff is exploring different methodologies to refine flow recommendations. Staff is also evaluating the decreed flows to insure they are actually preserving water dependent environments.
In 1986, the legislature gave the CWCB authority to acquire water, water rights or interests in water for the Program. In 1994, the legislature limited the Board from acquiring conditional rights for instream flows. Boulder and Aspen are the only two major donors of instream flows since the Program started. The legislature has never appropriated any money for the CWCB to acquire water. Enabling legislation for Great Outdoors Colorado does not provide for CWCB to apply for GOCO funds. Staff is exploring partnerships with other entities to access GOCO funding. They are also working to identify critical streams where acquired water would be beneficial.
Legal protection involves reviewing new water rights cases involving changes or expansions of existing rights. The Board files objections to cases that would injure existing ISF rights. The CWCB does not file objections to new filings, but relies on administration to protect its seniority. [This is nearly impossible because of insufficient monitoring.] Most cases are resolved by the CWCB accepting voluntary curtailment to protect ISFs. [This issue is problematic considering the Board has never put a call on any river segment to administer protection of its rights.] Staff also provides support to defend contested ISF filings.
There are several continuing issues the Program needs to resolve: water requirements for endangered and threatened species, water quality coordination, deminimis impacts, warm water fish and other wildlife species, riparian habitat protection, injury with mitigation versus modification, inundation of instream flows, citizen enforcement, recreational flow needs, insufficient monitoring and enforcement, bypass flows, lack of funds or personnel to address these issues, and the lack of political will to address these concerns and needs.
BYPASS FLOWS
Bypass flows are special use permit requirements the Forest Service and/or the Army Corps imposes to meet their obligations under the Federal Land Management Policy Act, Endangered Species Act or the Clean Water Act. The requirement is to allow a certain amount of water to pass by dams or diversion structures on federal land or for 404 permits to prevent damage to the environment.
Colorado asserts that bypass flow requirements are an attempt to usurp state authority over water allocation. If the state’s ISF Program were more effective, the federal agencies might be able to rely on it to meet their obligations under the above mentioned federal laws. Until the ISF Program becomes more effective, several environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and High Country Citizens’ Alliance, support the use of bypass flow requirements to achieve their goals of environmental protection.
NEW SOUTH PLATTE RIVER COORDINATOR
The Forest Service has hired a new coordinator for the Wild & Scenic River study on the South Platte, to take over for Sue Spear, who has relocated to the Paonia District of the Gunnison NF. Her name is Connie Young-Duboski (my apologies if the spelling is wrong), and she comes from the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Management Assistance program in D.C. A new draft EIS is allegedly imminent identifying and analyzing the newest alternative to the Wild and Scenic designation.
THREATS TO AGRICULTURE
Governor Owens, in a speech to the Colorado Water Congress, warned that water for Colorado’s growth should not come at the expense of agriculture. He was referring to Aurora’s recent purchase of water rights from Rocky Ford Ditch Co. The agricultural interests which use over 85% of available water supplies want future municipal water needs to come from new water storage projects.
GLEN CANYON DAM OPERATIONS
Based on early projections of runoff, the Grand Canyon Adaptive Management Working Group (AMWG) is studying a proposal to have steady low flow releases (8,000 cfs) from Glen Canyon Dam all summer long. One of the objectives of the AMWG is to change the jeopardy opinion issued over 20 years ago on the effect Glen Canyon Dam has on endangered fish in the Grand Canyon.
SAVE WATER FOR COLORADO RIVER WILDLIFE
A coalition of environmental and conservation groups is asking the Bureau of Reclamation to guarantee enough water in the lower Colorado River to preserve minimum ecological viability, say GREEN sources 2/15. Except in rare years of unusually high run-off, dams, diversions and other reclamation projects take virtually the entire Colorado’s flow for human uses. As a result, the Colorado River Delta and upper Gulf of California’s wetlands and vast riparian habitat, once among the world’s most diverse and productive, have been severely degraded and without a minimum flow will continue to decline.
THE ACOUSTICS OF SNOW
In a study co-authored by Lawrence Crum, a physicist from Univ. of Washington in Seattle, and Andrea Prosperetti, an engineering professor at John Hopkins Univ. in Baltimore, appearing in the current issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, snow can be deafening to underwater animals. Noise from falling snow can add 30 decibels to high-frequency sound levels underwater. Thirty decibels is the difference between an office conversation and a jackhammer, Crum opined. The study found that air bubbles trapped in the snow caused an underwater ruckus. Snowflakes are full of air and when they fall into water, they release that air in bubbles. The water’s surface tension holds down the bubbles, which vibrate in their effort to escape, producing a screechy sound. It is not known how annoying this very broad-band rumbling might be to underwater creatures such as porpoises and fish.
ARIZONA SETTLES MAJOR WATER DISPUTE
Arizona will give up 200,000 acre-feet of Central Arizona Project water in exchange for a $700 million reduction of its debt on the project, in a deal that settles a long-standing dispute with the federal government and paves the way to settle other regional water battles. A story that’s too short for its implications. Arizona Republic; March 3
ARMY CORPS TO TIGHTEN WETLANDS RULES
New Army Corps of Engineers rules say landowners, builders and developers must get a permit for any project that disturbs more than a half-acre of wetlands, instead of the current three-acre threshold. Those interests say the rules will cost them millions, while environmentalists say the rules will curb the annual loss of 100,000 acres of wetlands. Washington Post; March 3
BABBITT CALLS FOR REVIEW OF ALL FEDERAL DAMS -Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has called for “periodic, full-scale review of operations, benefits and environmental impacts” of all federal dams, says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer 2/12. Federal dams should undergo the same review process as private dams and include “a complete environmental impact statement.” To date, only one federal dam, Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River, has had to “change its operations” because of environmental damage done to shorelines, “sand bars and aquatic life downstream.”
IDAHO JUSTICES RE-HEAR LANDMARK WILDERNESS-WATER CASE
Wilderness water rights are back before the Idaho Supreme Court, with a federal attorney saying the court’s prior ruling will have little effect on users upstream from wilderness, and attorneys for timber companies, irrigators and town officials in central Idaho calling it a nightmare. Idaho Statesman; Feb. 15
SALMON, STEELHEAD CRITICAL HABITAT DESIGNATED
Much of the West Coast including the Columbia and Snake River basins has been declared critical habitat for salmon and steelhead, says AP 2/14. The court ordered designation “primarily” affects federal land in CA, OR, WA and ID by providing additional protection for the species’ habitat.
Environmentalists said the long delayed designation was a “good step,” but still “inadequate” because it failed to include the Pacific Ocean and “rivers blocked by dams.”
SNAKE RIVER: MOST ENDANGERED
In an emergency announcement, American Rivers named the lower Snake River the nation’s Most Endangered River for 2000, and urged citizens to visit www.salmonforever.org to submit comments as part of the public hearing process on the dealing with impact of four dams in the lower river. Deadline for comments is 3/31. American Rivers will release the full list of the nation’s Most Endangered Rivers for 2000 on April 10. Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers, explained that the group made the early emergency announcement about the Snake River to spur the public to speak up before the public comment period ends on March 31. The administration is legally obligated to decide this year whether to remove the four lower Snake River dams as part of its salmon recovery plan.
SNAKE RIVER SALMON NEED MORE WATER
Environmentalists and commercial fishermen are suing several federal agencies over a failure to keep the minimum flows necessary for salmon survival in the Columbia and Snake Rivers, says AP 2/23. Because the dams warm and slow the river, the only options for boosting salmon survival are to drastically increase the water flow by taking irrigation water from Idaho farmers or breaching the dams.
SALMON HEARINGS TURN FROM DEBATE OVER SCIENCE TO CLASH OF CULTURES.
More than 1,600 people turned out for the third public hearing on salmon-recovery plans, this time in Clarkston, Wash., where testimony focused on breaching four Snake River dams and pitted Nez Perce tribal members against loggers, irrigators, pulp mill workers and state politicians. Idaho Statesman; Feb. 11
OREGON GOV. SAYS TO BREACH DAMS
Gov. John Kitzhaber called for breaching of 4 lower Snake River dams, says the Oregonian 2/19.
According to Kitzhaber, Columbia Basin salmon are doomed to extinction unless action is taken “decisively and soon.” The announcement received a standing ovation from hundreds of scientists at the Oregon Chapter of the American Fisheries Society who voted unanimously for a resolution stating that dam breaching “was necessary to help restore healthy wild salmon runs on the river,” Eugene Register-Guard 2/18. The resolution also added that “breaching must happen soon because the runs are close to extinction.”
WA TOLD TO KEEP TRACK OF WATER WITHDRAWALS: JUDGE RULES IN SUIT DEALING WITH SALMON
On February 11th, environmental groups in Washington won a law suit compelling the state to require metering of surface and groundwater withdrawals. In his decision, Judge Hicks said this is a “necessary step to bring us out of the dark and into the light” as the state deals with managing “this most precious resource.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2/17
PRESSURE MOUNTS TO REMOVE MONTANA DAM AND THE TOXINS IT’S TRAPPED
Events are converging to remove a dam seven miles upstream from Missoula, Mont., that has trapped 6.6 million cubic yards of toxic sediments from more than a century of mining. Montana Power Co. doesn’t want to relicense the dam or comply with federal orders to beef it up, and pressure is building to remove the migration barrier for bull trout. Missoulian; Feb. 20
NEW DAM BUSTER COALITION
Over 30 environmental groups have joined together to form the Southern California Steelhead Recovery Coalition in an effort to preserve the last of the southern steelhead trout, says the San Diego Union-Tribune 2/15. With over 99% of the southern population gone, the coalition was sparked by the first return of a steelhead to San Diego County in 40 years. The coalition’s goal is to extend the recovery boundary to the Mexican border, obtain its share of recovery funds, and remove two dams on the Ventura River and Malibu Creek.
WE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO BREACH
While the Snake River dams are getting all the attention, ENS reports 3/6 that the FWS is quietly moving ahead with a program to dismantle or alter some of the 75,000 smaller dams and 2.5 million obstructions in waterways around the country.
Last year, the FWS restored some 23,000 acres of riparian, streambank or wetland habitat and improved or reopened to spawning some 1,000 miles of river. According to the FWS “We’ve really only just begun,” and plan to continue similar programs in 12 states this year.
ENLOE DAM LICENSE DENIED
FERC RULING OPENS DOOR TO RECOVERY OF SIMILKAMEEN RIVER SALMON AND STEELHEAD – (Seattle)– The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected a decade-old application by a Washington state Public Utility District to rehabilitate and operate an existing hydroelectric dam in eastern Washington state, saying that licensing the dam is not in the public interest. The dam is located on the Similkameen River, which flows into the Okanogan River in the Columbia River basin. American Rivers, which has been fighting the Enloe Dam licensing for eight years, was gratified by the decision.
Enloe Dam was decommissioned in the late 1950s and has never provided fish passage. The dam also adversely affects water quality in the Similkameen River, home to endangered summer steelhead and chinook salmon.
The conclusions of studies by the Bureau of Reclamation and the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) are that removing Enloe Dam is the best biological and economic option for salmon and steelhead restoration.
In another report, BPA concluded that the reintroduction of anadromous fish runs into the upper Similkameen River is both biologically and economically feasible. It estimated adult returns as high as 24,378 for steelhead and 14,300 for chinook.
Enloe Dam has blocked all fish passage into the upper Similkameen River since early in the century, and has not produced any electricity since the 1950s. The proposed project is not economically competitive in today’s electricity market. Even if the project were economical to rehabilitate and operate, it would produce only two megawatts.
CANADIANS TO BREACH DAM FOR SALMON
The government of British Columbia has reached agreement with a paper company to demolish a major dam on the Theodosia River, says ENS 3/1. Since the dam was built in 1956, there has been “a clear correlation” between it and the “collapse” of the river’s once abundant salmon runs. The dam would be “the first large scale dam to be dismantled in Canada,” and would “do much to repair one of Georgia Strait’s great salmon rivers.”
BOR FUNDING
The FY01 Administration budget request calls for $801 million for the Bureau of Reclamation, which builds and operates facilities for water supply and hydroelectricity in 17 Western states. The agency manages more than 600 dams and reservoirs that provide water to more than 31 million people and irrigate approximately 10 million acres. The budget request includes essentially level funding for the Central Valley Project restoration effort ($38.4 million) and the California Bay-Delta program ($60 million). An additional $121.6 million would go to CVP water conservation and drainage management programs, participation in the CALFED bay-delta effort, construction of fish screens, and improvement of refuge water supplies. The dam safety program would receive $77.3 million, the Mni Wiconi project $29.7 million, and the Central Arizona Project $33.7 million. The agency is seeking a 14% cut in funding for construction for completion of the Central Utah Project, one of the BOR’s last major water storage and delivery systems.
THE NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION (NFWF)
NFWF, a non-profit organization created in 1984, promotes habitat protection, environmental education, natural resource management, and habitat and ecosystem restoration. The foundation raises private dollars to match federally appropriated funds on at least a 2-1 basis. NFWF has made more than 3,400 grants since 1984. S. 1653, introduced by Senator Chafee, would reauthorize NFWF through fiscal year 2004.
S. 1946 would rename the National Environmental Education Act as the “John H. Chafee Environmental Education Act” and establish the John H. Chafee Memorial Fellowship Program. The bill would authorize $10 million each year from 2000 through 2005.
MISSOURI RIVER PLAN CATERS TO NONEXISTENT COMMERCIAL DEMANDS
Author Stephen Ambrose says the Army Corps of Engineers’ management plan for the Missouri River is intended to benefit barge traffic that never materialized, at the expense of more than 100 native species. Grist Magazine; Feb. 17.
SKIN FUNGUS TO BLAME FOR GLOBAL FROG DIE-OFFS
At a meeting on 2/18 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., two Boulder, Colorado scientists stated there is no significant correlation between the amphibian die-offs in the last several decades and climate variations. Studies in Colorado, Costa Rica/Panama and Australia have documented that amphibian die-offs are due to disease. Although it is still unknown what environmental factors may be tipping the balance between pathogens and amphibian immune defenses, in the studies in Colorado, boreal toad and leopard frog mortalities were caused by fungal infections beginning in 1973 and continued until 1982. The die-offs resumed in 1997, but don’t seem as virulent this time around. The studies were conducted by Cynthia Carey and Michael Alexander.
WORST WATER POLLUTER IS FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
The federal government is the biggest polluter of the nation’s waterways and its record is getting worse, according to an EPA report. Four of 10 federal facilities violate water-quality laws, compared with three of 10 private companies. Boston Globe; 2/18
A separate report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group concludes that 40 percent of the nation’s waterways are not safe for swimming or fishing.
COPPER IN DRINKING WATER
The National Academies of Science’s National Research Council released a report today recommending that the federal government should not increase the maximum level of copper allowed in drinking water, because high levels of copper may pose a threat of liver disease to susceptible individuals. The report’s recommendations are consistent with EPA’s assessment of the health effects of copper in drinking water. Visit http://www.nas.edu/
CYANIDE PROBLEMS PLAGUE US MINES TOO
Environmental problems associated with cyanide use in gold mining are prevalent in the US says the Philadelphia Inquirer 2/15. With more than 100 million pounds of cyanide used annually in US mines, the EPA says that some of these mines lack “adequate environmental controls or attention to best engineering practices.” For instance, cleanup of the abandoned Summitville Mine in CO cost taxpayers $170 million and took 8 years, while in ID, the FS is currently taking “emergency action” to try and stop cyanide leaking from a waste pond from poisoning critical habitat for chinook salmon.
EURO MINE DISASTER POISONS RIVERS
Overflow from a cyanide holding pond at a Romanian gold mine has “destroyed virtually all aquatic life” in over 250 miles of the Tisza River and contaminated the Danube in what is described as the “biggest environmental catastrophe since Chernobyl,” say AP 2/14. Hungarian officials said that heavy metals also in the spill “will poison the whole food chain for years to come.” It is estimated that it will take at least 15 years for the Tisza River to support life again for even if fish stocks are introduced the whole ecosystem down to bacteria has been eradicated.
MONTANA’S CYANIDE BAN LOOKS WISE AFTER ROMANIAN DISASTER
Montana voters in 1998 approved a ban on cyanide use in mining operations, and the wisdom of that measure is now obvious along the sterile banks of Romania’s Tisza River. Missoulian; 2/17
2001 EPA BUDGET
On February 7, Administrator Carol M. Browner announced President Clinton’s proposed Fiscal Year 2001 budget of $7.3 billion for EPA. The Administration proposes to invest $45 million in state grants for a new initiative aimed at waterways still in need of improvements. The budget provides states with the added flexibility of using up to 19 percent of the funds they receive under the Federal Clean Water State Revolving Fund to make grants, rather than loans, to implement projects to fight polluted runoff and protect the Nation’s estuaries. It also provides a total of $250 million, an additional $50 million in FY2001, in grants to states and tribes for polluted runoff control projects. The FY2001 budget request is at http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/New/00Budget/ .
DRAFT UNIFIED FEDERAL POLICY FOR WATERSHED MANAGEMENT ON FEDERAL LANDS
Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt announced a proposal to unify federal efforts to protect water quality on federal lands. A key action of the President’s Clean Water Action Plan, the proposal is a starting point for obtaining input from local, state and tribal governments, citizen groups, and others with a stake in clean, healthy watersheds.
The proposal was published in the Federal Register Feb. 22, 2000. It is a framework to protect public health, reduce polluted runoff, improve natural resources stewardship, and increase public involvement in watershed management on federal lands. Listening sessions will be held around the country to discuss the proposed policy. For a copy of the proposed policy, visit http://www.cleanwater.gov/ufp
EPA WATERSHED FUNDING
EPA recently published the Catalog of Federal Funding Sources for Watershed Protection (Second Edition), EPA 841-B-99-003.
–The Catalog provides information to watershed practitioners on Federal funding programs that might be available to fund different aspects of watershed protection and local-level watershed projects.
–The document contains one-page fact sheets for each of the 69 funding sources (grants and loans) that provide information on the type of projects funded and eligibility requirements.
— Contacts and Internet sites are also provided for each of the programs so the reader may obtain further information.
–In addition, the Catalog contains citations for other good publications and web sites regarding funding.
— This Second Edition of the Catalog updates EPA’s Catalog of Federal Funding Sources for Watershed Protection, printed in 1997 (EPA 841-B-97-008).
–Copies of the new funding catalog are available at no charge from the National Service Center for Environmental Publications (NSCEP) at: Phone: (513) 489-8190 or (800) 490-9198, Fax: (513) 489-8695).
(Include the document number (EPA 841-B-99-003) when order the document.)
— A copy of the Catalog will also be posted as soon as possible on the Watershed Academy’s web site for browsing and downloading at: http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/watershed/wacademy/fund.html
EPA FACT SHEET ON FORESTRY
EPA recently published a new forestry fact sheet entitled “Achieving Cleaner Waters Across America: Supporting Effective Programs to Prevent Water Pollution from Forestry Operations,” Feb. 2000, EPA 841-F-00-002. This fact sheet explains the August 1999 proposed regulatory revisions to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit Program regarding forestry activities. EPA proposed these revisions to the NPDES program in August 1999 along with comprehensive changes to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program. As you may know, the proposed provisions regarding forestry have been controversial. This fact sheet is at: http://www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/proprule.html
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