Climate Change in the West

Long, but informative article on climate change in the West. Will Colorado look like New Mexico in 30 years?

Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory comes to life

CSU, CU, Mines and NREL have teamed up to create a consortium to develop renewable energy technology. Thanks to Sen. Salazar and Gov. Owens, the group will receive state money for three years to help it qualify for federal and private projects. New technology will hopefully be spun off into industry and the collaboratory will earn money from its work.

Salazar leads way to get old mines cleaned up

Sen. Salazar joined with Sen. Allard to put together a bill that would remove any liability from companies cleaning up mines that are sources of pollution but are not super fund sites. This seems like a good bill. Any one who drives the high country will agree that those mines are scattered all over the place, and it would be good to stop them from polluting high country streams.

Uranium mine gets new life near Montrose

Denver's Cotter Corp. is in negotiations to rev up mining again as Japanese officials seek out new sources of uranium to make yellow cake for reactors. The Montrose area mines had seen sizeable layoffs with a crew of 50 or remaining as a skeleton crew.

The Cotter Corp. also had a mine near Canon City, which is now a toxic mess.

Sharyn Cunningham is the co-chairwoman of the Colorado Citizens Against Toxicwaste Inc., the group that bird-dogs Cotter. She said:

she is worried about Cotter's ability to safely operate the mill and mines given concerns about possible leaks at its tailing ponds. The productivity of the mines is also in doubt.

"When Cotter went on standby, they were having problems with getting ore that was high enough in uranium content and processing a good enough product," Cunningham said. "It seems like they are putting the cart before the horse in finding a buyer before they have resolved the production problems."

Speed limits on Colorado 13 reduce wildlife-car collisions

Night time speed limits have reduced the amout of wildlife-car collisions along Colorado 13, which is well known for its large number of deer and elk that regularly cross the highway. So far, nobody has complained, as it seems this is normal for drivers in the area to slow down at night.

Boulder takes the greenhouse bull by the horns

The city of Boulder leads the way in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Hopefully other cities will follow suit. Denver in particular need help with its older housing stock, where the windows and heating are troublesome.

Go Roadless

Enviro groups have organized a 'Go Roadless Day' where people are invited to hike any of the 84 roadless areas in the White River NF, and then write to the forest adminstrators about why they think the area should remain roadless. Look for the counter group to get started quickly.

Water today in the news

Ray Petros, Denver water lawyer who consults for the city of Pueblo, proposed that Colorado Springs build a system of small reservoirs along Fountain Creek to store the water it needs, rather than building a pipeline up from Pueblo Reservoir. The problem, is that:

"We’re talking about aggravating a bad situation," Petros said. "With the increase in return flows and the increase in stormwater runoff, the streamflows will be multiple times what it once was."

Which means more of the land along Fountain Creek eroding away. Petros needs to talk to geologists first, I think. Fountain Creek runs through sand, and it's tough to build water storage in the stream without the water slipping underneath any impound structures. The 'lakes' as he calls it would need to be lined, an expensive proposition.

The Chieftain also carries an article about the owner of Pikes Peak Vinyards, an vinyard that turned to golf after grapes proved too difficult to grow. While a winery is still present, processing grapes from western Colorado, the golf course is drying up as wells have failed. The owner, Bruce McGlaughlin, has turned to pumping directly from Fountain Creek to keep the greens growing. Seems that the development around the area, particularly the world arena near the Broadmoor have diverted the groundwater flow into Fountain Creek from a wetland and piped it directly to Fountain Creek in a trash strewn ditch. This is unfortunately very typical of Colorado Springs.

McGlaughlin describes seeing eagles in the massive cottonwoods before the trees died from the water table plunging, which seems plausible to me if they hunted prairie dogs in the area. He also talks about the city removing beaver dams, which makes my imagination crank with idea of what the area would look like if they were turned loose.

Candidate for governor Bill Ritter announced that he believes that cities should plan growth based on water limits. He also supports legislation that would allow water court judges to consider water quality when a change in use permit is considered.

Dust, and air pollution today in the news

Great follow up in the Summit Daily on dust deposition from grazed and run over soils in Utah, and how they are blown onto the snowpack in Colorado, where they speed up the spring melt in the Southern Rockies, particularly the San Juans. Governor Owens, where are you on this one? Talk to the BLM in Utah about this.

Meanwhile, the state has proposed new air quality regs on oil and gas producers to reduce ozone causing emissions from wells drilled in Weld County, in order to avoid slipping into 'non-attainment', a federal designation that means costly measures to clean up the air. Wells in Weld County affect the attainment level, but all wells in the state would be regulated. This is a welcome measure.

Panelists took a shot at Owens over at the Climate Change and Future of the American West conference at CU-Denver, saying that his administration has done little compared to other states, particularly Arizona and New Mexico, to inventory and begin reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Owens spokesman, Dan Hopkins countered:

Here in Colorado, Gov. Owens has tackled climate change in several ways, Hopkins said Friday.

He supported an updated inventory of greenhouse-gas sources in 2000 and another due this year. In July 2005, he issued an executive order directing state agencies to start an energy management program to increase efficiency. In addition, the Governor's Office of Energy Management and Conservation has supported numerous efforts to conserve energy, increase the use of renewable energy sources, and decrease the use of fossil fuels.

It seems that the goals of New Mexico and Arizona to begin reducing emissions by 75% and 50 %, respectively by 2050, are going to be tough to meet.

Sage Grouse fight moves to the next level

A coalition of environmental groups as well as San Miguel County announced that they will sue the Fish and Wildife Service to get Gunnison's Sage Grouse listed on the endangered species list. The USFWS dropped it from the candidate list, meaning that it's not even being considered as endangered. Population levels are stable, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't threatened to begin with. This is probably a nod to the state led group that attempts to head off the listing.

EPA gives rural areas free rein to make dust the air

I'm not sure what brought this on, but the EPA announced that it would not require rural areas or cities of less than 100,000 to meet any air quality standards for coarse dust. Was this regulation ever enforced? Any dirt road with heavy traffic, like a mine, or stockyards with manure floating in the air now have a free pass. Both Colorado environmental officials, such as Margie Perkins, director of air pollution control at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and the EPA's own scientific advisory panel, a committee that includes Dr. James Crapo of National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, oppose the move to de-regulate dust.

Oil and gas companies warned about ozone levels on Front Range

Looks like the Front range may slip out of attainment and violate federal air quality standards if oil and gas companies drilling in Weld and Adams counties don't figure out a way to reduce ozone pollution coming from their wells. Industry spokesman were quoted as saying it was due to bigger reasons and that their contribution is small, but no one in the article says what those out of state sources are and where they're coming from.

Oil shale on the brain

The oil shale hearings are still reverberating, with the GJ Sentinel's take on the 'gold rush' mood, and profiles a few of the people who believe oil shale is now.

Another article mentions how drilling is now the preferred method for extracting oil from shale by heating it in place, and allowing the oil to bubble to the top. One of Shell's ideas is to heat the rock to 700 degree F, and pump it to the surface. Meanwhile, it will be encased in ice, so that ground water doesn't go into the oil area and contaminate the oil and vice versa. Something doesn't quite add up here. Are we really going to get enough energy to make it worth it? Somehow I think it's going to take nuclear power to actually make it go forward, which I'm not excited about.

I'm wondering why too that the BLM is trying to lease every square inch of ground possible for drilling for natural gas and oil shale. Who is the person responsible for this? My guess is that they want to get the leases out, because once the ground is leased, it is much more difficult for enviros to challenge the drilling activity.

Some are saying that there isn't enough water for oil shale processing. All of the oil shale is in the Colorado River Basin, and all of that water is spoken for, even twice in some cases. Oil

Oil shale all over

Oil shale was all over the the paper's this weekend. The Salt Lake Tribune covers the hearings here, and notes that an EIS is due by the end of 2007. There are a lot of questions to answer before that happens, IMHO.

Deseret News details how Romit Bhattacharya, chief executive officer of Oil Tech, claims that oil shale can be processed profitably at $40 a barrel for oil. There's got to be more details than this. How much does it cost to make it comparable to light sweet crude? What is it really worth? Shell says it will be four years before they can determine if oil shale can be processed profitably. How do these guys at Oil Tech know more than Shell does? I would keep my investment money close.

USA Today weighs in, with more commentary about the feasibility of profitably extracting oil from oil shale.

Early results are promising, says Terry O'Connor, a vice president in the oil giant's [Shell] unconventional resource division. But, he admits, “no one has been able to develop oil shale on a commercially sustainable basis.” Shell has four more years of research here before it will know if it has the answer.

And:

A RAND Corp. study last year for the Energy Department said that “the prospects for oil shale development are uncertain,” though new technology could make it competitive with conventional oil. Producing 3 million barrels a day — about 15% of U.S. consumption — “is probably more than 30 years into the future,” the study said.

Among the possible negative effects cited by RAND were large- scale land disruption, air pollution, a large population influx in a rural area, and a huge demand for water in a region where it's scarce and, as Salazar said, “as precious as oil.”

Randy Udall, of the Community Office for Resource Efficiency that promotes energy conservation in Carbondale, Colo., pointed out another drawback: the huge demand for electricity to cook the shale. “To do 100,000 barrels a day … we would need to build the largest power plant in Colorado history.”

My guess is that a nuclear power plant will be needed to process oil shale.

No snowmobiles in streams

Routt NF officials are warning snowmobilers to pack it up rather ride through streams and over snow less than 12 inches thick. Apparently, the damage it does is similar to ORV's.

GJ Sentinel says keep all roadless areas road free

Supportive editorial here.

Oil shale jaw boning

Hearings go on about oil shale, and if oil shale is ever economically valuable, I would expect the area in Western Colorado to resemble West Virgina, except on a much larger scale. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico) has found an issue to bulldog, it seems, much like Tancredo creating the immigration crisis. Domenici tries to talk up the value of oil shale, even linking it to patriotism, which smacks of desperation to me.

I hope there was laughter when Sen. Hatch said:

... he feels that laws such as the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act that have been enacted since the oil shale boom and bust of the 1970s and '80s will ensure the judicious development of oil shale this time around


Good luck to Mesa County Commissioner Craig Meis:

 Meis said that his
growing county stands ready to do its part to help the nation's energy
crunch, "but we in northwest Colorado will not be a national sacrifice
zone."


Colorado Department of Natural Resources director Russ George is getting edgy about making sure Colorado calls some of the shots. But with the concept of local control forever dead to the Bush administration, I'm not sure he'll able to do much, even if he sets up a special task force.

Water today in Colorado

Water use in Colorado Springs is up 33%, due to population growth, and that 2006 is shaping up to be the dryest since 1990.

It's also the first year the city has tried block rates that seek to penalize the largest water users. Half of Colorado Springs water is used for landscape irrigation. Do you hear that, Pueblo?

Meanwhile, the Colorado Water Conservation Board has launched a study about the feasilibity of storing water underground, presumably in existing aquifers. This seems to be a much better alternative than Two Forks, and yet I wonder if we will see many more years with our existing reservoirs at capacity.

Differing opinions on the effects of a deal between Xcel and Denver Water that would relax Xcel's call on water for their Shoshone hydropower plant in Glenwood Canyon. Denver Water would be able to keep some of the water high in Clayton Gulch Reservoir when storage levels became really low.


Grand Junction and Palisade are trying to get the ship back in port on natural gas drilling  in their watersheds. Good luck to them. Grand Junction even tried to bid on BLM gas leases on Grand Mesa, which went as high as $300 an acre when the Grand Junction representative dropped out. Neighboring parcels went for $20 to $40 an acre. Not sure what happened here, but I'm not hopeful anyone can stand in the way of the oil and gas juggernaut that the Bush administration put into motion thanks to Cheney. Indeed, a good chunk of Colorado will be a sacrifice zone if oil shale ever becomes valuable. The town of Silt was just the first casualty.

More on roadless areas in Durango Herald

Additional reporting on CDOW director Bruce McCloskey's letter endorsing his staff recommendations that all remaining roadless areas in Colorado stay that way.

Rancher busted for mistreating legal guest workers

The Dickinson family is well known as the most vocal of the public land ranchers in Northwest Colorado. T. Wright, who is on the board of Great Outdoors Colorado, is a real headache for the Park Service at Dinosaur National Monument. He also has been a vocal opponent of wolf recovery in Colorado. For the period 1994-2005 the family has received almost $200,000 in subsidies for their ranches in Wyoming and Colorado.

I wouldn't be surprised if he has political ambitions, which might be held back a little because of this.

Park Service tells state nitrogen too high

The superintendent of RMNP, Vaughn Baker, wrote the state saying that a new air quality standard for nitrogen is needed, but unfortunately the park service can only make recommendations to the state, and the state can do what it wants.

Impacts of excess nitrogen in the air are many:

For two decades, scientists have been warning about nitrogen buildup in the 415-square-mile Rocky Mountain National Park, as well as surrounding regions. If unaddressed, researchers have said, nitrogen pollution would mimic the effects of acid rain, an environmental problem tied to power plant emissions and infamous for killing forests and sterilizing waterways in the eastern United States and parts of Europe.

Current nitrogen levels are 15 to 20 times higher than estimated natural background levels, Baker said in his letter to state health officials. Measured levels of deposition have been rising about 2.5 percent per year over the past 20 years, he said.

Baker highlighted pollution impacts already documented at the park, including changes in aquatic plant species favoring those that thrive in nutrient-rich waters; changes in spruce tree chemistry that raise susceptibility to disease, insect infestation, drought and cold; and long- term accumulation of nitrogen in forest soils, a scenario that can fuel even faster rises in nitrogen levels.

The Daily Camera covers it here.

CDOW director all for roadless areas staying roadless

The GJ Sentinel details how the director of the Colorado Division of Wildlife director, Bruce McCloskey, has taken a huge professional risk and come out in support of protecting the remaining roadless areas left in the state. In our times, it seems like a big deal, but in reality the remaining roadless areas are essentially leftovers, that no extractive industry wanted, and that the ORV'rs have chewed up yet. I'm not sure what Owens position is on this, but perhaps he has started to hear from the backcountry hunters tired of Texans on four wheelers chasing down elk. I hope his comments are taken seriously, and that he keeps his job.

Next roadless meeting will be held at the Hotel Colorado on June 21st. Glenwood PI gives info here.

Wolf Creek decision makes no one happy

Did the Forest Service take the easy way out? Essentially, the new proposed ski area is delayed for a few years, and then we're back at it again. Maybe that's enough time for a new administration to change a few things.

Chieftain article here gives better background info.

WIll Toor in USA Today

The environmental practices of the family former Boulder Mayor Will Toor are profiled in USA Today. Encouraging what one family can do. Go Will!