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WATER AND WASTEWATER NEWS
News Courtesy of U.S. Water News Online
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| S. Colorado water pipeline schedule pushed back |
Construction of a $1.1 billion pipeline to carry water from Pueblo Dam to Colorado Springs has been pushed back by four years because of new estimates on when it will be needed.
The Colorado Springs City Council voted to delay the completion date of the 46-mile-long Southern Delivery System from 2012 to 2016.
The city-owned Colorado Springs Utilities told the council the latest estimates say the water won't be needed until 2017.
The council also voted in favor of routing the pipeline through Pueblo, instead of a more westerly route through nearby Fremont County.
The pipeline would supply the cities of Colorado Springs, Security and Fountain and the Pueblo West community.
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| Idaho issues water shutdown order |
The Idaho Department of Water Resources has issued an order that calls for shutting off groundwater wells across nearly 9,000 acres in southern Idaho.
The order was issued by the agency's interim director Gary Spackman and is effective July 31.
The shutdown would affect about 250 water right holders in Blaine, Cassia, Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln, Minidoka and Twin Falls counties.
The shutdown is part of an ongoing water call filed by a trout farm, which claims growth in pumping from the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer has decreased flows it is legally owed.
The state threatened to shutdown groundwater pumpers two years ago, but a last-minute deal averted a potential crisis.
The latest order would effect farmers, irrigators, businesses and cities.
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| Report says Calif. needs to think small to save water |
By investing in water-saving technology, California's drought-burdened farmers could save enough water annually to fill four times over a reservoir that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger supports building, according to a new report.
The study by the nonprofit Pacific Institute urges regulatory agencies and lawmakers to focus on farm investments rather than large infrastructure projects such as the Temperance Flat Reservoir. Doing so could ensure more reliable water supplies as a warming planet increases the length and frequency of droughts, the report suggested.
“We need to start thinking of investing in these efficiency improvements,” said lead author Heather Cooley. “That's what will give the biggest bang for the buck.”
California is suffering through its third year of drought. Fish species are declining in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta estuary and reductions in pumping water to farmers and municipal users have some clamoring for new reservoirs and canal systems to protect the state's $39 billion agriculture industry.
“This is one of the pieces that needs to be dealt with as we look at our water future, but it's not the piece that's going to save us,” said Doug Mosebar, president of the California Farm Bureau. “We need water storage, conservation and desalination.”
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| Water experts say mining near Grand Canyon is risky |
Uranium mining near the Grand Canyon would court disaster, risking damage to critical water supplies, local officials and water experts told a House panel.
A hydrologist who has been conducting research on springs in the canyon for 25 years told the House Natural Resources Committee's parks subcommittee that past mining polluted a stream that feeds the Colorado River, and that more pollution is likely should mining resume. A water utility manager said virtually all of Southern Nevada would be left without water supplies if a mining disaster should occur.
Two other scientists, however, said modern mining techniques have improved and development shouldn't be prohibited because of past mistakes.
The committee is considering a bill by Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., that would permanently bar the filing of new mining claims on 1.1 million acres of federal lands north and south of the canyon. Renewed interest in nuclear power has led to a surge in uranium mining claims in the area.
There are as many as 10,000 existing mining claims on nearby federal lands for all types of hard-rock exploration and some 1,100 uranium mining claims within five miles of the canyon.
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News Courtesy of U.S. Water News Online
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