July 21, 2010 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, Water, Wildlife
A Denver-based federal team fighting invasive freshwater mussels is investigating new and hopeful treatments, including poison, blasts of ultra-violet light and shock waves, and the introduction of a mussel-destroying predatory sunfish.
The researchers testing these tactics say some seem to work and, if proved, could save tens of millions of dollars by protecting western hydropower and water delivery facilities against the proliferating Eurasian quagga and zebra mussels.
“Once the mussels are there, this would help control them,” said U.S. Bureau of Reclamation mussel program coordinator Leonard Willett, who this week was supervising tests at dams along the lower Colorado River.
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July 11, 2010 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, Water
Front Range authorities poised to divert more western Colorado water to the east face opponents rallying around the mountain lake.
With current diversions already suspected by some of mucking up Grand Lake’s water, any new water removals — such as those proposed by Denver Water and the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District — could degrade the lake intolerably, opposition groups and Grand County officials contend.
“I know (Front Range residents) want to take showers, but we have to co-exist. They can’t destroy the beauty here — which is probably part of why they came to Colorado in the first place,” said Pat Raney, 66, one of a dozen or so volunteers who test water quality.
Lying on her belly on the deck of a rocking pontoon boat on the lake, Raney lowered a disc used to measure underwater visibility: “7 feet 4 inches,” she reported to fellow volunteers. “Color is brown.”
That’s less one third of the 30-feet visibility documented in 1941 before diversions here began.
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July 5, 2010 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, Water
Denver-area authorities are embarking on $760 million worth of massive water-treatment projects, to convert substandard water into drinkable new supplies.
The projects are driven by scarcity — the growing difficulty of drawing sufficient new supplies from mountain snowpack — and by rapid depletion of groundwater wells that some metro residents rely on.
Water providers say they also increasingly are detecting new contaminants, such as pharmaceutical residues from birth-control pills, cosmetics and antidepressants, that they anticipate might have to be removed.
“We’re preparing for the future. There’s still expected to be a lot of growth along Colorado’s Front Range. That’s what these plants are for,” said Steve Witter, water resources manager for the Arapahoe County Water and Wastewater Authority.
“And there may be more contaminants in the water, which we will need to treat,” Witter said.
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June 20, 2010 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, Water
Colorado River water consumed yearly for agriculture and by the 30 million Westerners who rely on it now exceeds the total annual flow.
A growing awareness of that limited flow is leading to increased scrutiny of urban development — especially projects that require diverting more water to the east side of the Continental Divide.
“We’re no longer in a surplus situation,” said Bill McDonald, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s deputy commissioner for policy and budget. “The teeter-totter has tipped.”
Federal data show that the average annual use of Colorado River water (15.4 million acre-feet) has surpassed the average annual supply (14.5 million acre-feet) in the river.
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May 20, 2010 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, Land, Pollution, Water
Denver-area water providers are pressuring state mining regulators to force Cotter Corp. to clean up a defunct uranium mine contaminating groundwater and a creek that flows into a major reservoir.
The latest water-quality tests showed that Ralston Creek below Schwartzwalder mine carried as much as 390 parts per billion of uranium, which is 13 times higher than the 30 ppb health standard. Contamination of groundwater at the source — inside the mine — exceeded the standard by 1,000 times.
Drinking water remains safe, authorities say, because uranium is removed from Ralston Reservoir water by municipal water treatment plants.
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April 16, 2010 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, Land, Pollution, Water
A defunct uranium mine in Jefferson County is contaminating groundwater near a reservoir, but government regulators and mine executives have yet to settle on a plan for cleanup.
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February 17, 2010 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, Water
Federal engineers Tuesday began scrutinizing a developer’s proposal to divert water from western Wyoming across the Continental Divide to meet Colorado Front Range needs through 2030.
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December 21, 2009 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Water
Colorado Front Range residents are using less water, but some parts of the Western Slope have seen per capita water use explode in the past decade, according to a new state study.
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December 9, 2009 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, Water
Denver has hit turbulence in its biggest water-supply project since the 1960s — a $225 million effort to prevent future shortages. Denver Water proposes to divert enough for 45,000 families from mountain rivers on the western side of the Continental Divide, then pump it through tunnels to Front Range reservoirs, including an expanded Gross Reservoir above Boulder. But the plan requires federal approval, and at public hearings, opponents concerned about environmental harm have argued that Denver must rely more on using less water — not pump more from the mountains.
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December 6, 2009 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Water
State water stewards have continued to permit groundwater pumping south of Denver, despite data and near universal agreement that underground water levels are falling and the resource is being depleted.
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For 20 years, journalist Bruce Finley has investigated local, national and international issues with on-site reporting in more than 40 countries. A staff writer for 