Healing Troubled Waters - TU Climate Change Report

TU's climate change report, " Healing Troubled Waters" was released yesterday. You can download a copy, read the FAQ and related links at: www.tu.org/climatechange.

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 - SundayTHE [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.

Breaking impasse on water

Denver utility, W. Slope cut deal over Eagle River By Jerd Smith, Rocky Mountain News Wednesday, November 28, 2007 Denver Water will give up millions of gallons of water in the scenic Eagle River, water it had once counted on for future customers, under a legal settlement unveiled Wednesday.

In exchange, Denver preserves some of its water rights in the river and receives the right to participate in a new reservoir project at Wolcott, if all the parties, including Eagle County water users, agree it should be built.

The settlement is considered a breakthrough in the stalemate between Denver and the West Slope over how to serve both fast-growing regions without harming streams or allowing chronic water shortages to develop.

Denver Water is Colorado's largest water utility and serves 1.2 million people in the metro area.

The agreement is important for the West Slope because it leaves much of the water in question in the river, a move that will ensure supplies for fast-growing Vail and other Eagle County communities.

It also will help protect stream flows in the Eagle and the drought-strapped Colorado River, to which the Eagle is tributary.

"It's quite a step," said Brian Werner, a spokesman for the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, which serves Fort Collins and Boulder, among others. "It's probably the first significant movement we've seen in East/West talks in a long time." Northern is one of the parties to the settlement.

The Denver Water Board approved the terms of the proposal Wednesday. The other parties also have agreed to the terms.

Denver's director of planning, Dave Little, did not return calls seeking comment. Glenn Porzak, an attorney for the Eagle River Water and Sanitation District, which serves Vail, also did not return calls.

At issue are thousands of acre-feet of Eagle River water Denver claimed decades ago but hasn't used yet, largely because it hasn't needed it.

Last year the Eagle River district and others sued to force the utility to abandon its claim to the water, but Denver insisted during a trial this summer that it needed the water for its metro-area customers.

The case comes as water shortages loom on the Front Range and the Western Slope, with counties such as Eagle concerned that their scenic resort haven will be hurt if more water is moved to the Front Range, as is allowed under Colorado law.

Denver had discussed as recently as 2004 voluntarily giving up at least part of its future Eagle River supplies in exchange for getting Eagle County water users to support building a reservoir at Wolcott. But those talks fell apart as the drought lingered and friction between Denver and Western Slope water users increased. The lawsuit was filed in fall 2006.

Denver draws roughly half of its annual supplies from Western Slope rivers, including the Blue, in Summit County, and the Fraser, in Grand.

A modern approach to old water disputes

By The Denver PostArticle Last Updated: 12/01/2007 06:57:32 PM MST

The Colorado Water Conservation Board — the last redoubt of the state's traditional "water buffaloes" — may be moving to embrace 21st century economic and environmental values.

Gov. Bill Ritter named Jennifer Gimbel as the board's new director Tuesday. She served 10 years in the water and natural resources sections of the Colorado Attorney General's office before joining the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 2001. Gimbel is expected to be more open to recreational water uses than the man she replaces, recently retired director Rod Kuharich, who often led the board in opposing proposals for recreational uses such as kayak parks. Another board member who scoffed at recreational uses, rancher Tom Sharp, has been replaced by Geoff Blakeslee, the Yampa River project director for The Nature Conservancy.

Water use in Colorado rests on the rule, "First in time, first in right."

Essentially, the first person to put river water to "beneficial use" gains the perpetual right to use that water before later claimants. In times of shortage, such "senior" water users are allowed to use all their allotments while "junior" users get none.

That rule won't change — but the definition of "beneficial use" has been evolving. Originally, it meant to use the water up by irrigating an alfalfa field or a suburban lawn. When environmentalists began saying that minimum stream flows that protected fish and wildlife were themselves a beneficial use, the water buffaloes only harrumphed. Then tourist towns learned they could prosper by luring fishermen, rafters, and other recreational users to vibrant streams. That discovery pitted new economic interests against traditional users and recreational and environmental values are now recognized by law.

Kayakers and anglers don't consume the water they enjoy, so the conflict between uses can sometimes be resolved by regulating when and how water is released before its final consumption. The fact that the Water Conservation Board may make more sophisticated tradeoffs of our liquid gold's uses bodes well for our economy and environment alike.