| 3/16/2009 9:06:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Water conservancy district to expand satellite monitoring
By Ron Sering - Special to the Mail
Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District will expand its satellite stream and reservoir monitoring system this year, continuing efforts begun in August last year.
District directors heard the information during their regular meeting Thursday in Salida.
"We're taking a pretty aggressive approach" Jord Gertson of Source Consulting, contractor for the program, said
"We're putting in 15 gages in reservoirs and stream gages in the upper district, all the way down to Lester Attebery Ditch right at the Pueblo County line," district general manager Terry Scanga said.
Data collection platforms will measure surface water conditions and in some cases, weather data. Information will be transmitted via satellite to district servers.
"The data will be displayed on the Web site for anyone in the state," Scanga said.
The system is part of the National Weather Service Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite program.
North Fork Reservoir station, the first of the sites, has been functioning since August 2008.
"We would have gone up there at least four times by now," district water engineer Ivan Walter said. "We have already saved half the cost of the station in time and manpower costs."
The expanded program will begin with installation of the Lester Attebery station in Eastern Fremont County during May.
July installations will include stations at Cottonwood Reservoir and Cottonwood Creek, with additional stations at Rainbow Lake and a second at North Fork. Additional stations are planned for installation during the fall.
On another topic, water consultant Ken Baker reported about progress in the consumptive use rules task force.
The task force is part of an effort by the state department of water resources to regulation sprinkler and irrigation systems in the Arkansas River basin.
Rules are to focus on the hydrological-industrial model domain established by the Arkansas River Compact, an agreement between Colorado and neighboring Kansas regarding water supply.
Because the upper Arkansas River isn't part of the H-I domain, The UAWCD is seeking wording to create exceptions for the upper basin.
"Kansas has been advised of the rules, and has made recommendations. I don't think there are a great (many) concerns outside the H-I domain," Baker told directors.
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