Redstone Call for Attendance

Folks -

Need to get a good sense of your chapter’s attendance for the Redstone Spring Rendezvous, April 11 – 14 in Redstone Colorado.  We are trying to gauge what level of experience (have members attending been to the event before, or are they new) who will be there, so that we can structure the event accordingly.

Please email Steve Craig or David Nickum with who from your chapter is going to be there, and if they have been there before or not as soon as you can find out.  It will really help the planning process.

THANK YOU!!!

Sinjin

Trout Unlimited to Consider Southern Delivery System at March Meeting

The potential recreational and environmental effects of the planned Southern Delivery System pipeline from Pueblo Dam to Colorado Springs will be the topic under discussion at the March 13 meeting of Trout Unlimited in Pueblo. Drew Peternell, Colorado Trout Unlimited’s lawyer and the Director of the Colorado Water Project, will address concerns about the pipeline as it is currently presented in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. See Southern Delivery System EIS.  This is an important meeting to the future of recreation on the AK River through Pueblo! Please attend, if at all possible!

 THURSDAY, March 13, 7:00 p.m.

 Jones-Healy Realty, 119 W. 6th, Pueblo

 Everyone welcome – FREE to the public.
Donate a raffle item to defray chapter expenses

Ritter walking a Roan tightrope

He says he will opt for “modifications” of the plan – sure to rattle business interests or activists.

By Karen E. Crummy
The Denver Post

Article Last Updated: 12/07/2007 12:45:47 AM MST

Gov. Bill Ritter said Thursday that it’s unlikely he will recommend a “wholesale” adoption of the federal drilling plan for the Roan Plateau.

“Our recommendations will be a modification, or some may say a departure,” said Ritter, who is nearing the end of a 120-day review of the Bureau of Land Management’s drilling proposal. “I’ve never been a person opposed to drilling on the Roan. But we need to make sure any modifications are environmentally sound and we maximize the economic benefit to the state.”

No matter what recommendations the first-term governor suggests, he faces a no-win situation, some say. By taking a position, he will probably infuriate either a core constituency, such as environmentalists, or hefty business interests, which are already angry about some of Ritter’s recent decisions.

If he’s seen as too eager to allow drilling, he also could alienate those who regularly use the area for hunting, fishing and other recreation. Many of them, and other Western Slope voters, lean Republican but played a critical role in Ritter’s win last year.

Additionally, the governor has to find a way to balance the concerns of powerful leaders in his own party, such as U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, who is trying to stall drilling on the Roan for a year.

For all the risk, the payoff may be small. The governor’s recommendations aren’t legally binding and have questionable influence. In the end, the decision is solely controlled by the federal government.

“He is really walking a tightrope,” said John Redifer, a political science professor at Mesa State College in Grand Junction. “I don’t know where he stands to gain much in any decision he makes.”

Ritter, however, says his recommendations are not guided by special-interest groups and his concerns aren’t focused on possible political fallout.

“The question is how does the state protect a pristine place and, at same time, extract resources that can have economic benefit to the state?” Ritter said.

And while the governor acknowledges the federal government doesn’t have to heed his suggestions, he said he’s had a number of conversations with the Interior Department and believes that officials there will take his recommendations seriously.

Years of negotiations

The 52,000-acre development plan, announced in June, was hammered out by the BLM and the state’s Natural Resources Department after years of negotiations. It limits drilling operations to no more than 1 percent of the plateau’s surface land at any given time and requires that area to be restored before a new area can be drilled. Additionally, half the public lands on the plateau must be free of roads, drilling and pipelines.

After some political wrangling by Salazar last summer, Ritter was granted 120 days by the Interior Department to review the plan.

The plan’s 1 percent drilling requirement irked the oil and gas industry, which has a $23 billion economic impact on the state, according to the Colorado Energy Research Institute. However, that is a better alternative than a recommendation from the governor that may further limit drilling.

“If that happens, there will be a continued negative political chill out there that gives companies pause as to whether they want to justify multibillion-dollar investments in projects,” said Greg Schnacke, president of Americans for American Energy, which advocates for domestic drilling.

Environmentalists and recreation users are upset with the plan released in June because it permits drilling atop the Roan. Many advocate horizontal drilling from remote locations to avoid disturbing the surface. The energy industry contends horizontal drilling is much more costly and not perfected.

More protections urged

“It would be a missed opportunity if the governor does not push further for more balanced oil and gas drilling,” said Elise Jones, executive director of the Colorado Environmental Coalition.

On Thursday, a group of Democratic state lawmakers sent Ritter a letter asking that he recommend more protections for wildlife and the environment, as well as a ban on surface drilling.

However, the latter is a deal-breaker for some Republican lawmakers who see drilling atop the Roan as a way to generate millions of dollars for health care, transportation and education.

Drilling moratorium

“If the governor supports a balanced approach to energy production on the Roan, we will sing his praises on the Capitol steps,” said Republican state Sen. Josh Penry of Grand Junction. “If he doesn’t go along with drilling on top of the Roan, we will continually remind him of the millions of dollars he walked away from that the state needs.”

Although Democratic U.S. Reps. Mark Udall and John Salazar added an amendment to the energy bill that would have banned surface drilling, it was left out of the House energy bill approved Thursday.

Ken Salazar says he will seek a one-year moratorium on Roan drilling in the Senate, but that will probably not occur until next year.

Even if the BLM plan goes forward, it will take anywhere from “several months to a year” for the lease sales to go through, said BLM spokesman Jim Sample.

Study: Climate change will endanger trout

http://www.jhguide.com/article.php?art_id=2500

By Cory Hatch December 6, 2007
A survey of scientific studies on climate change and fish shows that Western populations of trout could diminish by as much as 60 percent as water warms, bugs disappear and droughts become more prevalent.

The report, compiled by Trout Unlimited, looks at the effects of climate change on trout and salmon habitat across the country. The report also suggests ways to make habitat more resilient to threats associated with a predicted 2 to 10 degree global temperature increase during the next 100 years.

Jack Williams, chief scientist for Trout Unlimited, said trout and salmon are good indicators of ecosystem health because they require cold, clean water for spawning, egg survival and rearing of young.

“We’re already seeing the effects of climate change,” said Williams, who pointed out that mayflies, an important food source for trout, are starting to emerge at an earlier time of year. “We’ve got a lot of trout populations that are poised to lose about half of their range.”

In addition to warmer water and impacts on insects, Williams said, climate change could mean greater floods, reduced snowpack, earlier runoffs, more wildfires and increased insect infestations in forests, all of which can hurt trout populations.

Bob Gresswell, a research biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, studies cutthroat trout in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, including one project below Jackson Lake Dam. Gresswell says trout across the West are so susceptible to climate change because development and irrigation pressures have already pushed populations into more isolated, high-elevation streams.

Further, humans have introduced non-native fish such as rainbow trout, brook trout, lake trout and brown trout into cutthroat trout ecosystems, increasing the risk of hybridization and predation. Climate change could amplify the negative effects non-native fish have on trout, Gresswell said.

For instance, reproduction times for rainbow trout and cutthroat trout are somewhat isolated by the spring runoff. Cutthroat trout spawn just after the peak runoff and rainbow trout spawn just before. But with spring runoff coming earlier each year, Gresswell said, rainbow trout could eventually come to a point when they can’t spawn any earlier, and the chance of hybridization could increase.

Gresswell pointed to fish die-offs and fishing closures in Yellowstone and Montana as a probable sign that global warming is already affecting trout populations.

“I worked in the park for 17 years and we never closed the fishery even once [because of warm water],” he said.

Both Gresswell and Williams said that while it could be too late to stop climate change, it isn’t too late to make trout habitat more resilient to its effects.

“Let’s start working right now on things that we can do to our local stream systems to prepare for the kinds of impacts that we know are coming,” Williams said.

Restoration efforts include trying to reconnect larger low-elevation waterways to the smaller upper-elevation streams native trout now inhabit.

“That allows the fish to basically move around and find better habitat conditions,” Williams said.
Other ways to protect trout include removing old culverts, planting native trees and shrubs along streams to provide shade and protect stream banks, and placing logs and boulders in the stream to provide sections with deeper, cooler water.

Salmon, trout populations will be hurt by global warming, but it’s not too late to act, report states

http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20071205/NEWS/71205008

December 5, 2007

Climate change will hurt trout and salmon populations, but there is still time to act before it’s too late, a report released today from Trout Unlimited states.

“Healing Troubled Waters” highlights how global warming will affect the nation’s game fish populations, stating that they are likely to decline by 50 percent or more, and some populations, such as the bull trout found in high-mountain areas in the West could be cut by as much as 90 percent.

But Congress could appropriate money in the future to find ways to help make coldwater fish populations sustainable despite the climate change, and in fact Congress is making some progress on that very issue even today, the report stated.

The complete report is available at www.tu.org/climatechange.

Roan cut from energy bill

Washington – Legislation that would have stopped drilling atop the Roan Plateau and slowed oil shale development in the state was cut from the energy bill the House will consider today.

The language had been in a bill passed by the House this summer, put there by Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, and Rep. John Salazar, D-Manassa. But when lawmakers merged that House bill with a Senate-passed energy bill, they did not include the provision.

Udall said Senate lawmakers did not want the language in the bill. But Steve Wymer, spokesman for Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said that House Democratic leaders chose not to include it.

Lawmakers in Colorado’s congressional delegation have split on whether drilling should be allowed atop the 9,000-foot-tall plateau in northwestern Colorado. Udall, Rep. Salazar and Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., want to limit or stop it. Allard supports drilling and believes the issue should be left to local authorities.

The energy industry says the area’s vast supplies of natural gas are needed to serve an energy-hungry nation. Development advocates have calculated that the 56,238-acre Naval Oil Shale Reserve – one of the Roan’s richest areas – has enough natural gas to supply 4 million homes for 20 to 25 years.

An energy advocacy group has said that gas production on the plateau could bring revenue to Colorado of up to $6 billion over 30 years. Critics, including environmentalists and a mineral royalty accountant, said the value could be 80 percent less.

Sen. Salazar will now be working toward a one-year drilling moratorium, spokesman Cody Wertz said.

Udall said he plans to work with both Salazars.

“You can be assured I’m not going to stop until we protect the Roan,” Udall said.

COOL, CLEAR WATER

Letters – Sunday
THE [Colorado Springs] GAZETTE
December 2, 2007 – 1:22AM

Bill would shield Samaritans from pollution liability

The Gazette’s Nov. 27 story about the Pennsylvania Mine made clear why Congress should pass a liability-shield law for “Good Samaritans” seeking to clean up toxic drainages polluting Colorado’s waters (“Water act discourages any would-be helpers”).

But I think the prospects for that happening are brighter than the story suggested.

Last month, with Rep. Steve Pearce, R.-N.M., I introduced H.R. 4011, the “Good Samaritan Cleanup of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act.” Based on bills I have introduced before, it would authorize the EPA to issue permits to shield Good Samaritans from Clean Water Act liability as they work on abandoned mines such as the Pennsylvania.

On Nov. 12, our bill was endorsed by the Western Governors Association. A letter signed by the governors of Arizona, New Mexico and South Dakota, as well as Gov. Bill Ritter, said the bill “will provide States and other possible Good Samaritans important Clean Water Act liability protections necessary to conduct voluntary cleanups.” I am hopeful the bill will be supported by the Bush administration and environmental groups as well.

This kind of Good Samaritan legislation has been one of my longstanding top priorities, and I intend to do all I can to win its enactment as soon as possible.

Rep. Mark Udall
Colorado District 2
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.

Arkansas Basin Water Roundtable

The Arkansas Basin Roundtable is a critical part of discussions pertaining to water issues in the Arkansas River Basin and in Colorado. Membership to the Roundtable consists of people representing diverse interests in the Basin. The Arkansas Basin Roundtable wants to include as broad array of water interests as possible. Also, the Roundtable wants to provide citizens of Colorado with accurate information about current water issues in the valley.

Thus, the Arkansas Basin Roundtable and Colorado State University Extension will host a Basin-wide Water Townhall meeting. It will be held on December 11^th at the Gobin Building in Rocky Ford, Colorado beginning at 9:00 am. Speakers will address such issues as: What is the Arkansas Basin Roundtable? How your community can apply for monies to fund water projects? What is the ‘Super Ditch’ project? and What is happening with ag water transfers?

Please plan to attend the Townhall meeting – and bring your friends and colleagues. The attached flyer provides greater details about the Arkansas Basin Townhall meeting.

Since there will be a sponsored lunch, we would like to get a reasonable head count of Townhall participants. Please RSVP to me (or my administrative assistant Kristy) by telephoning 719-549-2049 or emailing jtranel@colostate.edu.

Enviros up pressure on Ritter over the Roan

http://www.aspendailynews.com/archive_22917

David Frey – Aspen Daily News Correspondent

Fri 11/23/2007 11:00PM MST

Environmentalists and sportsmen’s groups are calling for a “final push” encouraging Gov. Bill Ritter to seek more protections from energy development on the Roan Plateau. Their effort comes in the waning days of the review period the governor asked for to study the drilling plan put in place before he took office.

The effort is part of conservationists’ two-pronged approach meant to keep gas rigs off the surface of the plateau to protect the landscape and habitat for species like deer and elk.

In addition to pressuring the governor to urge the Bureau of Land Management to ban drilling from the top, drilling foes are encouraging lawmakers to support language in the energy bill that would keep drilling off the Roan for at least a year. Reps. John Salazar and Mark Udall, both Colorado Democrats, succeeded in getting that language included in the House version of the bill.

“Success with both the legislature and the governor’s review is going to be really important,” said Clare Bastable, conservation director for the Colorado Mountain Club. “What they decide to do in Washington is equally as important as the plan itself.”

Ritter’s office isn’t indicating what action the governor will take after the review period ends in mid-December. Spokesman Evan Dreyer said his options range from endorsing the current plan to making his own recommendations. But even if he offers his own plan, the BLM may not listen.

“There is nothing that obligates the federal government to pay any heed to us should we offer recommendations,” Dreyer said, “so in short, it is all still a very unsettled picture.”

THE PLAN
The BLM has approved a plan that would allow gas drilling on top of the Roan, but with phasing intended to limit surface disturbance and protect wildlife. The plan was based largely on recommendations by the state Division of Natural Resources, which worried that drilling on the plateau could harm the species that call it home.

But that was under Ritter’s predecessor, Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican. After Ritter, a Democrat, took office in January, he asked for a chance to review the project. The BLM initially refused until Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., brother of Rep. Salazar, threatened to withhold consideration of President Bush’s nominee to head the BLM.

The energy industry is also stepping up its efforts to press for drilling on the plateau. Last month, the group Americans for American Energy released a study that claimed the state could reap $1.2 billion in the first year of drilling on the Roan Plateau, and that local and regional bodies would gain $6 billion in royalties and taxes over 30 years and $11 billion in industry investment. Environmentalists questioned those numbers.

“It only makes sense, I think, to go slow on developing resources like the Roan,” said Bastable, who said most of the gas leases already approved haven’t been drilled on yet. “We’re in no danger of losing revenue.”

In recent weeks, conservation organizations and hunting and fishing groups have organized phone banks, appeared in radio ads and have encouraged members to call Ritter and Sen. Salazar to encourage more protections for the Roan.

“Nobody’s saying that you can’t extract gas out of the ground,” said Bill Dvorak, of the National Wildlife Federation. “We’re just saying there’s ways to do it that will leave the wildlife habitat intact.”

Dvorak said he would like to see energy companies use methods like directional drilling to reach the gas under the plateau without drilling new wells. He said he worries not only about protecting the habitat on top of the Roan, but some of the remaining habitat below. That’s important winter range, he said, but it’s already been impacted by a “web” of wells and roads.

“We think eventually there will be ways to extract the gas,” said Suzanne O’Neill, executive director of the Colorado Wildlife Federation, “but we have to have a little bit of patience so we strike the right balance and protect critical wildlife habitat.”

In addition to species like deer and elk, the Roan is also home to some rare populations of native cutthroat trout. That has raised concerns among anglers.

“They’re a pretty unique population of fish up there,” said Ken Neubecker, vice president of Colorado Trout Unlimited. “Right now, while they’ve survived thousands of years in these small populations, a single accident up there, either from stormwater discharge or a tanker truck spill, could wipe these populations out. There’s no need to rush into this and go after this gas.”

The energy industry has said the gas could be extracted without harming wildlife. An estimated 8.9 trillion cubic feet of federally-owned natural gas is believed to lie 8,000 to 11,000 feet below, enough to heat 4 million homes for 20 years. Supporters believe that could be an important source of domestic fuel, from an area originally set aside for energy production.

Ritter’s spokesman Dreyer said the governor’s office hasn’t seen a big increase in phone calls or correspondences from either environmental groups or drilling supporters, but that will likely change as the governor’s deadline approaches.

Drilling opponents said they hope the governor will seek to keep gas rigs off the surface of the Roan, and the BLM will listen.

“He’s the head of the state government and represents the people in Colorado,” Neubecker said. “His voice, I hope, would be important in protecting the resources on top of the Roan in the face of, really, this juggernaut of oil and gas development in western Colorado.”

Law prevents work to clear pollution

http://www.gazette.com/articles/water_30226___article.html/mine_law.html

By R. SCOTT RAPPOLD

THE GAZETTE

November 27, 2007

In the mountains above the Keystone ski resort, a legacy of the past continues to pollute the future.

From the 1880s through the 1940s, the Pennsylvania Mine was one of Summit County’s most profitable. Today, all it produces is acidic and metal-laden drainage water that poisons creeks, kills fish and confounds local officials.

For nearly 15 years, the federal law meant to clean sources of water pollution such as the Pennsylvania Mine has actually prevented work to improve the water.

A 1993 court ruling said that, under the Clean Water Act, anyone who tries to remediate water at an abandoned mine becomes legally liable for discharges there forever. The ruling halted efforts by the state to clean drainage from the Pennsylvania Mine and ensured that little water cleanup was done at any of Colorado’s other 23,000 abandoned mines.

A decade of efforts to pass a socalled “good Samaritan” law, legal protection for groups and government agencies who want to clean up mines, has failed, mainly because of resistance from environmental groups. Both of Colorado’s U.S. senators backed such a measure last year.

“The Clean Water Act was written and designed to clean up problems like this, and it’s the only thing stopping us from doing it, and it’s so unfortunate,” said Elizabeth Russell, mine restoration coordinator for Trout Unlimited, which wants to be a good Samaritan at the Pennsylvania Mine.

A recent report on Colorado water quality pointed to abandoned mines as a major cause of heavy metal contamination in creeks running down from the high country. Most of the mining companies no longer exist, so there is nobody to hold responsible.

There are a host of nonprofit organizations, local governments and state agencies that would like to get involved in cleanup efforts, particularly in areas such as Summit County where dead, brown waterways like Peru Creek at the Pennsylvania Mine could be bad for tourism. But assuming the legal liability for all future discharges – in today’s litigious society – is a risk none will take.

While it may seem a good Samaritan law may be a nobrainer, like most issues of environmental law, it is not.

When Colorado’s U.S. senators, Republican Wayne Allard and Democrat Ken Salazar, backed a bill in 2006 to remove parts of the law that discourage cleanup, it drew opposition from environmental groups.

The groups worried changes could allow mining companies to come back into the mines and renew operations and not be responsible for discharges. The opposition was enough to kill the legislation, and it looks unlikely any will advance in 2007.

It’s an issue dividing environmentalists.

Russell said she recognizes the concern other environmental groups have about weakening the law. But, she said, “We’re the only ones out there trying to do the darn cleanup.”

At the Pennsylvania Mine, the lack of legislation has forced cleanup advocates to get creative.

Plans are in the works to create a nonprofit organization, the Snake River Water Foundation, that will take over ownership of a water treatment facility outside the mine. The foundation will have little cash or assets, so it is hoped no one would bother to sue it under the Clean Water Act.

“Nobody’s going to sue them because they don’t have anything to be sued for. There’s no money,” Russell said.

Numerous groups, government agencies and ski resorts are involved in the effort, though not Denver Water, because there are no human health issues for Lake Dillon reservoir downstream of the mine, which serves the water supplier.

It’s not the ideal way of doing cleanups – it’s taken 15 years to reach this point, and plans for the treatment facility still haven’t been drawn up. It will cost from $500,000 to $1.5 million, Russell said.

But, for now, it’s the only way of cleaning up the polluted water rolling down from the mines of yesteryear.