The Home Front: Colorado’s water law is ‘a complex set of rules and regulations’

“In Colorado, the difference between who can use water and who can’t is as simple as seniority,” reports Vail Daily. “Colorado’s water law is a complex set of rules and regulations, but Rule No. 1 is simple: First in time, first in line. Water rights on the state’s streams and reservoirs have been adjudicated and allocated since about the turn of the 20th century. People who have those oldest water rights have first claim on water. That’s crucial in dry years.”

“Nayda Benitez never decided to leave the high mountain Mexican town she called home at age 7,” reports The Denver Post. “But once in Colorado Springs, she resolved to graduate from high school near the top of her class, get a scholarship and go to college. Now a new White House plan may undo her work. President Donald Trump is expected to announce Tuesday that he will end protections for immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children. But Trump would delay that action for six months, people familiar with the plans told The Associated Press.”

“A sudden gust of wind and a disturbance in the hot, dry weather are suspected of causing four power poles to break and resulted in a power outage for thousands of homes in Grand Junction on Monday night,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “The power poles, located on Bureau of Land Management property in the desert north of I Road on 25 Road, looked like toothpicks snapped off at their bases.”

“Longmont Humane Society volunteers opened the doors to a van that had made its way from Longmont to Austin, Texas, and back, and were greeted Monday evening by the cacophony of 22 different barks,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “The Longmont Humane Society agreed to take 45 dogs from a shelter in Austin so that the Austin shelter could make way, if need be, for dogs displaced from their homes by Hurricane Harvey. As the first of three vans arrived in Longmont, volunteers huddled to figure out the order of operations for how to screen the first 22 dogs — some in need of vaccinations and others with matted fur or other issues. The dogs will be available for adoption in about a week or two, once staff has given them medical checkups and behavioral evaluations.”

“A suspect apprehended by Loveland Police Department’s SWAT team possessed a semi-automatic rifle, officers found after a lengthy standoff around a home near downtown Loveland on Saturday,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “Larimer County Jail records show 30-year-old Loveland resident Gabriel Lee Rodriguez was arrested in the 1300 block of North Washington Avenue on suspicion of prohibited use of weapons, possession of a weapon by a previous offender, possession of prohibited large capacity magazines, violation of bail bond conditions, resisting arrest, refusal to leave a premises upon request and a warrant out of Boulder County alleging failure to appear in court on drug paraphernalia charges.”

“Routt County Sheriff’s Office deputies were going door-to-door Monday afternoon to let about 30 households in West Routt County know they should be prepared to flee a rapidly growing wildfire,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “The Deep Creek Fire, initially referred to at the Steer Park Fire, grew from 2 acres to 419 acres in only a few hours Monday near the Wolf Mountain Ranch between Milner and Hayden. The blaze — which officials said might have resulted from a reignition of a wildfire started last week by a suspected lightning strike — was discovered about noon. Deputies gave pre-evacuation notices to residents who were within a 5-mile radius of the fire along Routt County Road 52.”

“Limited habitat and deadly plague infecting endangered black-footed ferrets and their prey have hobbled recovery in the wild despite a 25-year federal captive-breeding rescue run from Colorado,” reports The Denver Post. “The apparent survival rates of ferrets set loose on prairie have dipped below 50 percent in some areas, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data. Federal biologists say that after re-introducing 4,700 ferrets since 1991 at 28 sites nationwide, the primary problem of plague has limited the surviving population to between 400 and 500 animals.”

“An ex-advertising agent, a marine biologist and a mechanical engineer walk on screen,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “The mix might sound odd. But this combination of minds, plus the lens of an Emmy-winning documentarian, proves effective — it’s a connection of perspectives with the capacity to change the way climate change is presented to the public. The three characters appear in “Chasing Coral,” a documentary that explores the mass death of coral reef systems across the globe, from Hawaii, to the Caribbean, to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Jeff Orlowski is the filmmaker behind the movie, and he is one of six people to be recognized on Sept. 9 at the Dairy Center Honors, a celebration of outstanding figures in Boulder-area arts.”

“Authorities found the bodies of two Custer County brothers in a pond Monday afternoon after they drowned in low-visibility waters, according to a news release,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “Weldon Rusher, 20, and his older brother, Benjamin Rusher, 28, were swimming in 41-degree water Sunday night and died after struggling to stay above the heavy weeds that surrounded them. Their bodies were found in a family pond at Music Meadows Ranch at the base of Music Pass in rural Custer County, the Custer County Sheriff’s Office news release said. Before the brothers drowned, a group of adults gathered for a fire and began swimming in the pond when Weldon Rusher swam out ahead of everyone else.”