The state Water Quality Control Commission reversed itself this week and agreed to consider tougher protections for urban streams, another sign of activists deploying recent environmental justice laws in safeguarding local water, land and air. The commission Monday unanimously accepted demands in a petition from a coalition of conservation and advocacy groups that they revisit […]
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Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Politics and Government, Water
Congressional infrastructure deal brings $8B in climate, water projects to the West
Colorado will benefit from billions of dollars in climate change and water projects in the $1.2 trillion infrastructure investment bill passed by the U.S. House late Friday, conservation groups said over the weekend, with some of the money shoring up drought-stretched obligations to the Colorado River Compact. More than $8.3 billion in water projects alone […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, Water
South Platte River gets no new protections after heated Water Quality Control Commission hearing
Public officials, conservation groups and citizen speakers pleaded with the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission Monday to reverse a 2020 decision and strengthen protections for the South Platte River in north Denver and Adams County, but the commissioners declined. Opponents of the commission’s decision last year thought they had one last chance in a “town […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Water
How water rights work in Colorado — and why severe drought makes them work differently
Whether you’re a kayaker or an angler or a hard-core gardener in Colorado, we get that this water thing is confusing. If the eastern half of the state is getting plenty of water and the western half is literally burning up, why are we still pumping so much water east over the divide to already-green […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Outdoors, Water
Bird count examines what happens when high-country Colorado irrigators use less water
By Heather Sackett, Aspen Journalism KREMMLING — In the gray light of dawn, hundreds of swallows darted over a pool of standing water in an irrigated field along the Colorado River. The birds were attracted to the early-morning mosquitos swarming the saturated landscape. Bill Vetter, a wildlife biologist with Wyoming-based Precision Wildlife Resources, methodically counted […]
Posted inNews
Wildlife officials ask anglers not to fish the Dolores River for the first time ever as rain fails to dent Western Slope drought
Devastating drought and disappearing runoff in far southwestern Colorado have prompted state officials to seek voluntary fishing restrictions on the Dolores River for the first time, and fish and wildlife leaders say they have their eye on potential closures of the Animas and San Juan rivers as well. Intense rain over the weekend — generating […]
Posted inEnvironment, News, Politics and Government, Water
Colorado refuses to ease rules for how much pollution gets discharged into rivers and streams
The state Water Quality Control Commission has delayed for at least a decade a controversial proposal that would have allowed further degradation of Colorado waters already challenged by pollution In a scheduled review of the state’s “antidegradation” provision — a key to the federal Clean Water Act — some on the commission had sought to […]
Posted inEnvironment, News
Industries could dump more pollution into Colorado rivers under proposed rule change that goes against recommendations
A year ago, the state’s water quality commissioners overruled not only their staff but other state agencies like Colorado Parks and Wildlife, along with a broad and very angry coalition of conservation groups. Now, according to the conservation groups, the commission is about to do the same thing again. Only this time, the river advocates […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Outdoors
Colorado closes popular stretch of Yampa River to fishing as Western Slope drought hits summer plans early
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials announced Monday they are closing a popular stretch of the Yampa River below Stagecoach Reservoir dam to prevent overfishing during the drought, an early sign that extremely dry conditions will challenge the Western Slope this summer. The state will close a 0.6 mile of the Yampa between the dam and […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Water
Controversial Chimney Hollow Dam project near Loveland moving forward after $15 million settlement
A complex Front Range dam-building project that includes transferring water from the Colorado River will move forward this summer after Northern Water agreed to a settlement putting $15 million in trust for waterway improvements in Grand County. Environmental opponents begrudgingly accepted the mediated settlement of their lawsuit against Northern Water’s Windy Gap Firming Project, which […]