<text>By John RobertsonJOURNAL POLITICS WRITERNot since the Albuquerque-toSanta Fe "bullet train" bas there been such a grand idea. Senate President Pro Tem Manny Aragon suggested on a radio call-in show Monday that tbe Rio Grande be dredged from Cochiti Lake to El Paso, creating a waterway deep enough for party boats and a river of economic gold for the state. "It's kind of a wild dream," the Albuquerque Democrat acknowledged in an interview Tuesday, conceding that he hasn't given much serious thought to cost, water rights or engineering issues. But he said he'll keep talking about the idea because the river is "one of tbe nicest resources we have" and could be one of the best for economic development."I've been thinking about that for quite a while," Aragon said. "Maybe we could have dinner on the Rio Grande . .. Maybe a stop along the way at a Socorro Hyatt Regency resort."Aragon said he's not talking about "hauling barges of coal up and down the river." Instead, he envisions party boats and other recreational craft plying the river, and perhaps a natural habitat stretch adjacent to the Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque."It could really put that natural resource to use," Aragon said.San Antonio's famed river park in Texas would be a "bathtub" in comparison, he said.Aragon mentioned his dredging idea while discussing New Mexico's economic and political climate on KOB-AM's "New Mexico Talks" program."I'm of the opinion New Mexico should quit chasing smokestacks," he said on the show, citing efforts to recruit major new industries. "I think we need to strengthen the businesses we have and assist them in expanding."Aragon suggested to the radio audience that those goals could be pursued by New Mexico becoming a leader in the development of natural gas-powered automobiles, and "by perhaps dredging the Rio Grande river from Cochiti Dam all the way to El Paso and making it navigable."But Aragon's concept of dredging the Rio Grande to create a waterway 10 to 12 feet deep seemed to leave water and engineering experts a little mind-boggled.Any party boat on the Rio Grande would "have to have a pretty low draft," said Dick Kreiner, chief of the reservoir-control section of the U.S. Corps of Engineers.Kreiner also noted the river is dry most of the summer from Isleta to San Acacia in Socorro County because of agricultural diversions.Kreiner said dredging the river channel below Cochiti probably would not be effective because it would soon fill with silt again.Jay Groseclose, deputy director of the Interstate Streams Commission, said Aragon's idea probably would require acquiring water rights.He and Kreiner estimated it would take about 43,636 acre-feet of water ΓÇö about one-fourth the capacity of El Vado reservoir upstreamΓÇöto fill a 100-foot-wide, 12-foot-deep channel from Cochiti to El Paso. Fill it just once, that is. A constant flow would require much more water.Groseclose noted that all water rights on the Rio Grande already are appropriated. The price for buying some of the existing rights could cost $1,000 per acre-foot, or more.Aragon acknowledged that his Rio Grande idea could carry a billion dollar price tag, and he's not suggesting that he'll try to fund it anytime soon. Basically, Aragon thinks the state should "start using the river more than we do" for economic development purposes.People laughed at the "bullet train" idea when Gov. Toney Anaya broached it in the early 1980s. But the Legislature this year appropriated $250,000 for study of a similar idea, although it's now called "rapid-rail."Robertson, John. "Floating a Wild Dream." Albuquerque Journal. July 17, 1991.</text>
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<text>Irrigation is man's response to drought; by this means he reduces radically the uncertainty that nature presents to human settlement in an inhospitable environment. To succeed for any length of time, to capture and distribute available water, and to control the amount of land placed under irrigation, farmers must develop self discipline and a high level of community organization. We have observed these forces operating in a number of the world's deserts, especially those of southeastern Spain and the western United States.The six irrigated areas we have chosen for studyΓÇöthe huertas (intensively irrigated areas that surround or adjoin towns) of Valencia, Murcia-Orihuela, and Alicante in Spain and the South Platte-Cache La Poudre, Utah, and Kings River valleys in the United StatesΓÇöare typical, in their variety, of irrigated systems over the world. Precisely what are the differences and similarities among their operating procedures an(l what do these mean? In Valencia, for example, the dominating principle of the procedures is that water is married to the land and cannot be divorced from it, whereas in nearby Alicante water is auctioned weekly by the irrigation community itself and is sold daily by individual holders. Time priorityΓÇöfirst come, first servedΓÇöhas greater power in determining who gets the limited water supply in Colorado than in Utah. How are the operating procedures related to the governing institutions and to the objectives of the irrigation communities that have adopted them? The purpose of this book is to understand the institutions and the procedures, to discover the objectives, and to evaluate the institutions and procedures in terms of how well they satisfy the communities' goals.The objective functions of irrigation communities vary, of course; but most of the systems studied, and probably most in the world, share common goals, although these are assigned different values in different systems. They include orderly conflict resolution, popular participation, local control, increased income, justice in income distribution, and equity. These objectives may be complementary within certain levels of achievement, in the sense that pursuit of one goal does not interfere with that of another; but many objectives will be competitive ΓÇô the pursuit of any one is constrained by the others. Each irrigation community somehow decides on tradeoff values among its several objectives, thereby establishing a composite objective function that represents its will.CONFLICT RESOLUTIONOne objective of irrigation communities is to maintain order and certainty, and to this end to discourage and resolve conflicts over water use. Water conflicts are notorious in the history and mythology of world civilizations. Witness, as diverse examples, rivalries over the wells of Beersheba between Abraham (and later, Isaac) on the one hand and the Philistines on the other; over the river Loire, between Rabelais's father and a neighbor, which became the model for the war between Gargantua and Picrochole; and gun fights over the ol' water hole, which is a staple of TV westerns. The word "rival," as a matter of fact, evolved from the Latin rivalis, meaning "one living on the opposite bank of a stream from another." And the words for rival and rivalry in the several Romance languages are similarly derived.A keen observer of early irrigation practices in the western United States, the engineer Elwood Mead, remarkedΓÇöwith some exaggeration perhapsΓÇöthat until they learned to create strong institutions for settling disputes, "there was either murder or suicide in the heart of every member" of an irrigation community. There is no evidence that the Catholic farmers of Valencia have considered suicide, but murder, yes. The stone and clay banks that support the turnout structures of several of the major laterals of the Moncada canal are pocked by bullet pits, evidence of irrigators shooting at canal guards to get them to open the gates in times of extreme drought. Any local farmer will tell you this. For several delicious accounts of medieval water disputes in this area, with appropriate emphasis on gallantry and the offended honor of women all told in the language of the court records, see Thomas Glick's study of irrigation and society in Medieval Valencia. He found that "violence lay ever just below the surface, ready to erupt, especially against officials, if provocation should be given. The medieval irrigators were extremely excitable about their rights being 'disturbed,' and millers and cultivators alike were ready to fight in an instant if they felt that their water supply was jeopardized in any way."Why is water so conducive to this conflict? Principally because it flows, itsunregulated flows are likely to be erratic, and in arid country the consquences for any user unable to capture water the moment it is needed are likely to be dire. The location of a farmer's headgate on a water distribution channel very largely determines his social relationships with members of the irrigation community, as well as with those outside the community who us the same water source; and these relationships are potentially disruptive. Also, the unpredictable character of stream flow can create a tense environment of uncertainty that is disruptive of social relations. In more formal language, certain features of the technological or production function of water us such as flow and stochasticity give rise to social conflict and to the objective of controlling it.The objective, then, is to provide order and predictability so that water users can realize their other goals related to increased income, popular control, and social justice. To this end irrigators will adopt operating procedures and institutions that discourage conflicts and settle those that arid. For most of the regions we have studied potential and actual conflicts among members of a community are resolved within the community itself on the basis of principles, rules, or regulations to which all members have consented. The several irrigation communities of southeastern Spain have their own ordinances that govern almost all water questions arising among their members. The purpose of the ordinances is "to end cavillation and litigation," as is said in those governing the New Almoradf canal of Murcia-Orihuela. The irrigators characteristically enforce the ordinances, and disputes among members that do not yield to self-control are settled in special popular courts. Irrigation districts in the Central Valley of California have written rules and regulations that are distributed to all members in the form of printed pamphlets, but these are narrower in scope than the Spanish ordinances, so that irrigators rely on the state water code and the ordinary state courts to supplement their institutions for resolving conflicts. Many irrigation communities of Utah and Colorado do not have written ordinances but depend on custom and tradition, as well as state water codes. Conflicts between the members of an irrigation community and an outside party-typically an upstream community-are a different story. The consensual basis for conflict resolution may be weaker and political and economic power may play a stronger role. The most widely used principle for settling such disputes in the regions we have studied is that first possession or occupation creates a superior right. The "first in time, first in right" principle has been accepted, apparently, because of a widespread belief that man is entitled to the product of his own labor and therefore to protection against late-comers of land he has worked. Although this rule may seem obvious, since seniority is used frequently where a general rationing rule is needed (such as queuing for admissions to theaters or buses), it is not the rule followed for water in all parts of the world. In the Berber areas of Morocco, for example, the principle for settling water disputes between irrigation communities is one of location rather than prior occupancy. The upstream users always have preference over those below them on the watercourse.In the western United States intercommunity disputes are settled by water commissioners, water rights boards, state engineers, or state courts in accord with provisions of state water codes that incorporate the principle of time priority or by voluntary agreements among communities that want to avoid the costs and possibly adverse decisions of courts and bureaus, again according to seniority. in Spain they are decided by ministerial or administrative orders based on the national water law, which validates the principle of time priority in the familiar form of prescription, or by voluntary agreements similarly based. POPULAR PARTICIPATION AND LOCAL CONTROLCommunity members should participate in determining procedures for operating their distribution systems and for ordering relations between these systems and other systems and authorities. They should be free from arbitrary authority of their own officers and from control by outside organizations. These related objectives have been pursued with remarkable intensity by irrigators in the United States. Spain. and probably throughout the world.To illustrate some of the problems involved in the administration of their own systems. assume that community A requires all farmers to share a water shortage in proportion to their normal consumption, whereas Community B denies water in periods of drought to all farmer's in a sector of its service area that was the last to have been put under irrigation. A's procedure may oblige the community to employ a large number of guards and to give them considerable discretionary authority to police the distribution of water as it becomes increasingly scarce, whereas B's is relatively self-enforcing and therefore requires fewer guards and much less discretionary authority in their hands. On the other hand, the water users of Community A may enjoy a high degree of popular participation, voting periodically on their rules, whereas those of Community B are governed by a set of priorities that was established by custom in an earlier century and encased subsequently in a series of court decisions.It is in its relations with other systems, particularly higher authorities, that a community's objective of popular participation and local control is put to the test. Karl A. Wittfogel, in a well-known study of hydraulic societies, concluded that irrigation agriculture has led to strong centralization of political power, even to "oriental despotism.'' Hydraulic agriculture requires great cooperative effort, organizing capital and labor to build dams and canals, for example, and this has been provided typically by an all-powerful "agromanagerial" bureaucracy. Political and hydraulic leadership and control have come to rest in the same hands, and these hands for this reason have been uniquely powerful.Our observations of irrigation systems in Spain and the United States do not confirm Wittfogel's thesis, and we are unclear on the extent to which Wittfogel applies his thesis to these areas. To meet the demands for cooperative effort in hydraulic agriculture, which are indeed great, the water users of Spanish and U.S. systems have shown a genius for inventing operating procedures that avoid centralized and despotic political power. Systems that were in existence before the central government invested money and technical expertise have to a remarkable extent protected their autonomy and even defend national policies that are supposed to accompany national money if these policies have been a serious threat to local custom. When, for example, the national government undertook construction of the Generalfsimo Dam near Valencia, it guaranteed that its actions "will not alter nor diminish the rights nor the free administration" of the irrigation communities, which "will continue to exercise these in accordance with their respective ordinances, statutes, rules, customs, or concessions." No actions "may modify these rights in any form whatsoever." In Murcia-Orihuela the canal communities have thus far failed to alter their traditional methods of taking water from the river although national policy requires them to do so, especially when the river's flow has been regulated by the construction of storage reservoirs. And the irrigation communities of the South Platte-Cache La Poudre of Colorado and of the Kings River in the Central Valley of California have opposed successfully the U.S. government's policy of limiting to small farms only the use of water from reservoirs that the government has financed.Wittfogel has posited that the need for capital and technical expertise leads to centralized and despotic power in irrigation regions. Others have suggested, in a similar vein, that the need to control conflict, which is always close to the surface in these regions, leads to strong central authority. But here, as in the case of the Wittfogel thesis, what may appear to be logically compelling is not the case.Avoiding foreign and arbitrary power has been one of the objectives of water users that, to be sure, they have had lo compromise in order to achieve satisfactory levels of efficiency and security, but, as we shall see, the consequences of the tradeoffs these irrigators have made among their objectives have not included despotic rule.ECONOMIC GROWTHGreater income or efficiency is obviously a principal goal of irrigation communities. Even where nonefficiency objectives are important, a community will want to achieve them at a minimum forfeit of efficiency benefits; and in any case the community will need to establish a tradeoff between its desire for more income and any conflicting objectives. Economic growth, however, is in the case of irrigation agriculture so competitive with other objectives that farmers typically refuse to treat water as a regular economic good, like fertilizer, for example. It is, they say, a special product and should be removed from ordinary market transactions so that the farmers can control conflict, maintain popular influence and control, and realize equity and social justice. Furthermore, since progress is commonly associated with efficiency, to the extent that irrigation communities, limit efficiency by pursuing other objectives they have been "unprogressive."After a thorough study of irrigation in the Utah Valley, James Hudson concluded that although present laws permit a free market in water, social attitudes in the valley forbid it. Attempts to convert it to an economic good by selling surplus water to the highest bidder are regarded as "water profiteering"; attempts to acquire large additional supplies are regarded as "water hogging." Irrigators in northeastern Colorado can sell water to neighboring farmers at any time during a season when they find they will not need it themselves. After studying these transactions, Raymond Anderson concluded that community pressure does not allow the market price to reach the level that farmers who are short of water would be willing to pay; and significantly, the farmers say that they are "renting" rather than selling the water. The historian Pedro Diaz Cassou, who knew the mind of the Murcia farmer better than any other writer, interpreted the passion of these men and those of Valencia for keeping their water tied to their lands in this way: to separate land and water may be more efficient, but it paralyzes agricultural development by promoting great antagonisms among water users.Very generally, an efficient operating procedure allocates marginal units of irrigation water to those farms that can produce with it the greatest net benefits, efficiency benefits and costs being measured for this purpose in terms that relate to the irrigation community as a whole, not necessarily to the individual farms. The achievement of efficiency in these terms requires institutions that can forge a particular balance between flexibility, which is necessary if water is to be transferred from less to more efficient uses, and certainty, needed if farmers are to make the investments of labor and capital that are consistent with economic growth. There are, as we shall see, persistent problems in establishing and maintaining this balance.DISTRIBUTION OF INCOMEA community's concept of social justice is normally the basis of one or more objectives that irrigation communities seek when they determine their operating procedures and institutions. Social justice, when related to income, refers to its distribution as well as its size. A typical goal of government programs is to redistribute income from the wealthy to the poor or from a wealthy and developed region to a poor and underdeveloped one or, alternatively, to preserve an existing income distribution that is considered just or simply to promote or preserve a process for transferring income that is considered just. Thus an irrigation community's objective for water distribution will depend on the group's basic attitude toward distribution of wealth and the process by which any given distribution is achieved and on its tradeoffs between this goal and others, such as economic growth, that may conflict with it.Assume that communities A and B have similar patterns of land distribution with great differences in size of farms and that the different operating procedures they have adopted are well designed to achieve their objectives. The procedure of Community A requires that all water users share the burden of drought, but in proportions that increase progressively with the quantities of water normally used, so that a large landowner will suffer a greater percentage loss of water than a small one. Community B requires all water users to share the burden of drought in a fixed proportion to their normal water use. Assume further that B's procedure for meeting the drought is more efficient for the community as a whole than is A's (although this need not be the case). Community A, then, puts a heavy weight on its concept of what is socially just relative to economic efficiency. Community B either places a heavier weight on efficiency vis-a-vis income distribution than does A or its concept of social justice is to maintain the present distribution of income rather than redistribute it in thedirection of equality, resulting in a procedure that is fortuitously more efficient than A's.EQUITYThe irrigation ordinances of southeastern Spain state typically that their purpose is to achieve equality and equity in the distribution of water. By equity they mean fairness, avoiding unreasonable inequality in the treatment of individuals who are in the same situation or category. Equity is to govern the exercise of any discretion that canal officers have when they enforce orders and regulations for water distribution and to govern the legislators' discretion when they fashion these rules from formal concepts.The goal that all members of a class be treated equally applies to more than economic gain; it also applies, for example, to convenience. Except where the sun is punishingly hot, a farmer does not like to irrigate at night because he needs to be present at his farm headgate, under most systems, when the water is turned into it, whence he both follows the water and moves it from furrow to furrow, borderstrip to borderstrip, or field to field. An operating procedure that always delivers water all night to the same farmers is likely to be considered inequitable, therefore, and the community may introduce considerable complexity into an otherwise simple procedure to avoid this inconvenience.An important reason for investment in dams and other river regulation structures may be to achieve such convenience in water use. Since the Generalfsimo Dam was completed in the 1950s, the farmers of Valencia have spent fewer of the sleepless nights that the readers of Blasco Ibanez's novels have come to associate with their lives.KNOWING OBJECTIVESWe discover the objectives of an irrigation community principally in the legislative history of its ordinances, rules, and regulations, supplemented by court records of controversies between the community and outside groups. We look also at the physical works themselves, for as David and John Major have suggested, the objectives that governed the construction and operation of large public works can be inferred to some degree from the design of the completed projects, provided one knows the community's framework of decision making. Finally we examine certain results of the procedures used, namely, crop production and farm income of the system as a whole, and the distribution of this production and income among individual farms. In this we must be careful, for results of operating procedures will be indicative of the irrigators' objectives only where the irrigators have had sufficient knowledge of the relations between alternative procedures and their results in terms of objectives. Thus before we derive objectives from the observed consequences of the operating procedures themselves we examine the decision process by which the procedures were adopted, just as we do for the ordinances when we study their legislative histories and the physical works when we observe them.As a supplement to these sources for objectives, it would be useful if we had for each irrigated area a consistent set of farmer opinion surveys taken over a significant historical period. These do not exist. But we have available and make use of extensive contemporary observations of each region (the three regions of Spain and California by Maass; Colorado and Utah by Anderson) and of recorded observations by some keen eyewitnesses of earlier periods. Some of the observers used are Maurice Aymard and Baron Jaubert de Passa in early nineteenth-century Valencia, Pedro Diaz Cassou in late nineteenth-century Murcia, Rafael Altamira in early twentieth-century Alicante, Frank Adams and Carl Grunsky in the Kings River during the early twentieth century, David Boyd and Elwood Mead in Colorado at the turn of the century, and George Thomas and Elwood Mead during the same period in Utah.We believe that taken together these sources of knowledge about goals are sufficient. As David Fisher points out in his essay on historical method: "There can be no primary direct evidence of any past motive. But there is a tacit logic of inference which can attain a high degree of probable accuracy. It is a logic which in its very nature appears to commit the fallacy of the consequent (in the form 'if X, then possibly Y; Y, therefore probably X'). But this form of reasoning is a useful tool of empirical inquiry." SIMULATION AND BASIC DATAWe have developed an elaborate simulation program to measure the resultsachieved in crop production and farm income for the use of any operating procedure in any environment. Because this program has proved useful not only for the analysis in this book but also for irrigation managers who have an opportunity today to choose from among alternative operating procedures, it has been published separately as a bulletin by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The bulletin includes an essay by Anderson on the responses of different crops to alternative sequences or regimens for supplying them with irrigation water. We have not reproduced the simulation program in this book, but each chapter includes, in an appendix, a concordance that explains how the program is used to simulate the operating procedures described in the chapter.The bulletin is available without charge by writing to the Office of Communications, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., 20250, requesting Raymond L. Anderson and Arthur Maass, A Simulation of Irrigation Systems, Technical Bulletin No. 1431, Revised September 1974.In some instances we have used alternative forms for presenting the physical data of the six irrigated areas because by doing so we are able to help the non-expert to understand the significance and use of such data. Thus, for example, the stream flows of Valencia and Murcia-Orihuela are given in tables of monthly means, with their standard deviations, whereas those of the Utah Valley are presented in monthly probability hydrographs. Data for the Spanish chapters are in metric units, those for the American, in U.S. customary units.The data base for the Spanish huertas terminates in 1968 and that for the American systems in 1969. Developments since these dates are not included in this study, except in occasional notes.There have been many studies of irrigation, some of them focusing on one or another aspect of operating procedures, some developed for specific regions, southeastern Spain, for example. We have referred to Wittfogel and Glick and shall note others in the chapters that follow. To this day the best general analysis is that of the French geographer, Jean Brunhes, written in 1902. With respect to irrigation systems, Brunhes looks for relations between geographic forms on the one hand and forms of economic development and administrative organization and regulation on the other. He concludes that natural environment influences the type of irrigation system that man creates, but only indirectly, through the intervening variable of the psychology or state of mind of the individuals or groups involved. There is a necessary relation between natural environment and psychological state; irregular natural conditions that menace an individual or group will create a psychological state of insecurity, a state that will vary with the degree and character of nature s irregularity. But there is no necessary relation between the psychological state of insecurity and the resulting irrigation system. Faced with insecurity, men can act in ways that are either harmonious or contradictory; and how they act in any given situation will depend in good part on their attitudes or dispositions toward cooperation and extreme individualism. The disposition to cooperate derives, in turn, from local combinations of ethnic, historical, legal, and political influences. Thus, although it is common for men to seek to free themselves from a psychological state of uncertainty, they do not invariably do so, for this requires that they associate under fixed rules that may be quite rigorous. For sociological, historical, and personal reasons they may not be prepared to do this. Brunhes was obviously trying to protect himself against that gremlin of geographers, geographical determinism; and to do so he used a psychological concept that may appear primitive today. At the same time his observations on the water distribution systems that we know are accurate and perceptive; and although we shall not use Brunhes's general theory as such, it does, when applied to specific cases, other useful insights. Thus Brunhes's variations in the attitudes of different peoples toward cooperation when they suffer from psychological insecurity will be reflected in our variations in objective functionsΓÇöalthough we take these as given without searching for their underlying causes. As with Brunhes, similar natural environments will not produce necessarily similar irrigation systems, for the latter will depend in part on community objectives. Maass, A. and Anderson, R.L. (1979) "...and the Desert Shall Rejoice: Conflict, Growth and Justice in Arid Environments." Cambridge: MIT Press.</text>
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<text>Recycled sewage water may be the farthest thing from your mind as you create a new landscape design. And that's the problem. However, remember: No water, no landscape, no design, no job.Through their work, America's landscape architects create the need for more irrigation. That is why it is up to you to help educate clients and the public about the urgent need to find new sources of water in a nation plagued as never before by drought.The purpose of this article is to inform you, and through you to inform other decision makers, about America's dirty little secret: Recycled water that has passed through municipal sewage systems is there waiting to be used to irrigate the landscape. Getting it from sewer to soil in safe and usable form isn't easy. However, it's being done right now in such key states as California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida.Water used once is wasted. Water used twice is conserved. And yet, despiteall the talk about recycling hamburger wrappers, aluminum cans, plastic, glass, and newspapers, we hear precious little about the need to recycle the most precious commodity of all: water.Fortunately, that's not true all over. Already, recycled water is being seen as a key weapon in fighting the drought that has bled California dry of water for the past four years. Car washes there display stickers proclaiming, "We use recycled water." Golf courses, freeway plantings, college campuses, and even amusement parks are enjoying its benefits. Orange County is already on the leading edge of water reclamation efforts in that state. It is now reclaiming 18 percent of all its water for purposes like those mentioned above.To plan and promote far greater use of recycled water in the Golden State, the Southern California Water Committee under the chairmanship of Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn is helping to unite the urban and agricultural users of the state, including Northern Californians, in the monumental task of developing and distributing this virtually untapped source of water.The whole nation can take a lesson from this pioneering effort, Flynn believes. However, because putting recycled water on line in any locality takes years, he says there's no time for delay. That's why he's spreading the word, through Landscape Design and every other public information source he can recruit, that all America should be using recycled water.Here's a little background on what reclaimed water is, how it is treated to make it reusable, and how it is already being used in two states, Florida and California.Reclaimed water is also called effluent water, because it consists of treated sewage effluent. Wherever it is used, the process of reclamation is basically the same. One reason it is more economical than potable water, which people drink, is that the treatment processes required to make the water usable for irrigation are not significantly different than those required for ocean disposal.Wastewater that is dumped in the ocean (or sometimes must be disposed ofelsewhere at substantial cost) normally goes through two levels of treatment, known as primary and secondary. By sending the water through a third, or tertiary, step it is made suitable for landscape irrigation.In the primary treatment stage, the water is screened in order to remove large, floating objects. Afterward the effluent that remains is allowed to stand for several hours in sedimentation tanks. From 25 to 35 percent of the suspended matter settles out at this stage.The secondary treatment stage consists of releasing masses of bacteria into the effluent. These bacteria eat organic pollutants and release harmless carbon dioxide.The bacteria are kept suspended by aerating the water. The water is then sent through another settling-out stage, and most of the bacteria are returned to the aeration stage. At this point the water is clean enough for ocean disposal.Tertiary treatment involves sending the water through filters that remove even the finest particles. Various chemicals may be added to remove certain pollutants. Finally, the water is chlorinated for several hours. However, the tertiary treatment process does not remove the organic nutrients.In Florida, a number of cities are already making extensive use of reclaimed effluent water. For example, the St. Petersburg Water District operates dual processing and distribution systems for supplying potable and reclaimed water to its clients, using many miles of clearly marked underground piping for each. It also requires that every customer have a backflow prevention device to keep the reclaimed water from entering the potable water system. Maintenance cost.s for both systems are about the same.The St. Petersburg Water District supplies a large number of private residences with this reclaimed water. There it is used for landscape irrigation, but only through in-ground irrigation systems, and not through hoses. Hose bibbs are prohibited on the reclaimed water system. In that way, it cannot be mistaken for potable water. It is also used for flushing toilets.With a comprehensive awareness program, the district educates homeowners and other customers about their recycled irrigation water. In addition, its use is carefully monitored by the district so it is not misused by the public.Ironically, the reason reclaimed water is a potential health hazard is also one of its greatest advantages: the high level of organic nutrients it contains. It increases the microflora of the soil, which are very beneficial, by adding micronutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphorus.While the presence of these nutrients renders the reclaimed water unfit for human consumption, it is ideal for plant fertilization. Thus it can help landscape professionals realize significant savings in fertilizer costs.Across the country, in Southern California, the region's Metropolitan Water District (MWD) has assumed the role of proponent in promoting and subsidizing the establishment of water reclamation projects throughout its six-county jurisdiction.One of the largest reclaimed water systems within MWD boundaries is served by the Michelson Water Reclamation Plant in Irvine, CA. The Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD) operates the system.Upon release at IRWD's Michelson plant, the reclaimed water may either be pumped into one of two seasonal storage reservoirs or go directly into the distribution system. To prevent algae and other undesirable buildups, the reservoirs have additional filtration and chlorination facilities.IRWD customers for its reclaimed water include golf courses, parks, schools, commercial developments, homeowner associations, and municipalities.The recently developed Irvine area has proven particularly amenable to theuse of this recycled water. Many of its housing tracts are surrounded by public greenbelts, landscaped areas which are maintained by the local municipality or housing association. These users are served well by the reclaimed water.However, this recycled water is not yet provided to individual homeowners as it is in Florida. Whether future water shortages will impact the area and force a change in this policy remains to be seen.Commercial clients are going to reclaimed water in increasing numbers, perhaps because it costs about one-third less than potable water. Early in 1990 the IRWD began serving high-rise office buildings in the Irvine area, in addition to the municipalities, homeowner associations, schools, and parks that have been its clients for years.Among these long-term customers is Irvine's William R. Mason Regional Park, whose 100 acres are being economically irrigated with reclaimed water. Fertilization there was cut from four times a year to once a year when the reclaimed water lines were installed over ten years ago.The park was able to curtail fertilization so sharply because the reclaimed water is high in nitrates. The main reason they have to fertilize at all there is to compensate for the trace elements which are lacking in reclaimed water.Soon after switching to reclaimed water, the IRWD compiled data showing that fertilizer savings amounted to as much as $30 or $40 for every acre-foot of reclaimed water used for irrigation. These figures have since risen with inflation.However, the cost savings in water and fertilizer have been somewhat offset by the increased vigilance necessary to prevent too much public contact with the water. Most irrigation at the park is normally conducted at night. Drinking fountains are watched very carefully, and are cleaned out if the water over sprays. Picnic tables are also watched, because people may come in during the morning, when there are still drops of reclaimed irrigation water on the boards.Despite such restrictions, the Irvine residents who use William R. Mason Regional Park can enjoy the recreational and aesthetic benefits of a nine-acre lake filled with treated effluent. While swimming in the lake is prohibited, the water is stocked with a variety of fish that may be caught and safely eaten by park visitors.Against the background of these pioneering efforts that are already taking place in California, Ventura County Supervisor Flynn is helping to lead educational and cooperative efforts to make them the rule rather than the exception, in that state and elsewhere."The Southern California Water Committee is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public education partnership dedicated to informing Southern Californians about our water needs and our state's water resources," he explains. "Our members include representatives from business, government, agriculture, water agencies, and the general public. Joan Wilson Anderson is executive director, and our headquarters are in Irvine."Our goal is to ensure an adequate, reliable, high-quality water supply statewide by maximizing California's water resources for the benefit of current and future generations. The SCWC gathers and disseminates to the general public information on California water issues, including water quality, conservation, reliability of supply, and affordability factors. In thepublic policy area, our members provide testimony at legislative and regulatory hearings throughout the state. In addition, the SCWC sponsors educational seminars, workshops, and a speakers' bureau," says Flynn. Why was SCWC formed? "Southern California faces critical water supply challenges," he explains. "About 70 percent of the water falls in the north, while 80 percent of the population is in the south. With proper state allocation, there is enough water to meet current demand. But a state consensus on water supply issues is imperative to meet future needs. The SCWC was founded in 1984, and is a unique coalition of diverse interests that have come together for the first time to address these important public policy issues." Liaison is maintained with Northern California water agencies to achieve a statewide consensus on water problems and solutions."The point of water reclamation is that water used once is wasted. Water used twice is conserved. However, reclamation is principally used in only four states: California, Florida, Texas, and Arizona," says Flynn."Nevertheless, water is reused unintentionally in various parts of the United States," he reveals. "For example, that's true along the Mississippi River. Water in the upper reaches of the Mississippi is used by nearby cities and towns. Then it goes back into the river, and the people downstream use it again. To do so, we feel, it needs to be treated three times, in tertiary treatment plants. We have some of those in Southern California, but most are secondary plants. We have some of both in Northern California, but not as many as we would like."Flynn continues, "Our goal in California is to determine what the potential is for reusing water. We want to use it on golf courses, landscaped areas along freeways, and in parks. All of those are big water users. There's some move in the direction of having it go into residential areas, by using double pipelines, so that the reclaimed water is in one line and the potable water is in another."Such water could be used in California, as it is in St. Petersburg, for landscaping and for flushing toilets. "I think this will happen here in our lifetime," says Flynn. First things first, though. "I would like to see more golf courses, parkways, and parks using it. And sod farmers could use reclaimed water. Certain tree crops could, too, but we have to be very careful there. Preferably that water would receive tertiary treatment, but secondary treatment can be used."However, such water would have to pass state health standards," Flynn points out. "In every state the standards are somewhat different, and some states have higher standards than others. In fact, not all states agree that reclaimed water can be used. Some have rules against it."Actually, all water is recycled over and over again," says FIynn. "There's only so much water in the world, and it will not decrease or increase. It continues to recycle. However, when you spend the money to move great amounts of water, as we do in moving it from Northern California to the south, you ought to use that water more than once before it's finally discharged to the ocean."As one with long experience in dealing with reclaimed water, Flynn offers these tips to the nation at large:"Number one, you've got to have a statewide policy on the reuse of water. And the water has to be furnished to a user at a good price. It must meet state water purity standards, and it.s use must be consistent with downstream water rights."He explains, "For example, where water runs from a wastewater treatment plant down a creek on its way to the ocean, some people who live along that creek may say, 'This water belongs to me. You have no right to take it from me.' They might want it to irrigate sod or trees, by pumping it right out of the creek. So there could be a water rights dispute there. Those need to be resolved."He has another recommendation: "We need to develop educational programs to encourage public acceptance of reclaimed water, even that used for irrigation. You've got to demonstrate to the public that such water is safe to use-that it meets state health standards. Here in California, we do have a state water policy on reclaimed water that comes from wastewater treatment plants. The policy says that the water is safe for use on certain crops, as well as for such uses as golf course irrigation and other landscaping."Flynn adds, "For areas that are water-scarce, I think that the policy makers there should look carefully at reusing water to augment their water supply through the uses that I've mentioned, where it's locally accepted as safe and helps meet the water needs of that community."Even where there is no scarcity of water at the present time, it might be good to use reclaimed water, because it makes good economic sense to do so," Flynn points out.Where do landscape professionals fit into the picture? Not only can they make good use of recycled water, as noted, but there's another point. They know how to use water more economically, whether it's recycled or potable, Flynn says, so their advice is worth heeding."Good landscape designers and contractors will tell you that they can landscape an area and give advice on irrigation that will save up to 20 percent of the water that would otherwise have been applied," he explains. "Landscape people today are water-sensitive. That's because they know that unless they make changes themselves and give the right recommendations to people who are doing the irrigating, their business is going to be hurt in water-short areas of the country."We see these landscape people being much more flexible than they used to be. They're much more sensitive about how much water a lawn needs, how they arrange the plants in those lawns, and the time of day they recommend a person water the landscape. They have to be! They're like farmers, because water is part of their business. And unless they're sensitive to water supply and water quantity as well, they're going to be out of business. Individual landscapers who are on our committee have told me that."In summarizing his case for recycled augmenting local water supplies for the future. This water is safe to use, has a good price to it that you can afford, and meets all health standards for the uses I've mentioned. It's ideal for golf courses, freeway or highway landscaped areas, parks, cemeteries, and university campuses. For example, Pepperdine University in Malibu uses water from the nearby Malibu Mesa water reclamation plant."Water has historically been under-priced," Flynn points out. "We're going to have to start putting more money into our water systems, including reclamation systems, in order to provide a reliable supply for the future. If that means putting in dual piping, we'll have to do that. If it means upgrading our wastewater treatment plants into tertiary plants, then we'll have to do that, too."We're going to have to put a lot of money into reclamation projects," he concludes, "because without a good, reliable, high-quality water supply, our economies are threatened. Our industrial economy is threatened, and the economy of the landscape industry in particular is threatened. Water is necessary in everything that we do on this earth, and vital to our own existence. You can't get by for very long without water. So reclaimed water is something whose time has come."A water reuse coordinator for the Sanitation District of Los Angeles County said recently, "The most important advantage of reclaimed water is that it is drought-resistant. During a drought, potable water supplies to 'nonessential' users such as landscapers may be turned off. Reclaimed water will always be available during these periods."Drought or no drought, sewage will continuously be produced and treated in the towns and cities of America. Sewage is forever."When the use of reclaimed water is commonplace all over the country, no landscape architect or landscape contractor will have to worry about being put out of business by water rationing. Do your part in making that future become a reality.The time to act is now. We must take advantage of the opportunity afforded us through the use of reclaimed water. By having dual water lines and working closely with local reclamation plants, we can ensure a water supply which will take care of all our future demands, and the needs of the next generation of Americans as well. Get involved today in the educational effort needed to make national use of reclaimed water a reality. Let your town know that recycled water is the wave of the future.Landscape Design Magazine. "Landscape Architects and Reclaimed Irrigation Water." Landscape Design. 4/1 17-23.</text>
<text>Constructed wetlands are an alternative to common septic systems. The initial cost of a septic/wetlands system may be high but ultimately, in terms of groundwater contamination and its treatment, the cost is low. A wetlands can be integrated into an existing septic system.NASA and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) pioneered development for constructed wetlands. Research has been on-going for over 20 years, but wetlands technology is still considered new.A constructed wetlands is basically a septic system, with a marsh instead of a leach field. The marsh is watertight, thanks to a plastic liner, and filled with gravel. Cattails, bulrushes and reeds grow on top of the gravel. The wastewater overflow passes through the gravel, and the plants take nutrients from it. The top of the marsh is always dry, so there is no odor associated with it. The "treaded water or effluent drains into another tank, where a pipe controls the level and flow. Although this "grey water" is not clean enough for human consumption, it is clean enough to be used for irrigation.The effluent can also be used to fill a pond which may attract many species of wildlife. Additional native and decorative plants may be used in and around the pond.Another alternative is to install a submersible pump and connect into a sprinkler system for irrigation, reducing the load on potable water systems. Wetland ponds can also be incorporated into greenhouses. The pond can be placed inside the greenhouse, or used as a source of water to be piped into the greenhouse.Southwest Wetlands Group (SWG), a Santa Fe firm, is designing and building wetlands in several locations. The Bradshaw family in Abiquiu utilize an SWG system capable of handling 1,000 gallons per day (gpd), and the PAWS, Inc. Office Complex in Albany, IN has an SWG wetlands that treats 1,500 gpd. There are several in the design stage and one in the proposal phase.SWG is a partnership of engineers Thomas Andrews and Michael Ogden, and landscape architect Craig Campbell. SWG uses a simple formula of 1 square foot per gallon of wastewater. The treatment of wastewater is on-going even in the winter, when the plants are dormant, so it is more than adequate during the spring and summer.Funding has been a problem for SWG. According to Andrews, since the Reagan Administration, the federal government has cut down on everything that has to do with biological treatment, renewable resources, and solar energy. This is basically a solar energy project," said Andrews. SWG sought a research grant, but since they aren't affiliated with a college or university, they were turned down.Alternative septic systems are not covered by current regulations. Requests for variances from state code can take months to process, so permission for residential systems is slow.According to Andrews, the maintenance involves raking the gravel from time to time and replacing any plants that have died. If water lilies are used in a pond, the leaves may have to be removed from the bottom.Kittel, Ellen. "Wetlands -- A 'Natural' Alternative to Traditional Septic Systems." East Mountain Telegraph. V4N5. 7 March 1991. Page 3.</text>
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<text>Kittel, Ellen. "Wetlands -- A 'Natural' Alternative to Traditional Septic Systems." East Mountain Telegraph. V4N5. 7 March 1991. Page 3.</text>
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<text>By Rene KimballJOURNAL STAFF WRITERTemperatures hit or tied records in Albuquerque and Roswell MondayΓÇöand more heat is on its way.Forecasters said temperatures of 100-plus will continue throughout New Mexico through the end of the week.Albuquerque even may hit its all-time record of 105 in the next few days, said Boyd White, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service in Albuquerque."We're near that, and it's a possibility, certainly," White said.On Monday, Albuquerque set a record-high 104 degrees for the day, surpassing the previous high of 103 set in 1980; Roswell had a record-tying 110.State temperatures have soared since the weekend. Las Cruces was 111 Sunday, 108 Monday. Santa Fe's high ranged from 96 to 99 Monday, according to different reporting stations."Expect temperatures to remain in the mid-to-upper 90s in northern New Mexico for the next four or five days," White said."Dry thunderstorms give us the most problems," said Santa Fe National Forest spokesman Fred Coe, who said Monday afternoon's "relatively dry thunderstorms" were responsible for at least 11 fires in the Jemez Mountains.Thousands of lightning strikes Monday started more than 50 fires around New Mexico, but many were quickly contained and the largest and most unrulyΓÇöthe River Fire on the Gila National ForestΓÇöwas only 80 acres.Ron Dunn, state fire management office for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Santa Fe, said his agency recorded 2,673 lightning strikes from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday statewide.In Albuquerque, the quest to keep cool sent the demand for electricity to a record high Monday. Water also is in high demand, but no problems are anticipated with supplies, according to city officials.In Las Vegas, water consumption is beginning to exceed the flow of the Gallinas River, and unless it rains officials said water conservation efforts may have to be increased.The city already is asking residents to make sure water from lawn sprinklers doesn't run onto sidewalks and guKers.Las Vegas last summer experienced its worst drought in 30 years. Dale Clarke, interim utility director, said the city will be better prepared to deal with this year's drought. A new waterline will carry water from Storrie Lake to the city's reservoirs, which already have more water than they did this time last year.A hundred miles west of Las Vegas, Cuba is experiencing what Mayor Randy Velarde called "a slight water shortage."One of the town's two water tanks is only one-third full, with water standing about 4 feet deep, he said. Ideally, the tank should be three-quarters full, he said.Cuba should have enough water this summer as long as there are no problems with the wells or pumps, he said.In western New Mexico, Gallup offlcials are planning to send letters to residents with suggestions on how to conserve water. The city is not having water shortages, but utilities director Robert Monday said it's important to carefully use the "finite amount" of water contained in the city's two aquifers.Blistering temperatures caused a few problems around Albuquerque.At the headquarters building for the Air Force Space Technology Center at Kirtland Air Force Base, a broken motor disabled the air conditioning, and the thermometer read 90 degrees at 2 p.m. Monday, said Rich Garcia, a center spokesman.The 100 or so people who work in the building have responded by coming to work "in fairly relaxed attire," including shorts, and consuming a lot of soft drinks, Garcia said.Children and teachers at Duranes Elementary School on Zickert NW weresent home at noon Monday after a power outage shut down air conditioning just after 10:30 a.m.The problem was an overloaded Public Service Company of New Mexico line to the school, said PNM's Rick Brinneman.The line was fixed by Monday afternoon, and the school will reopen this morning, according to APS.Demand for electricity reached 1,050 megawatts at about 2 p.m. Monday, Brinneman said, compared with a previous peak of 1,006 megawatts on July 5,1989.The utility had to go outside its system Monday to purchase an extra 100 megawatts of power from Utah and Texas.Staff writers Susan Landon, Camille Flores and David Morrissey contributed to this story.Kimball, Rene. "New Mexico Sweats Out Heat Wave: Soaring Temperatures Threaten All-Time High." Albuquerque Journal. 26 June 1990.</text>
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<text>Kimball, Rene. "New Mexico Sweats Out Heat Wave: Soaring Temperatures Threaten All-Time High." Albuquerque Journal. 26 June 1990.</text>
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<text>Colorado's Stagecoach Dam, located 17 miles south of the winter and summer resort area of Steamboat Springs, has been planned since 1935. It was even designed once, as an earth-rock dam in the early 1970's, but was not constructed for economic reasons.In 1984, Woodward-Clyde was asked to design a more economically feasible dam. Using the developing technology of roller-compacted concrete (RCC), the 150-foot-high dam, as tall as a 1 5-story building, was constructed in 1988 from foundation to crest in just 37 days. It cost at least 20 percent less than other dam types. The project won the American Society of Civil Engineers' Excellence Award for the Colorado Section in 1989.RCC costs less for two primary reasons: less expensive materials (borderline aggregate quality) and speed of construction. (Speed is also important for another reason: In this mountain valley, the construction season was less than four months long.) Cost of this concrete was about $32 per cubic yard; conventional concrete on the upstream and downstream faces was about $110 per yard.RCC is a concrete mix with a low cement and water content; the mixture isjust as strong as traditional concrete but more economical because less expensive materials can be used. The mix is not poured like concrete but is placed in horizontal lifts, which are rolled into place with high-capacity earth-moving equipment. Time normally required for "setting" is eliminated because it is relatively dry.Other factors contributing to the cost-effectiveness include:1 - Reduced diversion requirements at the narrow gorge site as a result ofa shortened construction period;2 - An over-the-dam spillway that would pass the probable maximum floodover the crest;3 - Decreased size of the stilling basin because of a stepped spillway chute;4- Shorter outlet length, which costs less than an outlet for an embankment dam;5- Low-cost forming and placement techniques.One other major advantage resulted from the Woodward-Clyde design: seepage that's an order of magnitude lower than other RCC dams.Stagecoach Dam used conventional gravity dam design concepts, modified for these specialized construction techniques. It has a height of 150 feet, a aQst length of 340 feet (at an elevation of 7,210 feet) and a cresl width of 24 feet.Dam construction began June 7, 1988, and was completed on July 14, 1988. The contractor, ASI RCC, Inc. of Buena Vista, CO, worked two 10-hour shifts per day (sometimes more). Construction stopped for just three days: one day to drill drain holes near the darn crest, one for the July 4 holiday and another day because of frequent rain showers.Rapid construction was planned to enhance bonding subsequent lifts of the concrete. This bonding was needed to minimize seepage. To enhance placement in the narrow canyon (50 feet wide at the valley bottom), all construction necessary to start and complete the dam structure was completed prior to concrete placement.Because cracking has occurred on all RCC dams constructed to date, stress concentrations were formed in the upstream facing concrete. The stress concentrations enable cracking along predetermined locations, resulting in many smaller cracks rather than a few larger ones.Concern about the bond between the two types of concrete led to testlng of construction methods. As a result, the roller-compacted was placed first and the conventional concrete next, all in a one-foot lift. The conventional concrete was vibrated into the RCC, and the RCC was compacted to appropriate densities.Stagecoach Dam uses a stepped spillway design to reduce stilling basin size by 50 percent and associated construction costs. A 1:24 scale model of the spillway was constructed, operated and analyzed to determine design requirements. The modeling showed that the terminal velocity decreased, with increasing step height, at a given discharge.This type of dam can be designed so that overflow will pass over the top, avoiding the need for more expensive adjacent spillways. At Stagecoach Dam, the spillway, with a crest width of 55 feet and a height of 10 feet, is designed to pass about five times the 500-year design flood, or more than 25 percent of the peak discharge from a probable maximum event. The relatively large probable maximum flood overtops the entire dam.Because of the narrow canyon width and steep abutment slopes, the contractor transported all equipment and materials without using haul roads. A 200-ton-capacity crane moved machinery to and from the working surface, a conveyor transported RCC to the dam, and a gravity chute moved conventional concrete to the surface. This method assisted in the rapid construction and minimized contamination from haul road debris.Specialized equipment was developed to handle both kinds of concrete within the relatively small surface area of each lift.Stagecoach Dam and Resevoir combines almost all known uses for water: agricultural, industrial and municipal buyers; recreation; fish and wildlife enhancement; flood storage; and power generation. The dam, constructed on the Yampa River in the Upper Colorado River Basin, is part of a full-development project owned by the Upper Yampa Conservancy District.The 780-acre reservoit (33,500 acre feet) is 2.9 miles long and three-quarters of a mile wide. Of the stored water, 15,000 acre feet are dedicated to recreation. A state park, constructed in the summer of 1988, includes 100 campsites, 50 picnic sites, two marinas, a park headquarters, access roads and trails. The facility will generate about 71,000 recreation days a year.About 19,000 acre feet of water will be for agricultural, industrial and municipal use.. Local ranchers will use the water to improve crop production. A downstream fossil fuel power plant will draw industrial water, and the municipal water will be used by several downstream communities. The hydropower plant, designed by Tudor Engineering Co., will generate 800 kilowatts of power, which will be sold to one of the major electrical suppliers in Colorado.Enhanced habitats for water fowl have been constructed, large expanses of newly irrigated lands will generate new wetlands, and an elk wintering range has been developed. The dam also is designed to enhance water quality downstream of the dam and in the reservoir. The Yampa River wastoo warm to support a healthy trout population, so a multi-level intake for the outlet works was constructed to permit releases of cooler water. Also, low dissolved oxygen water can be released to replenish oxygen lost when plant and animal life decay. The number of gates and their locations werebased on a resevoir thermal model. The resulting intake tower can draw water from several elevations in the reservoir and mix various water temperatures to optimize downstream river conditions.RCC made Stagecoach Dam possible. Without it, this multi-use dam and reservoir would not have become reality.Johnson, Daniel L. "Stagecoach Dam." Land and Water. May/June 1990. Pp 28-30.</text>
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<text>Johnson, Daniel L. "Stagecoach Dam." Land and Water. May/June 1990. Pp 28-30.</text>
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<text>RECALLED TO LIFE : A MAVERICK ENGINEER HOPES TO USE EXPERTISE AND BULLDOZERS TO RESTORE A FOUR-MILE-LONG GRAVEL QUARRY TO A LIVING STREAM.by Susie Waddoups Jones and Steve HinchmanThe East Fork of the San Juan is mostly a dead river.Set in a pristine valley of Colorado's lofty San Juan Mountains, and surrounded by lush forests thick with wildlife, the East Fork should be a classic meandering stream teeming with trout, birds and beaver, and bordered by willows and cottonwoodsΓÇöthe center of a mountainous Eden.Instead, it resembles a four-milelong gravel quarry bulldozed straight down the center of the valley floor. Today the river is 800 feet wide and barely half a foot deep: a vast wash composed of many tiny streamlets running over coarse gravel and cobbles.It is a sterile quarry. Most of the trees and vegetation have been scoured away, leaving no place for fish or waterfowl. The grassy floodplains are long gone.The upper reach of the East Fork is typical of scores of Western rivers and creeks that have suffered the interfering hand of man. On the East Fork, the damage started in the early 1930s, after its landownerΓÇöin order to open more of the valley to grazingΓÇöburned and plowed the impenetrable willow thickets that held the river to its 60-foot-wide channel.The willows were poor forage for cows, but they held the river in check. During the next spring and for over half a century, the East Fork ran wild, changing from a deep river into a shallow, braided channel. Even today, after each year's snowmelt, the floods carve new channels, ripping away the banks and sending tons of sediment downstream to clog the channel, bury fish and insect habitat and fill reservoirs.The erosion has laid bare the river's soulΓÇöexposing its wide, shallow aquifer to the sun and wind. Because of thc resulting lack of water storage and recharge, thc East Fork is reduced in dry season to a trickle.Reversing the damageA recent experiment has begun to reverse the destruction. A few years ago the first mile of the East Fork was returned to its historic balance by a man who says rivers are as alive and predictable as any biological creature.Dave Rosgen is a maverick, a cowboy-turned-hydrologist from Fort Collins, Colo. Working with the Forest Service and as a private consultant, Rosgen has spent the last 25 years studying rivers across the United States.Rosgen, however, is a different breed of river expert. He doesn't rebuild rivers out of concrete and steel, like so many old-school engineers who have arrested bank erosion at the expense of natural beauty and wildlife habitat.Instead he uses reams of data collected during long days in the field. Then he turns to natural materials located on siteΓÇörocks, trees and willowsΓÇöand mimics nature, rebuilding the river's historic curves and floodplains, rediscovering its natural rythms.His experiment on the East Fork of the San Juan returned its first mile to a meandering channel. Its newly created riparian floodplain has so far withstood several spring floods and now supports a rejuvenated trout population. Without a chunk of concrete in sight, this job turns traditional river-engineering on its head.Ironically, Rosgen was hired to return the East Fork to its natural state so the valley landowner could develop it into a four-season resort. Dan McCarthy, proponent of the controversial East Fork Ski Area, realized he needed to first fix the river because the bottom lands had "the best potential for development," says Bob Perletz, a Boulder, Colo., consultant hired by McCarthy.The first company contracted came up with a plan that looked like "a drainage-way through a subdivision," Perletz says. Rosgen was chosen to do the work because his results fit the natural image McCarthy wanted."Natural" takes studyRosgen says his goal is always river stability, but by using natural processes and not brute, mechanical force. He defines stability as a river's ability to transport the full amount of water and sediment supplied by its watershed while maintaining its natural patterns and dimensions.The key, he says, is "understandingthe natural tendencies of the river." That is not simple. Rosgen classifies rivers based on six major variables: slope, width-depth ratio, sinuosity (a measure of meanders), bed and bank material size, bank soils, and confinement. These variables are integrated into a stream classification system he developed which is now being used throughout the United States.Rosgen developed his East Fork strategy by plugging its characteristics into his classification system. He also dug into the river's history, studying ancient floodplains that now stand as high terraces, and interviewing oldtimers who remember the original river. Last, he compared aerial photos of the damaged four-mile reach with healthier sections downstream.From this, he predicted the East Fork's behavior and drew up a blueprint for reconstructing its course. That blueprint, which reached the Army Corps of Engineers in the form of a 404 Dredge and Fill permit application, was radically different from just about anything they'd ever seen, recalls Grady McNure, head of the Corps' project office in Grand Junction, Colo.What Rosgen proposed was plowing the river up and starting from scratch. Traditional techniques, such as building a series of check dams, were not part or Rosgen's plan. His intent was to restore the river's nalural, stable form.The permit applicalion was accompanied by a series of calculations and measurements that laid out every dimension of the new river channel. Something of this sort had never been permitted before, and Corps officials called on Dr. Luna Leopold, professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, for advice.Leopold, the only hydrologist on the National Academy of Science and one-time head of all the U.S. Geologic Survey's hydrologic studies, was familiar with Rosgen's calculations. In fact, much of Rosgen's work is based on theories Leopold developed, although Rosgen is the first to apply them on the ground. Leopold gave his plan high marks.The river dictatesLeopold. who visited the site, gives a simplified view of Rosgen's method:A river's slope or steepness, according to Leopold, is determined by the volume of water and should not be changed. But slope is not uniform down the river it varies between flat areas, or pools, and steeper grades, called riffles. The spacing of the pools and riffles, he says, "is a function of width."The sweep of a river's curves, however, is related to its bank-full discharge, or the amount of water, usually during spring runoff, that fills a river from bank to bank. Leopold says this "is the flow you want to design for."The floodplain, a necessity for all rivers, is designed by nature to take care of flows greater than bank-full, and must be covered in grass and willows to prevent erosion.The last variable is sediment load. Leopold says slope, width, depth and the river's curves are related not just to the water volume, but also to the size, weight and consistency of the sediment that water cames downstream.The combination of these variables produces a unique profile that can be laid out in precise geometry.Leopold says, "A river does not want to be straight. If a river is of a certain size it has to have bends of a certain size with a certain radii of curvature and a certain distance between one bend and another"Leopold was optimistic about the result. In a letter to Corps offlcials, he concluded: "If this design is actually installed on the ground I forecast it will be cited as a landmark case and will soon be known throughout the world.""I don't channelize rivers"Based on Leopold's evaluation, the Corps gave Rosgen a permit for a demonstration project, allowing him to reconstruct the first mile of the planned 3.5 miles if he set up a three-year monitoring and evaluation project.Rosgen had one more obstacle. Some residents of nearby Pagosa Springs opposed McCarthy's East Fork Ski Area plans, and consequently questioned the river renovation project. At a public meeting an angry ranch owner, Beuy Feazel, approached Rosgen.As Rosgen tells it, she said, "So you're the SOB who's gonna channelize the East Fork."Rosgen says he replied, "Ma'am, don't ever use that wordΓÇöchannelization. You can call me an SOB if you want to, but I don't channelize rivers."Rosgen won a reprieve, but local residents were still skeptical when Rosgen's crew moved into the valley. Now it did look like a gravel quarry. The crew included 15 people and 12 pieces of heavy machinery: front-end loaders, bulldozers, scrapers, trucks, earth movers, excavators with thumbs and even a skidder to haul logs out of the nearby forest.Rosgen required his handpicked crew, all local, to go around the few cottonwood trees remaining by the river and cause as little damage as possible to the valley, challenging them to "walk the quietest on the land with the biggest of equipment."Nonetheless, they overwhelmed the river. Dozers pushed the braided river channel aside while earth-movers, excavators and trucks rebuilt a meandering channel.The outside of curves where the river applies the most force were lined with interwoven root fans from pushedover cottonwoods and spruce. Staggered and facing ups.rearn, the 12- to 15-foot-diameter roots were anchored into the bank and secured by interlocking logs and boulders. The high, jagged bank catches and absorbs the river's power, much as the rough walls of a recording studio absorb sound. It also creates deep eddy pools and cover that make excellent trout habitat.The insides of curves were transformed into low-lying floodplains that were planted in grasses and willows to withstand seasonal floods.In between was a relatively narrow channel, about 60 feet across and three feet deep at bank-full discharge.In all, the mile of work used close to 3,000 trees, several hundred boulders and over 430,000 cubic yards of fill material. Rosgen estimates the project cost about $60 a foot, or almost $300,000. The work took three months.It acts like a riverThe results have been excellent. The meandering pattem has held through three spring floods, and the channels are staying clear of sediment. Rosgen says that proves that once the right patterns are established, natural processes will take over.Fringe benefits include better fish habitat, lower water temperatures, good year-round water levels, a rejuvenated floodplain aquifer, and a new grass and willow riparian ecosystem. Rosgen estimates nearly 60 acres of land were recovered over the one mile of restoration.While the official three-year monitoring and evaluation program continues, Army Corps officials have already approved Rosgen's work."It is a technique that is permittable," says McNure. 'We have issuedpermits and will continue to do so."The locals didn't wait. Betty Feazel observed the project from start to finish and carefully monitored its results. The next spring she hired Rosgen to do similar work on her ranch on the West Fork of the San Juan, which she paid for by selling piles of gravel left over from the project.Rancher Bob Lindner then had Rosgen repair 1.5 miles of the Weminuche River and 2.4 miles on the nearby Rio Blanco. The two projects cost about half what the East Fork did, and Rosgen says that with refined techniques, he can now repair most rivers at 10 cents on the dollar, compared to standard methods.Following a September flood in 1988 on the Rio Blanco, Bureau of Reclamation officials noticed greally reduced sediment deposition levels downstream on the San Juan. Attributing the change to Rosgen's bank stabilizalion work upstream, Bureau officials are now considering supporting further work on the San Juan's tributaries.Today, it's pretty difficult to catch Rosgen with any spare time. He has completed a successful project on the Eel River in California's Humboldt Redwoods State Park; state officials have contracted Rosgen to repair the entire Bull Creek watershed, a tributary lo the Eel that was devastated by logging in the 1950s; and the California State Parks Department has issued a proclamation requiring its engineers to use the geomorphic approach rather than the standard riprap and gabion wall techniques.Other projects are completed or under way in California, Colorado, Vermont and Maryland. The final three and-a-half miles of work on the East Fork, however, will not be permitted unless McCarthy wins approval for the entire ski area proposal.Between projects, Rosgen tours with his slide projector, giving short courses. He is also writing a book with Dr. Luna Leopold. Eventually, Rosgen hopes to move his family to Pagosa Springs, build a wooden lodge and teach on the nearby rivers, which he says include just about every river-type there is.Rosgen says he wants more time with his family and horses, but he is often out in the field, accumulating data."I spent 24 years as a professional hydrologist, making a concentrated effort to bring the data together and find the variables that keep showing up ... I'll always balance projects and field work to keep getting new data, to keep my designs fresh and updated with what the rivers are telling me."</text>
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<text>HIGH COUNTRY NEWS December 4,1989</text>
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<text>Heathcote, R. L. "The Arid Lands: Their Use and Abuse." New York: Longman Group, Inc. 1983.</text>
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<text> The author looks at the history of the use of resources in arid lands around the world and explains the problems of contemporary land use in arid lands.</text>
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<text>Across the ocean in the heart of England lies Black Lake, a 4-1/2-acre body of water that was transformed from a stagnate, overgrown moor into a crystal clear lagoon. Black Lake's downfall was due in part to excessive leakage problems in the lakebed. To remedy this problem, the new lining system underwent intensive scrutiny when redesigning and reconstructing the lagoon.Black Lake is located in the center of Lindow Common, an open, grassy public area within the town of Wilmslow in Cheshire, England. This area holds special historic and scientific interest to many people because several years ago, the body of a person believed to be almost 3,000 years old was discovered here. The fully preserved body of the "Peat Marsh Lindow Man" was found buried in peat and has aroused the curiosity of many sightseers.Problems started to arise in Lindow Common, and more specifically with Black Lake, when it started to develop into a stagnate marsh. The shallow depth of the water, along with several dry summers, had turned the lake into a reedy eyesore. In addition, the water was seeping through the lake bed and into the underlying sand revealing an unsightly expanse of mud and garbage.Macclesfield Borough Council, the authoritative body for Lindow Common, agreed that a plan needed to be developed to regenerate this area of scientific interest. The Planning Department of the Macclesfield Borough Council, the engineers for this project, put together a design that included deepening, reshaping and lining Black Lake to prevent water loss and maintain a clear body of water for conservation.The Council realized it must be very cautious and selective when choosing the liner system for Black Lake. After reviewing several liner alternatives, the decision was made to line the slopes and base of the lake with Claymax® liquid containment liner. The Council felt this lining system was cost-effective, and it would alleviate any potential leaks.Claymax is a geotextile/bentonite liner that provides a continuous layer of sodium bentonite clay in carpet form. It consists of sodium bentonite adhered to a durable, woven polypropylene fabric and protected by an open-weave, biodegradable polyester scrim. The bentonite liner was supplied by Rawell Marketing, exclusive Claymax distributor in England; the product was manufactured by Clem Environmental in Fairmount, Georgia.InstallationThe area to be lined was excavated and the vertical banks of the lake were regraded to provide slopes of 2.5:1; the depth of the lake was increased to halt the growth of the reeds. Also, overflow outlets were constructed before the installation of the membrane. After removing all vegetation, protrusions and rocks larger than two inches in diameter, the sub-base was compacted as directed by the manufacturer's specifications. Upon completion of the ground preparation, the bentonite liner installation began.Using a front-end loader and a spreader bar, each 13-1/2 x 82' roll of Claymax was suspended above the anchor trench and pulled out from the top of the roll down the slopes. The rolls were locked into an anchor trench at the top of the slope and covered with backfill. When laid out and overlapped at the seams, each sheet covers approximately 1,000 square feet, and insures that every square foot is uniformly covered by a pound per square foot of sodium bentonite.Unlike synthetic liners, no adhesive or thermal welding was required with the bentonite liner. The seams between successive rolls of the liner required a 6-to- 12 inch overlap. Long pins or nails were used every yard to secure the seams when placing the cover material. A layer of backfill was spread over the liner to provide adequate confinement of the bentonite and to protect the geotextile backing from ultraviolet radiation. As the sodium bentonite hydrates, it swells and extrudes through the weave in the supporting geotextiles, forming a monolithic seal at each overlap. In a typical installation, the 1 /2-inch thick bentonite sheet will swell up to one inch resulting in the equivalent permeability of several feet of compacted clay. The permeability of Claymax is 2 x10-10 cm per second.Today, Black Lake is a beautiful, clear body of water overflowing with flora and fauna and is used for fishing, sailing and other recreational activities.Hawkins, Lisa. "Recreational Lake in England." Land and Water. May/June 1990. Pp 8-9.</text>
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<text>Hawkins, Lisa. "Recreational Lake in England." Land and Water. May/June 1990. Pp 8-9.</text>
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<text>Haragan, Donald R., Stephan G. Wells, ed. "Origin and Evolution of Deserts." Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 1983.</text>
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<text> The authors of this book focus on the history and interdependence of geologic, biologic, and climatic components of today's North American deserts.</text>
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card_6667.xml
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<text>Gimble, Elliot. "Of Indians, Issues, and Ideas: Tropical Rainforests: A Disappearing Treasure." "The Journal of Museum Education," Winter 1989.</text>
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<text>By Mike GallagherJOURNAL INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERDreams crumble into sand for lack of water in the arid Fra Cristobal Range. The 524-square-mile Armendaris Ranch for years has captivated developers with a mirage of vacation resorts, luxury hotels, golf courses, farms, marinas, condominiums. So far, those visions have vanished in the desert that abuts Elephant Butte Lake, New Mexico's largest body of water. But the current owner of the Armendaris Ranch, Oppenheimer Industries Inc., hasn't given up. The company is pursuing its claim to the eastern shore of the lake, and says it is gearing up to push its application to drill wells. But every move the company has made to obtain access to the lake and underground water has faced stiff opposition from downstream irrigation districts, which say the company's plans would infringe on their water rights.The opening movesOppenheimer's strategy of at least acquiring access to the shoreline came close to succeeding in a series of talks that began in 1986, when the company nearly reached an agreement with the Department of Interior. That attempt eventually was scuttled by opposition from the irrigation districts. Oppenheimer had better luck with the state of New Mexico, which entered into a letter of intent with Oppenheimer for joint development of the eastern shore. That plan also has been put on hold. The state parks division administers the land surrounding the lake but doesn't have road access to the eastern shore of the lake. The Bureau of Reclamation operates the dam and is responsible for the allocation of water to the downstream users. Control of Oppenheimer Industries changed hands in 1990 when California developers bought the stock owned by company ' officials based in Kansas City, Mo. The new owners filed a federal lawsuit laying claim to the eastern lake shore.That suit was put on hold when Oppenheimer filed for reorganization under federal bankruptcy laws in Los Angeles, after Traveler's Corp. foreclosed on a $6 million mortgage on the ranch.Wrestling for waterThe new owners have decided to push ahead with the underground water claims as a way out of bankruptcy.The company has two groundwater applications pending. One is a 1984 application filed by the L-7 Ranch, which Oppenheimer acquired several years ago. The second, and more controversial, is an application filed by Armendaris Ranch in 1986 seeking to drill more than 100 wells.Opposition to Oppenheimer's 1986 application is bitter, led by the downstream irrigation districts based in Las Cruces and El Paso. Both districts are hardened veterans of Rio Grande water fights.The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation an agency of the Department of Interior that oversees the operation of federally funded dams and irrigation projects such as Elephant Butte, has also challenged Oppenheimer's claims to underground water rights.While the land ownership disputes are on hold because of the bankruptcy action, Oppenheimer officials say they're preparing to present their water claims to the state engineer."Water is clearly the priority," executive vice president Joel Ciniero said in a recent telephone interview. "Its financial impact is big, if we're successful."Dormant applicationsHowever, the water-rights application for the 100 wells has seen little activity since it was filed with the state engineer in 1986.The application seeks more than 47,000 acre-feet of water a year from the wells. (An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons, enough water to cover an acre to the depth of 1 foot.) The application was protested by the Bureau of Reclamation and the irrigation districts. They fear any large depletion of underground water will affect the lake. Opponents of the well application say the water in the lake would seep down to replace the water pumped 'from the aquifer, reducing the amount available for irrigation.State records show at least 12 of Oppenheimer's proposed well sites are in the reservoir boundaries.It is up to the applicant to request a hearing. State records show no request has been filed.But Ciniero said Oppenheimer is preparing a beneficial-use plan to show the state engineer how the water would be used if the company got permission to drill."I think you will see a flurry of activity in the next few months at the state Engineer's Office," he said. "We've been working on the groundwater issue behind the scenes for several months now."Corporate strategyCiniero said the company's plans for the water include agricultural, housing and recreational development."The overall theory of development hasn't changed," Ciniero said. "How the company looks at development has changed."There are a lot of neat ideas, but we have to take a hard look at those neat ideas. That multistory condo may look good in an architect's drawing, but does it fit the marketplace? Does it answer the needs of the community?"The underground water rights would also play a significant role in the bankruptcy case.Before the company filed for reorganization in the spring of 1990, more than 300,000 acres of the Armendaris RanchΓÇöwithout water rights ΓÇö was destined for the auction block.The minimum bid was to be $4.6 million ΓÇö compared with Oppenheimer's debt of more than $6 million to Traveler's on the ranch property.Oppenheimer's subsidiary, Armendaris Corp., listed assets of more than $19 million and liabilities of $14.4 million. More than two-thirds of the liabilities, $10.7 million, is mortgages on Armendaris Ranch.If they can secure a water supply adequate to develop the land, documents show, the owners have estimated the ranch's value at close to $30 million.To win approval to tap underground water, the company must convince the state engineer that its pumping from the McCrae aquifer won't hurt other water users.Otherwise, the company would have to buy water rights ΓÇö an expensive proposition considering the amount of water the company is seeking.Who owns what?From 1986 until 1990, Oppenheimer Industries' main focus was on gaining access to Elephant Butte Reservoir.Most of the activity consisted of private negotiations between Oppenheimer officials and representatives of the Department of Interior.Since 34,741 acres of the ranch were condemned in 1910 to build the dam and create the lake, various owners of the ranch have disputed the federal government's claim of owning about 14,000 acres on the eastern border of the reservoir.The federal government has contended since 1918 that the land was condemned in "fee" and that the government owns it outrightΓÇöan argument supported by several lower court decisions. The Bureau of Reclamation leases the entire lake frontage to the New Mexico state Park and Recreation Division.The dispute is further complicated by the rights acquired by downstream irrigation districts that paid for the condemnation and the building of the dam.The company took several different approaches to negotiating access to the lake and settling the ownership dispute, according to documents obtained by the Albuquerque Journal under the Freedom of Information Act. So far, none of the strategies has worked.ΓÇó In 1987, Oppenheimer Industries sought to enter into a letter of understanding with the Department of Interior giving the company access to the lake. Oppenheimer didn't notify the irrigation districts of its plans. When the districts learned of the strategy, they protested.ΓÇó In 1988, Oppenheimer proposed to give the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service property containing special wildlife habitat in exchange for access to the lake. Again, they didn't notify the irrigation districts.ΓÇóIn 1989, Oppenheimer entered into an agreement with the state ofNew Mexico to develop the east lake frontage without informing theDepartment of Interior or the irrigation districts.Records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show there was some initial support in the Bureau of Reclamation for Oppenheimer's proposed development of the east shoreline.One regional director wrote in 1987: "We should cooperate to the fullest extent possible with land exchanges and legislation proposals."Mounting oppositionBut the opposition quickly geared up when it learned what Oppenheimer Industries was planning.The irrigation districts in Las Cruces and El Paso weren't notified of the substance of the negotiations between Oppenheimer Industries and the Department of Interior until May 1988. When they did find out, it was through the intervention of Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.Gary Esslinger, executive director of the Elephant Butte Irrigation District, said in a telephone interview, "We knew something was going on, but we didn't know what."At that point, the irrigation districts protested."I believe this effort by Armendaris Corp. (Oppenheimer's subsidiary) is as potentially dangerous to all entities who have an entitlement to the use of Elephant Butte Reservoir as any we have ever known," Edd Fifer, general manager of the El Paso County Water Improvement District, wrote in a May 1988 letter to the Bureau of Reclamation.The Elephant Butte Irrigation District argued that the irrigation districts owned land beneath and surrounding the reservoir.Oppenheimer changed its strategy and began offering a land swap to the Department of Interior.Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show Oppenheimer Industries offered to give the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -ΓÇöanother Department of Interior agencyΓÇölands containing bat caves, lava beds and wetlands downstream from Bosque del Apache.In exchange, the Bureau of Reclamation would grant Oppenheimer Industries access to Elephant Butte.Official reservationsBut Department of Interior documents show officials were wary of the proposals.Internal legal opinions argued that the irrigation districts had to be brought into the negotiations.The same opinions also began picking the Oppenheimer proposals apart and raising issues such ~s land appraisals, environmental assessments and management plans.Negotiations dragged on into the summer of 1989, when the Bureau of Reclamation was informed that Oppenheimer Industries and the state of New Mexico had entered into an agreement for development of the lake's eastern shore.The agreement called for joint planning of development of the eastern shore by the state park division, which leases the property from the Bureau of Reclamation and Oppenheimer Industries.It granted the state the right to develop roads through the ranch to exploit the largely unused portion of the 30-mile eastern shore. On the disputed lands, Oppenheimer was to build recreational facilities such as boat ramps, hiking trails, parks and roadways.The agreement limited development of golf courses, hotels and commercial buildings to land the company actually owned.The Bureau of Reclamation and the irrigation districts were furious when the state notified the Department of Interior of the agreement."It is our opinion that this is nothing but an end run around that problem we pointed out to you many months ago," Elephant Butte Irrigation District board Chairman John Salopek said in a letter to Bureau of Reclamation project superintendent Dan N. Page."It is the position of the (irrigation district) board of directors that you do whatever is within your power to refuse to give Bureau (of Reclamation) approval to this letter of intent."The El Paso County Water Improvement District also objected.Fifer, the general manager, said in a letter to the Bureau of Reclamation that there "is entirely too much at stake in allowing any individual, partnership and/or corporations any rights to Elephant Butte Reservoir."He added: "Once a precedent is set, we will be forced to live with the situation for a long time. There are numerous problem. areas within the 'Letter of Intent' that we will not address due to the fact that we do not recognize the 'Letter of Intent' as a formal document."Fearing a precedentAt the Bureau of Reclamation, the agreement between the state and Oppenheimer Industries caused some internal anxiety.Some bureau officials, according to documents obtained under the FOIA, were concerned that simply having the agreement in the files would give credence to Oppenheimer's claim of ownership to the lake shore.The bureau then fashioned a formal response."We are concerned that the state chose to execute this agreement prior to any involvement by the Bureau of Reclamation and the irrigation districts," the bureau said in a letter to the state."We feel that our involvement would have been appropriate since the state's association with the reservoir lands is provided only by the recreational management lease executed by Reclamation and that the original purpose for the reservoir was for the irrigation of lands included in the Elephant Butte Irrigation District and the El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1 and for delivery of water to Mexico."The state's viewTom Bahr, former secretary for natural resources and economic development under then Gov. Garrey Carruthers, negotiated the agreement for the state and still defends it, although he left office before the outcry from various agencies."I looked at it as a win-win situation for the state," Bahr said, noting that he believes state parks are in need of money from private sources.What made the deal palatable to the state was that in the event Armendaris eventually gained outright ownership of the land, the agreement assured continued public access."That sounded like a pretty good deal for the state," Bahr said, adding that the state never took sides on the issue of who owned the land in and around the reservoir.Gallagher, Mike. "Desert Shrivels Resort Plans." Albuquerque Journal. 11 August 1991. F1. </text>
<text>By Steve BrewerJOURNAL STAFF WRITER ABIQUIUΓÇöThey don't look like much now, these gravel-filled pits dotted with drooping plants and ringed by rattling sunflower stalks.But in warmer months they're miniature marshesΓÇödry underfoot, but wild with greenery and flowers and buzzing insects. Birds flit in for nesting material and gophers burrow in the rich soil nearby. Tiny freshwater shrimp, mosquito fish and water striders thrive in a pond lush with algae and duckweed. Underground, there's even more action, though it's at a microscopic level. Bacteria and plant roots sift nutrients and chemicals from the water that trickles from one end of the marsh to the other. And that, more than the foliage, is the purpose of the manmade marsh, because, the water comes from a septic tank. "What we're doing is what any good farmer does when he manures his field," said engineer Michael Ogden. "We're just water-gardening. Were putting human manure in and letting the plants do the work for us." Ogden is one of three partners in Southwest Wetlands Group, a Santa Fe firm that's building such marshes, known as constructed wetlands, in several places in the state. The firm has run into a number of obstacles, ranging from a lack of research grant money to balky regulators, but the biggest problem is getting people to understand and accept constructed wetlands. "It's the subject that in polite society you're not even supposed to talk about," Ogden said. "You just flush your problems down the toilet." Ogden and his partners, engineer Tom Andrews and landscape architect Craig Campbell, have spoken to civic groups around the state, trying to spread the word that plants hold the answer to septic wastes. "It's starting to catch on," Andrews said, "not just with individuals or even municipalities, but with industries that are looking to use it for habitat restoration and waste treatment." Andrews sees constructed wetlands as a perfect marriage between engineering and biology. "I love the thing because it involves nature in the process," he said. Constructed wetlands are technologies developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for possible use in space, he said Similar processes are being used in Biosphere II the enclosed artificial environment being tested near Tucson.In other states, particularly California and rural Southern states such as Arkansas and Louisiana, constructed wetlands increasingly are used as combinations of waste-treatment systems and landscaping. Orlando, Fla., and San Diego both use wetlands systems as part of their wastewater cleanup. A model system in Arcata Calif., doubles as a park.In Pennsylvania alone, Campbell said, more than 300 marshes have been constructed to clean up mining wastes. But in New Mexico, only a few wetlands have been built as part of septic systems. Systems exist in Tatum and at the Roswell Correctional Facility, and Southwest Wetlands designed and oversaw the building of another this year at El Dorado Elementary School in Santa Fe.Campbell's other business, the Albuquerque landscape architecture firm of Campbell Okuma Perkins Associates Inc., has included a wetlands system in the design for the Rio Grande Botanic Garden. Wetlands also has designed three unbuilt systems for the state Highway Department and a municipal system for the resort town of Ouray, Colo. The firm is currently designing a wetlands system for a Hobbs retirement center. Ogden is even experimenting with using a greenhouse-and-wetlands system to clean up sludge siphoned from septic tanks, hoping to turn it into safe, rich soil. He recently completed such a system on private land near Aroyo Hondo.While large wetlands systems are envisioned as a key to reducing groundwater pollution, the firm's real message is that constructed wetlands can be used on the small scale, too. Homes that normally would be equipped only with a septic tank and drain field could add a wetlands and use the resulting water for irrigation. "It's kind of a radical concept: What if we had to put water back in the ground as clean as it was when we took it out?" Ogden asked. The test cases for Southwest Wetlands Group are wetlands built for two homes in Abiquiu, one a marsh of 450 square feet and the other of 1,000 square feet. Every month, the engineers troop to Abiquiu and sample the water as it moves "from its stinky state to its non-stinky state," said Andrews. They also take photographs, so they have a record of the ebb and grow of the wildlife habitat they've created. All of nature's cleanup processes aren't fully understood, Andrews said, but the proof is in the water, which is black when it enters a wetlands and clear when it emerges from the other end. The water isn't clean enough to drink, but tests show that, after its final stage in the pond, it should be safe for irrigation, he said. In a typical septic tank system, anaerobic bacteria in the tank begin the process of breaking down everything that is flushed or poured down the drain. Solids break down into a sludge that settles in the tank, while the liquid leaches out into a drain field, where it's filtered by surrounding soil. With a wetlands system, the wastewater is piped from the tank into the manmade marsh rather than directly into the ground. The marsh is lined with plastic and filled with gravel. Water drains into one end of the marsh through a perforated pipe and slowly flows through the gravel and the roots of plants like cattails and bulrushes. Bacteria living among the roots help with the filtering process. Ogden said most wastes in the water are amino acids and protein chains that can be broken down by the bacteria into basic parts like water, carbon dioxide and nitrogen. In their simpler forms, the parts can be used as food for the plants. Chemical processes in the roots convert dangerous nitrites, for example, into nitrate, which is essentially plant fertilizer, Ogden said. The water flows into another perforated pipe at the other end of the marsh and into an outlet tank. A pipe in the outlet tank controls the flow and keeps the level of wastewater from percolating to the surface of the marsh, Ogden said. Overflow from the tank goes through another pipe to a small pond where the water is "polished" by algae before evaporating or soaking into the ground. The wetlands are designed to be large enough that the wastes can be handled even in winter, when most plants are dormant, he said. Ogden said the plants can also clean up many hazardous chemicals that wouldn't be filtered out in a regular septic tank system, and that's why wetlands often are used to purify industrial wastewater. "Most of the 65 chemicals in the Environmental Protection Agency's 'hit list' are ones that natural systems can break down," he said. Research in other states has shown that wetlands systems also eliminate dangerous bacteria that could cause typhoid fever and hepatitis, but Southwest Wetlands Group can't afford tests to double-check their own designs, Andrews said. The partners sought a research grant for such tests, but didn't get it because they aren't affiliated with a college. Pat Hanson, head of the liquid waste section at the state Environmental Improvement Division, said concerns about bacteria are keeping his agency cautious about constructed wetlands. He said the EID would begin sampling the Abiquiu wetlands in about six months to begin its own tests. "We have to allow for a certain time to pass for the systems to mature," he said. Constructed wetlands, he said, have "very great promise in terms of limiting the transport of a number of pollutants to groundwater, but where we get cautious is in terms of public health protection." Because the plants filter out so many chemicals, wetlands systems would be useful in community systems "where there can be some adequate monitoring," he said, but the EID intends to go slow on individual residential systems. The Southwest Wetlands partners complain that getting permission for residential systems has been a nightmare, with their requests for variances from state code taking months to process. Ogden said the state regulators have been supportive, but have told him that "changing regulations and adding something into their cookbook is a very, very tedious process." Hanson said the state is trying to develop a set of technical guidelines that will make the processing of variances more standardized. The EID also wants to establish an advisory committee to deal with wetlands and other alternative septic systems not covered by current regulations. "There have been other times when we've had other solutions with great promise that haven't panned out," he said, "composting toilets and things like that. That's the source of a lot of our caution." Besides, he said, there's nothing wrong with traditional septic tank-drain field systems as long as they're sited properly and the soil around them isn't saturated. Septic tanks with drain fields, he said, are "every bit as natural or organic a treatment as a wetlands. They're cheaper and they don't involve any energy investment." But, argued Ogden, they're not as good at eliminating chemicals from groundwater, and "you can pay for handling the pollution now or pay much more for it later." He said residential wetlands cost between $3,000 and $5,000, but the owner gets more than clean wastewater for his money. He also gets a wildlife habitat, irrigation water and foliage. "What we're doing is building miniature bosques all over the place," he said. Brewer, Steve. "Manmade Wetlands Filter Water Naturally." Albuquerque Journal. 6 January 1991. B1.</text>
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<text>Brewer, Steve. "Manmade Wetlands Filter Water Naturally." Albuquerque Journal. 6 January 1991. B1.</text>
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<text>Animas - La Plata Project ΓÇö Colorado and New MexicoWater has always played an important role in the settlement of the west, and settlers and Indian Tribes always sought a dependable water supply for domestic use and irrigating crops. When supplies were scarce they moved on; when supplies were sufficient they remained. Because of the lack of adequate storage, the water supplies of the past cannot serve the future needs of a growing area. The Animas - La Plata Project, a multi-purpose water resource project, is designed to serve the future water needs of southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico.Project ObjectivesThe project will furnish water for municipal and industrial use and irrigation in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. Project water will be provided for the City of Durango and to rural subdivisions in the surrounding area. Water for the rural La Plata area will serve residents in the La Plata River drainage area, and the Animas - La Plata Water Conservancy District will purchase water for future needs. The Southern Ute Indian Tribe and Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe will obtain project municipal and industrial water for future potential use.In New Mexico, project water will be provided for the San Juan Water Commission to serve the cities of Farmington, Aztec, and Bloomfield, and the surrounding rural areas. Project municipal and industrial water will also be provided to the Navajo Nation in the Shiprock area. Project water will be provided for the irrigation of approximately 42,800 acres of non-lndian and Indian land in both states.Recreational opportunities will be made available with the project. The developing of land for wildlife will compensate for habitat losses and a program will be instituted to collect and preserve cultural resources.Project Financing and Indian Water RightsThe United States Congress required a cost-sharing agreement between the project beneficiaries and the Federal government. Under this agreement of June 30, 1986, the project will be constructed in two phases. The parties to the cost-sharing agreement are the State of Colorado; Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority; Montezuma County, Colorado; Animas-La Plata Water Conservancy District; New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission; San Juan Water Commission, New Mexico; Southern Ute Indian Tribe; Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe; and the U.S. Department of the Interior. Non-Federal entities will finance Phase 2 construction.The Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Final Settlement Agreement of December 10, 1986, as provided for in the cost-sharing agreement, includes the Animas-La Plata Project as a cornerstone in the settlement of the long-standing Indian water right claims of the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribes in Colorado. The project provides for eliminating competition between the Indian Tribes and non-lndian water users through an equitable solution to these claims.Project PlanUnder Phase 1, Ridges Basin Reservoir, an off-stream project reservoir located southwest of Durango, will store water pumped from the Animas River. Reservoir releases will be made as necessary back to the Animas River for New Mexico's municipal and industrial users downstream and to the Durango Municipal and Industrial PipeIine to provide water for the City of Du rango. Water will be pumped from the reservoir and conveyed to rural subdivisions west of Durango through the Shenandoah Municipal and Industrial Pipeline. The Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Indian Tribes will receive project water stored in the reservoir. Water pumped from the reservoir for the Colorado and New Mexico irrigators will be conveyed through the Dry Side Canal and Long Hollow Tunnel. Water can also be diverted from the canal to the La Plata River for irrigation in Colorado and New Mexico, as well as continue in the canal to irrigate land in western La Plata County. Colorado municipal water users in the La Plata River drainage will also receive project water delivered through the canal and tunnel. The Southern Ute Inlet and Interim Irrigation Canal will convey water diverted from the river by the Southern Ute Diversion Dam for the irrigation of land in New Mexico. Sprinkler irrigation will be provided by pressure developed through gravity pipe laterals and, on one lateral system, a pumping plant. A total of 42,800 acres of full and supplemental service land will be irrigated under Phase 1. Preconstruction activities began in 1986 as a prelude to the first major construction activity in 1989. Phase 1 is scheduled to be completed in approximately 12 years.Under Phase 2, water will be diverted from the La Plata River to the Dry Side Canal by the La Plata Diversion Dam during spring runoff. Southern Ute Reservoir, near the Colorado-New Mexico State line will receive water from the Southern Ute Diversion Dam and Inlet Canal. This offstream reservoir will store water for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe for development of coal resources on the reservation and for New Mexico irrigation. The New Mexico Irrigation Canal will carry water released from the reservoir to land in New Mexico. Approximately 2 miles of the Dry Side Canal and 4 pumping plants and pipe laterals will be developed to serve approximately 24,600 acres of land in Colorado and New Mexico.The Economic BaseThe project will provide jobs for the people and stimulate the economy of La Plata County, Colorado, and San Juan County, New Mexico, and benefically influence agriculture and recreation. In the first year of construction on Phase 1, about 10 people will have jobs working for the contractor and the government and will earn $222,000 in salaries.During the peak years of construction, 8 through 10, this number will rise to an average of 860 people who will earn about $18,500,000 per year. In the final year of construction, this number will total approximately 570 people who will receive about $12,200,000 in salaries. Construction salaries will generate approximately $2,200 annually in sales taxes during the first year, average $185,000 per year during the peak years, and decline to approximately $122,000 in the final year. Other jobs and income not related to construction will also be generated as a result of the project.On completion of Phase 1, a total of approximately 110 jobs will be created in both agriculture and related businesses, including almost 40 new on-farm jobs in Colorado and New Mexico.Annual gross agricultural production would be increased by an estimated $15,750,000, and annual net farm income would be increased by about $8,820,000. Approximately 23,750 acres of non-lndian dry land will be added to the tax rolls as irrigated farmland.The project will also help meet anticipated recreation needs in the area. Ridges Basin Reservoir will accommodate up to 1,800 people per day, providing the area with an additional 210,000 recreation days annually. A recreation day ranges from a visit of a few hours to one of an entire day.For boating and fishing, a 7-1ane boat ramp will be available at Ridges Basin Reservoir. The reservoir will be stocked with trout. Approximately 10 miles of hiking trails and 50 camping and 50 picnic sites will be available for public use.Animas-La Plata Project. Publication of United States Department of the Interior. Bureau of Reclamation. Upper Colorado Region. Durango, Colorado 81302. (303) 385-6500. DPO 7/87.</text>
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<text>Animas-La Plata Project. Publication of United States Department of the Interior. Bureau of Reclamation. Upper Colorado Region. Durango, Colorado 81302. (303) 385-6500. DPO 7/87.</text>
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