Public has until April 29 to comment on Southern Delivery System evaluation. "One problem with the EIS, noted by Drew Peternell, director of Trout Unlimited’s Colorado Water Project, is that it measures all of the alternatives against a no-action alternative, which Colorado Springs revised in 2007."
First in a series. http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1206252000/3
A proposed $431 million dam and reservoir project north of Fort Collins riles those who see it as a disastrous strangling of the picturesque Cache la Poudre River. http://origin.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_8664957
March 13, 2008
Sportsmen vow to seek legislative solution to protecting fish and game habitat RIFLE—Hunters and anglers across Colorado expressed disappointment on Thursday with a federal Bureau of Land Management decision to disregard input from the state’s Department of Natural Resources and push ahead with plans to lease public lands atop the Roan Plateau for natural gas drilling. However, members of Sportsmen for the Roan Plateau, a coalition of hunting and angling groups from all over the state, view the BLM decision as an opportunity to work closely with the state and its federal delegation to arrive at a solution that protects intact habitat for native trout and trophy herds of deer and elk on the Roan. “It’s unfortunate the BLM has chosen not to implement stronger protections when it comes to critical fish and wildlife habitat on the Roan,” said Ken Neubecker, a Carbondale resident and Vice President of Colorado Trout Unlimited, one of the coalition’s member organizations. “In 2003 the BLM has acknowledged in its review of environmentally critical areas on the Roan Plateau that Colorado River cutthroats need watershed scale protection, but now the agency is unwilling to provide the full level of protection that these rare trout warrant.” In December 2007, the state submitted recommendations that would have altered the BLM’s plans to allow drilling in areas atop the Roan critical to fragile populations of native Colorado River cutthroat trout, as well as habitat used extensively by mule deer, elk, black bears, mountain lions and other wildlife. The state proposed increasing the acreage dubbed “areas of critical environmental concern,” a move that would have been a step in the right direction for protecting places important to fish, wildlife and sportsmen. “Gov. Ritter outlined a thoughtful compromise proposal in December. Almost three months later, the BLM brushes aside the governor’s request and simply announces that it is sticking with its own unacceptable plan,” said Suzanne O’Neil of the Colorado Wildlife Federation, another member group of the coalition. “The BLM’s plan includes shrinking the areas of critical environmental concern for wildlife protection from the 36,000 acres recommended by the Division of Wildlife and endorsed by the governor, to 21,000 acres.” Sportsmen for the Roan Plateau will now focus its efforts on working with Colorado’s Congressional delegation. “I think the only way to get the message across to the BLM’s management is to achieve legislative protection for an area that, without it, will be forever changed for the worse,” said Corey Fisher, energy field coordinator for Trout Unlimited. “We are not against development in the region, but protecting entire drainages with cutthroat trout and not sacrificing big game habitat is critical in the BLM’s Roan Plateau Planning Area, an area that is just 1.5 percent of the natural gas-rich Piceance Basin.” Future legislation should protect big game winter range, fawning and calving habitats and migration corridors, as well as protecting entire drainages with Colorado River cutthroat trout including Northwater Creek, Trapper Creek and the East Fork of Parachute Creek. “Recent events show that even careful development of natural gas resources in terrain as challenging as that on the Roan can be disastrous,” said Fisher. He referenced the spill of at least 1.2 million gallons of drilling mud that occurred over the winter on private land just west of the Roan Plateau Planning Area—much of that potentially toxic material is contained within snow and ice on the west side of the plateau, and will make its way downstream into the West Fork of Parachute Creek and eventually the Colorado River with spring runoff. Parachute Creek does contain native cutthroat trout, as well as other introduced trout that could be impacted by the spill.
“Leasing and drilling in areas critical to these rare populations of cutthroat trout and to big game could spell doom for these wildlife populations, and the opportunity to fish and hunt for them.”
Contact: Corey Fisher, (970) 589-9196 - Suzanne O’Neill, (303) 919-3949 - Ken Neubecker (970) 376-1918
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
BY BOB BERWYNsummit daily news
A toxic brew of heavy metals has long been seeping from the mine’s shafts and tunnels, poisoning the water far downstream. Experts say there is no direct human health risk associated with the acid mine drainage. But concentrations of zinc are high enough to kill trout and other aquatic life several miles away at Keystone.
“This project could benefit from a Superfund designation,” said Elizabeth Russell, Trout Unlimited’s project manager for the cleanup.
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20080319/NEWS/265889981/0/FRONTPAGE
"Antibiotics and lotions, pills and hormones foul Colorado's water, from the most pristine alpine lakes to the downstream rivers, say water experts."
Originally published 02:19 p.m., March 10, 2008 Updated 12:23 a.m., March 11, 2008
"Denver draws its water supply for more than a million people from Rocky Mountain snow melt, so when traces of antibiotics and other "micro-constituents" were discovered, it was unexpected." by Steve Lipscher
The Denver Post - Op Ed by David Karan http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_8535460
March 2008 Trout Unlimited spent more time working on high level Colorado water policy -- helping draft visioning documents for the state's water committee, as well as working with staff and colleagues on a letter to the state about its role in funding non-traditional water projects with partial state ownership of the water rights.
We worked on producing some new Conservation Success Index type maps looking at restoration priorities based on projected climate change impacts as well as the costs of restoration for Colorado River cutthroats.
We did yet another talk on Rapanos, the US Supreme Court's decision that muddied the waters about the reach of the Clean Water Act.
Staff wrote comments for TU to the committee overseeing potential water court reform in Colorado, and met with one of the state's water referees who is helping TU by asking the same kind of questions we do for water rights applications where there are no opposers.
TU and the other parties to the Colorado water court proceedings to quantify the Black Canyon reserved water right are engaged in mediation. The court has stayed proceedings until April to allow negotiations to continue.
TU and others from the conservation community have helped to draft a bill that would that would more closely tie land use development (growth) to sustainable water supplies.
The Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) has released its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on Colorado Springs Southern Delivery System. The Water Project is working on preparation of comments on the EIS and will be discussing mitigation measures with BOR and Colorado Springs.
We have been advocating for three bills to strengthen the instream flow program in the 2008 legislative session. The bills are in the General Assembly process.
TU brought five Instream Flow (ISF) recommendations to the Colorado Water Conservation Board’s Instream Flow workshop. These were offered in cooperation with the Colorado Department of Wildlife (CDOW) and represent beginning of a year-long process that, hopefully, will end with ISF appropriations.
We are cooperating with the Dolores River Dialogue and the Colorado Division of Wildlife to look at the potential for doing some in channel restoration on the Dolores River below McPhee. Water Project staff and the CDOW are going to collect some pre- and post-spill data on sediments and channel morphometry to determine whether or not the extensive armoring can be reduced with substantial floods alone.
