Western water in the age of climate change

Book Review by Kyle Boelte, High Country News     Saturday, 20 June 2009

Dead Pool: Lake Powell, Global Warming, and the Future of Water in the West
James Lawrence Powell
304 pages, hardcover: $27.50.
University of California, 2008.

At once a suspense thriller, a history in the tradition of Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert, and an informed warning, Dead Pool deserves to be read now, before we make even more mistakes. With both temperatures and the demand for water rising, it’s tempting to see dams as a source of salvation. But, argues Powell, dams only increase Westerners’ demand for water and, in so doing, make our problems even worse. Read more

$2.7 million Fountain Creek cleanup effort begins

By Danielle Leigh - ColoradoConnection.com

“Anything we can do to get that out of the creek and help out water quality because we have a plant habitat and wildlife habitat, fish habitat that depend on good water quality,” said Stormwater Enterprise Manager Ken Sampley. Read more

Animas River: Colorado Trout Unlimited’s 2009 Volunteer of the Year

From Coyote Gulch / Durango Telegraph

Churchwell commented that he volunteers out of a sense of obligation both to the Durango community and the Animas watershed. “Those trout keep me sane and our rivers are my ‘church,’” he said. “Healthy rivers are the lifeblood of our communities, and I’m thankful Durango recognizes the value of the Animas to our community.” Read more

Notes: Clean water act gets bad rap; film stop gets rave review

david.hendee@owh.com – Omaha World Herald

Hunters and anglers heard the horror stories.

No more building duck blinds on private land without a costly and time-consuming permit.

No more firing over or near wetlands, ponds, lakes or rivers because even non-toxic shot would be considered a pollutant.

No more driving all-terrain vehicles to transport gear to off-road hunting or fishing spots without at least a special permit.

Farmers heard that a puddle of rainwater on their land would fall under control of federal bureaucrats.

But these perceived threats by a revitalized federal clean water law to sportsmens’ cherished pastimes and farmers’ routine farming operations are bogus, say conservationists…..

The Clean Water Act did not apply to gutters, puddles or other insignificant accumulations of water and neither would the new bill. The new act also preserves all existing agricultural exemptions under the law, such as for return flows and construction and maintenance of irrigation ditches and farm ponds. Read more

New Wrinkle For Proposed Colo. Water Pipeline

cbs4.com

Pueblo County’s district attorney has written to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asking them not to issue a permit for the $1.1 billion pipeline. Bill Thiebaut says Colorado Springs Utilities has environmental problems to fix before the utility should be allowed to expand. Read more

Without storage, state is losing water it has rights to

Rebecca Boyle
For The [Greeley] Tribune

NISP is intended to capture excess water to which Colorado can lay claim. Detractors say it would do too much harm to the Poudre River; supporters say it would allow thirsty, growing cities another supply of water that could prevent drying up more agricultural land. Read more

Conservation wave builds in the West

Associated Press – 06/22/2009

The push to set aside nearly 370 square miles as the El Rio Grande del Norte National Conservation Area is part of a new wave of congressional proposals aimed at protecting more than 34 million acres of public land across the West. Read more