The Southwest Basin Roundtable (SBR) conducted their last quarterly meeting of 2011 on October 12^th in Cortez. In addition to discussion of Roundtable business, to include fund balances both at the local and state levels, two new SBR representatives were elected.

The Sixth Annual Water 101 Seminar was successfully conducted on October 7^th in Pagosa Springs. There were nearly 30 participants, many of whom were realtors and lawyers who received continuing education credits for their attendance. We were again honored to have Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hobbs as the keynote speaker.

The U.S. Geological Survey has a fascinating interactive site for real-time information on stream flows, generally updated on an hourly basis.

Have you ever tried a gin and tonic with a slice of cucumber?  

Rainfall in semi-arid Southwest Colorado is usually a blessing, but in 1911, it was another story after 36 hours of rain dropped 3.42 inches of rain in Durango and 4 inches in Silverton.

Colorado is proposing to control nutrients in water for the first time. Nutrients, mainly nitrogen and phosphorous, are essential for plant and animal growth, but they can create algae blooms that steal oxygen from aquatic life.

Biologists with Colorado Parks and Wildlife say they continue to find new signs of aquatic invaders in Colorado waters, including New Zealand mudsnails, which showed up in East Delaney Butte Reservoir this summer.

The San Miguel River, a 70-mile ribbon of water that flows from the north side of Wasatch Mountain to a desert canyon in Montrose County, isn’t a river that experiences huge flows. Even during spring runoff, the river normally stays below 1,500 cfs, and in winter months, it drops to less than 100 cfs.

U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton (R-Cortez) recently introduced a bill aimed at streamlining the process to approve federal small conduit hydroelectricity projects.

A new Guinness World Records achievement was verified on August 20^th at the Pagosa geothermal hot springs, measuring the deepest in the worl