2019 Request for Water Process. In January, the Colorado Water Conservation Board and Colorado Water Trust opened up the second year of their Request for Water Process. The Request for Water Process streamlines and enhances an existing CWCB program that provides benefits to water right owners for using their water rights to help keep rivers and watersheds healthy. The Request for Water Process website has the details and resources to answer your questions HERE. Contact the Water Trust at (720) 570-2897 or send an email to RFW@ColoradoWaterTrust.org with specific questions. The deadline for submitting preliminary water right offers is June 30th, 2019.
Colorado is officially drought free this month, but the state’s reservoirs are still struggling to recover, with statewide storage registering just 90 percent of average, well below the 111 percent mark it registered last year on April 30. To read Water Education Colorado’s full article, click HERE.
Regulation 84 stakeholder meeting notes and an updated draft Reg. 84 proposal from the Colorado Dept. of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), Water Quality Control Division (WQCD) are posted HERE.
The May 2019 Drought Update, a summary of the drought information presented at the May 14 Water Availability Task Force Meeting is posted on the CWCB website. All of the presentations from the meeting can also be found on the CWCB website.
The Colorado River just got a boost that’s likely to prevent its depleted reservoirs from bottoming out, at least for the next several years. For the full AZ Central article and a video about this update, head HERE.
Help Middle Colorado Watershed Council’s project with a 5 minute survey! The Integrated Water Management Plan (IWMP) is an on-going project-identifying plan that needs your support! Do you recreate on the river at all? Fish? Swim? Boat? Riverside picnic? Take their river users survey to begin to help quantify just how much waterways are used for recreation and enjoyment. Want to learn more about the IWMP? Visit this quick Post Independent column HERE.
Center for Health & Environmental Justice is exploring the possibility of working on a national campaign around water contamination. Several bills related to clean water have been introduced last year. These relate to testing school pipes, testing and repairing pipes within HUD housing, and testing and repairing older pipes in cities and towns that need new infrastructures. They are monitoring water related legislation that will be reintroduced this year. CHEJ would like to understand better where and what water concerns people in the network have in terms of drinking water, infrastructure and contaminated water sources. Please LET THEM KNOW whether or not there is a water related issue in your community, even if you are not working on it at this time.
Call for Abstracts and Symposia Riparian Restoration Conference | Abstracts due October 31, 2019. RiversEdge West invites you to share your work or session proposals with the riparian restoration community at the 18th Annual Riparian Restoration Conference (RRC)—one of the leading riparian restoration conferences in the West—to be held February 4-6, 2020 in Grand Junction, CO. View the call for abstracts flyer HERE.