TU calls on Army Corps to include protections for Fraser River

Trout Unlimited and its grassroots members today called on the Army Corps of Engineers to include a river protection package recently approved by stakeholders in the final federal permit for Denver Water’s Moffat project. For more than a decade, Trout Unlimited has closely monitored the water diversion project, concerned about potential impacts on Colorado River headwater streams and their valuable wild trout fisheries. In March, TU, Denver Water and Grand County announced agreement on the Mitigation and Enhancement Coordination Plan (MECP) for Moffat. All sides hailed the stakeholder agreement as a breakthrough that balances municipal needs and environmental health.

At the time, TU emphasized that the effectiveness of this agreement depends on its formal incorporation into the final permit—a point reiterated by TU and its grassroots member during the recent public comment period for the Final Environmental Impact Statement for Moffat, which ended Monday, June 9.

“We believe that implementation of the MECP, as a whole, provides the best opportunity to prevent impacts and improve conditions in the areas most impacted by the Moffat Project,” wrote Mely Whiting, counsel for TU, in TU’s comment letter to the Corps.

The multiparty agreement offers several protections that TU says need to be included with this project. The key features include:

• Water is made available to address elevated stream temperatures on the Fraser and Ranch Creek;
• Denver uses its operating flexibility to provide flushing flows to cleanse streams;
• Ongoing monitoring of stream health, and adaptive management using water and financial resources provided by Denver Water – and leveraged by other partners;
• Commitment to this monitoring and management program—called “Learning by Doing”—through the project’s federal permit.

The centerpiece of the agreement is the Learning by Doing program, overseen by a management team that includes Denver Water, Grand County, Trout Unlimited, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the Colorado River District and the Middle Park Water Conservancy District. Upon the project permit being issued, the management team will implement an extensive monitoring program to assess stream health based on specific parameters including stream temperature, aquatic life and riparian vegetation health. Water, financial and other resources committed by Denver Water through project mitigation, the Colorado River Cooperative Agreement and other agreements will be deployed to prevent declines and improve conditions where needed.

In recent weeks, hundreds of TU members have written to the Army Corps, calling on the agency to formally include the MECP agreement in the permit requirements.

“Though I now live in Georgia, I have spent much of my life in Colorado trout streams, and I can attest first hand that further damage to the Fraser will destroy a national treasure,” said Richard Tatem.

“This agreement, the Mitigation and Enhancement Coordination Plan, will protect a river which has been allowed to deteriorate for the past decade,” wrote Jim Belknap, a TU member and Colorado native who grew up in the Fraser Valley. “I have witnessed water temperatures reach dangerous levels while fishing the river the past few years; I have also seen more dead fish in the river—most likely due to the stress of being caught and released in too warm of water. This is a tragic misuse of Colorado's resources, and is resulting in the loss of one of the most beautiful river systems in Colorado. Please help restore the Fraser River to a healthy, thriving river-the type of attribute of Colorado's natural beauty, which has always been one of the state's greatest attractions and economic strengths.”

“I have fished the Fraser River for 20 years and the new Moffat Tunnel would be disastrous unless you make the Mitigation and Enhancement Coordination Plan (MECP) part of the federal permit,” wrote Tom Ciaglo of Louisville, CO.

Several other conservation groups—including Western Resource Advocates, American Rivers, the Sierra Club, and Conservation Colorado—have joined TU in calling for inclusion of the MECP in the final record of decision for the Moffat permit.

Shane Cross, Western Energy Counsel, Sportsmen's Conservation Project

Howdy folks. I am Western Energy Counsel for Trout Unlimited. I work on energy issues, and primarily I work with oil and gas companies and policy makers to promote and support oil and gas development that protects the places we love to hunt and fish. When I tell people I am a lawyer, they often think that my job is to litigate or try cases. While that used to be true, here at TU I think that if I’m litigating I’m not doing my job very well. We believe that fish and wildlife and oil and gas development can all thrive together in the West. And it’s my job to help figure out how we can achieve high value in all three areas while working cooperatively.

We work with oil and gas companies in three primary ways. First, we communicate and collaborate on the front end of planning and policy. For example, when I’m going to submit comments on a Resource Management Plan, I’ll call up the operators I know in the area and identify my concerns before I submit the comments. More often than not, the operators can relate to our concerns and offer suggestions of how we can strengthen our comments while not putting unreasonable prohibitions on industry. This helps to build trust with industry and to identify ways we can work together. For instance, we recently co-signed a letter with the Colorado Oil and Gas Association asking the COGCC to prioritize inspections of wells near riparian areas.

Second, we partner with energy companies on restoration and reconnection projects.  Oil and gas companies often want to contribute to wildlife projects in the area they are operating or are required to undertake mitigation as part of a development. We can identify and provide opportunities for companies to contribute to these projects. In Routt and Moffatt County, Shell Oil recently contributed to and volunteered on two of Brian Hodge’s restoration projects, and we are evaluating a third project with XTO Energy.

Third, we seek to collaborate with oil and gas companies to recommend BMPs and areas to project during development projects. For example, in Lake Canyon, Utah, we worked with Berry Petroleum to identify and evaluate road access routes and BMPs for a development near a CRCT brood fishery. Berry was responsive to our concerns, implemented a closed loop drilling system, and communicated with us throughout the construction process. We are currently seeking similar partnerships in the Thompson Divide, Northwest Colorado, and Eastern Utah.

Energy companies also support our educational programs. Suncor contributes to Garrett’s Trout in the Classroom projects in Colorado, and ConocoPhillips has funded Conservation and Culture programs in New Mexico. Fish and wildlife and energy production are both vital to the West.

As a lifelong rancher, I understand that both energy development and fish and wildlife are vital to our way of life in the West. I am fortunate to work for an organization that recognizes the importance of collaboration, and am looking forward to working with you to continue to identify opportunities to partner with industry to protect our hunting and fishing.

--- Shane Cross, Western Energy Counsel, Sportsmen's Conservation Project scross@tu.org, 307.359.3080

Why Colorado's headwaters matter

There is a bedrock natural law that anglers and most people understand as common sense-all waters are connected. If we trash or pollute a creek upstream, it could affect downstream conditions as well. That's why the newly proposed rule from the Environmental Protection Agency and Corps of Engineers to restore the coverage of the Clean Water Act is so important to Colorado's quality of life...

Colorado is a headwaters state and we understand that these headwater creeks, while small, are vital to the health of our watersheds, wildlife, and water supply. Their health shapes the condition of everything else downstream. They serve as the lifeblood of Colorado's recreation economy.

In Colorado alone, about 75 percent of rivers and streams-some 76,000 miles of waterways-are seasonal or ephemeral in nature and thus could fall outside the net of CWA protection, putting them at the mercy of filling and dredging operations, oil spills, toxic industrial waste and unregulated development...

Our waters, large and small, are interconnected-and to pretend otherwise is to invite disaster. When we allow polluters to dump toxins or trash upstream waters, we can expect pollution and devastation downstream, in our most prized rivers and streams.

Let's support the Clean Water Act's commonsense protection of our most precious heritage-our home waters.

To read the rest of David Nickum's Guest Commentary, please visit The Denver Post.

Help Save the Fraser - Take Action Today!

The Fraser River is a tributary to the Colorado River and an outstanding wild trout river in its own right.  It is also a stream that has been impacted by years of diversions, with Denver Water taking about 60 percent of its natural flows to supply water to the Front Range. They’ve proposed to take another 15 percent of the river through an expansion of their Moffat Tunnel diversion. For the last 8 years, Trout Unlimited has been working hard to make sure that approval of Denver’s Moffat expansion project only happens if the Fraser River and its tributaries are protected and their degraded condition improved. Recently, TU, Grand County and Denver Water agreed on a long-term package of protections for the Fraser basin. Under the plan, Denver would provide funds and water to help address impacts based on an ongoing monitoring and adaptive management program called "Learning by Doing".

This agreement offers the promise of a healthy Fraser River far into the future. Now we need the Army Corps to lock in these protections by including them as requirements in their federal permit for the Moffat Project.  You can help by clicking here and submitting comments through our online action alert.  It is quick and easy - and your voice will make a difference!