tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455386977159890234.comments2007-08-08T08:16:25.673-07:00Progressive 15http://www.blogger.com/profile/12254587487714965307noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455386977159890234.post-53546138215551189142007-08-08T06:55:00.000-07:002007-08-08T06:55:00.000-07:00I am concerned for people without availible or affordable transportation. I have heard about people walking from Brush to Fort Morgan to aquired needed food for their family from Caring Ministries and unable to get to doctor's appointments.leopequenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455386977159890234.post-30263274435121708202007-07-08T10:33:00.000-07:002007-07-08T10:33:00.000-07:00Some of you may remember that Eric Eidsness was the "other candidate" for the CD-4 in 2006. Because all the reasons that I ran the first time as a complete political novice exist today - a bleak future for my children unless we act, I am considering another run as a new member of the Democratic Party. <BR/><BR/>My party affiliation has changed because the Democratic Party cares about the issues I care about - health care reform, ethics reform, energy independence and Iraq and reestablishing our moral authority in the world through a revitalized foreign policy that does not attempt to build democracies at gunpoint but instead, uses the "ideal" of a Democracy to influence moderate and progressive people all over the world and provide them direct support provided we are not inciting violence. We must defend our Constitutional freedoms here at home to do this and we have a big job ahead of us.<BR/><BR/>I am a water engineer, owned an irrigated farm in Larimer Co for 28 years, was Secretary Treasurer of the Union Ditch company and traded in water rights, was former chief of federal water quality policy and businessman. I believe I understand the challanges the rural areas of CD-4 and elsewhere face and their difficulty at getting a place at the table to negotiate a piece of the American Dream when we have become an urban society - whether the issue is fighting the Pinon Canyon military expansion, prohibiting the in-situ mining of uranium near Windsor that will pollute our aquifer or losing irrigated land, land values and tax base because urban areas are cherry picking senior water rights in the rural areas. Family farms under stress with no hope in sight sometimes have to sell their water rights to remain viable or to protect their family assets. This usually means loss of irrigated farm land forever.<BR/><BR/>I want to bring my expertise and experiences to represent both urban and rural interests in CD-4 -if I announce as a Democratic candidate. In the end, I am an American first and am not stuck in partisanship or any particularly ideology.<BR/><BR/>I have been watching the Wiggins well shut-down issue closely and attended your forum last summer on water in Sterling. I have testified before the Governor's Task Force on the South Platte River. Though not all my ideas represent a federal interest, taken collectively, I believe my recommendations can have a profound impact on wiser water management under current law. So, I am attaching a letter I sent to Governor Ritter to that end. The letter follows.<BR/><BR/>Frederic A. Eidsness<BR/>337 Edwards Street<BR/>Fort Collins, CO 80524<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>July 6, 2007<BR/><BR/><BR/>Governor Bill Ritter<BR/>200 E Colfax Ave # 136<BR/>Denver, CO 80203-1776<BR/><BR/>RE: South Platte River<BR/><BR/>Dear Governor Ritter:<BR/><BR/>Thank you for being so cordial to me while you were on horseback with Senator Ken Salazar at the Greeley Stampede Parade on the 4th of July.<BR/><BR/>From your comment, I sensed that you may feel that the State’s options regarding better allocation of water under our laws of prior appropriation may be limited. I do not see it that way and I believe that the testimony your Task Force is getting, including mine, that the picture is brighter.<BR/><BR/>You may not know that I am a water engineer, an irrigated farmer and formally was in charge of national ground and surface water quality policy under two federal laws I enforced. I have been a practitioner for 30 years in all manner of studies, public works projects and clean-up of contaminated groundwater – all involving hydrology and hydrogeology.<BR/><BR/>Engineers see things very differently than attorneys – for good reason. Engineers know that if you manage water as a hydraulic unit, you can achieve better water allocation and use, even under the constraints of our laws. <BR/><BR/>The Legislature should enact legislation that returns to the State Water Engineer the authority to make decisions on augmentation plans of all types, particularly groundwater wells. The “administrative flexibility” inherent in the Water Engineer’s office that cannot be accommodated in the courts is a step towards optimization of water management.<BR/><BR/>Second, there seems to be evidence that the recovery rate of the groundwater levels in the South Platte River alluvium is great – no evidence of overall drawdown from man’s use as is experienced, for example, in the closed aquifer underlying Phoenix and Maricopa County or the Ogallala Aquifer. <BR/><BR/>Reverse groundwater gradients resulting from local drawdown from over pumping of wells too close to the river itself can “drain” the river. There are probably many wells that because of their spatial location relative to the river, the nature of their use (late irrigation of produce to make it more presentable at market, etc.) and the underlying geology have no affect whatsoever on the drawdown of water levels in the South Platte River itself. <BR/><BR/>If confirmed, the implications of this and our ability to monitor and model this phenomenon will result in placement and use of wells that do not need augmentation plans. Some will definitely have to be shut down as a matter of cost effectiveness.<BR/><BR/>Finally, a third option that should be evaluated is the creation of a single “public water utility” entity in the lower South Platte whose mission would be to buy private water rights, water works, and create conservation-type easements and keep the water on the land and invest in other improvements and management practices to optimize water management. The utility would lease-back these water rights to farmers. This proposal creates a win-win-win scenario.<BR/><BR/>For example, benefit will be maintaining property taxes, land values and giving Front Range urban communities a “single entity” to negotiate for lease of irrigated water rather than outright purchase to meet growth in municipal demand through “rotational fallowing”. Finally, ditch companies, rural farm cooperatives and family farms will be able to pool their resources through the new water utility to develop the expertise to negotiate with Front Range communities and federal agencies for minimum stream flow maintenance under the Endangered Species Act and Colorado’s Water Quality Standards, in conducting environmental studies and seeking federal grants for water storage projects and the like.<BR/><BR/>I have a particular expertise and experience in the geopolitics of obtaining federal grants for water storage projects. I testified to this summarily in Greeley last week and look forward to the opportunity of discussing my views at the appropriate time.<BR/><BR/>I hope that in time I will earn your trust and confidence as an ordinary man who tries in his own way to serve the public good. I look forward to getting to know your wife Jeannie on Tuesday night in Windsor.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Sincerely yours,<BR/><BR/><BR/>Frederic A. Eidsness<BR/>970 402-1536<BR/><BR/>cc Rebecca SwansonEric Eidsnesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03102597747040660172noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455386977159890234.post-39714509099647550232007-07-08T10:30:00.000-07:002007-07-08T10:30:00.000-07:00Some of you may remember that Eric Eidsness was the "other candidate" for the CD-4 in 2006. Because all the reasons that I ran the first time as a complete political novice exist today - a bleak future for my children unless we act, I am considering another run as a new member of the Democratic Party. <BR/><BR/>My party affiliation has changed because the Democratic Party cares about the issues I care about - health care reform, ethics reform, energy independence and Iraq and reestablishing our moral authority in the world through a revitalized foreign policy that does not attempt to build democracies at gunpoint but instead, uses the "ideal" of a Democracy to influence moderate and progressive people all over the world and provide them direct support provided we are not inciting violence. We must defend our Constitutional freedoms here at home to do this and we have a big job ahead of us.<BR/><BR/>I am a water engineer, owned an irrigated farm in Larimer Co for 28 years, was Secretary Treasurer of the Union Ditch company and traded in water rights, was former chief of federal water quality policy and businessman. I believe I understand the challanges the rural areas of CD-4 and elsewhere face and their difficulty at getting a place at the table to negotiate a piece of the American Dream when we have become an urban society - whether the issue is fighting the Pinon Canyon military expansion, prohibiting the in-situ mining of uranium near Windsor that will pollute our aquifer or losing irrigated land, land values and tax base because urban areas are cherry picking senior water rights in the rural areas. Family farms under stress with no hope in sight sometimes have to sell their water rights to remain viable or to protect their family assets. This usually means loss of irrigated farm land forever.<BR/><BR/>I want to bring my expertise and experiences to represent both urban and rural interests in CD-4 -if I announce as a Democratic candidate. In the end, I am an American first and am not stuck in partisanship or any particularly ideology.<BR/><BR/>I have been watching the Wiggins well shut-down issue closely and attended your forum last summer on water in Sterling. I have testified before the Governor's Task Force on the South Platte River. Though not all my ideas represent a federal interest, taken collectively, I believe my recommendations can have a profound impact on wiser water management under current law. So, I am attaching a letter I sent to Governor Ritter to that end. The letter follows.<BR/><BR/>Frederic A. Eidsness<BR/>337 Edwards Street<BR/>Fort Collins, CO 80524<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>July 6, 2007<BR/><BR/><BR/>Governor Bill Ritter<BR/>200 E Colfax Ave # 136<BR/>Denver, CO 80203-1776<BR/><BR/>RE: South Platte River<BR/><BR/>Dear Governor Ritter:<BR/><BR/>Thank you for being so cordial to me while you were on horseback with Senator Ken Salazar at the Greeley Stampede Parade on the 4th of July.<BR/><BR/>From your comment, I sensed that you may feel that the State’s options regarding better allocation of water under our laws of prior appropriation may be limited. I do not see it that way and I believe that the testimony your Task Force is getting, including mine, that the picture is brighter.<BR/><BR/>You may not know that I am a water engineer, an irrigated farmer and formally was in charge of national ground and surface water quality policy under two federal laws I enforced. I have been a practitioner for 30 years in all manner of studies, public works projects and clean-up of contaminated groundwater – all involving hydrology and hydrogeology.<BR/><BR/>Engineers see things very differently than attorneys – for good reason. Engineers know that if you manage water as a hydraulic unit, you can achieve better water allocation and use, even under the constraints of our laws. <BR/><BR/>The Legislature should enact legislation that returns to the State Water Engineer the authority to make decisions on augmentation plans of all types, particularly groundwater wells. The “administrative flexibility” inherent in the Water Engineer’s office that cannot be accommodated in the courts is a step towards optimization of water management.<BR/><BR/>Second, there seems to be evidence that the recovery rate of the groundwater levels in the South Platte River alluvium is great – no evidence of overall drawdown from man’s use as is experienced, for example, in the closed aquifer underlying Phoenix and Maricopa County or the Ogallala Aquifer. <BR/><BR/>Reverse groundwater gradients resulting from local drawdown from over pumping of wells too close to the river itself can “drain” the river. There are probably many wells that because of their spatial location relative to the river, the nature of their use (late irrigation of produce to make it more presentable at market, etc.) and the underlying geology have no affect whatsoever on the drawdown of water levels in the South Platte River itself. <BR/><BR/>If confirmed, the implications of this and our ability to monitor and model this phenomenon will result in placement and use of wells that do not need augmentation plans. Some will definitely have to be shut down as a matter of cost effectiveness.<BR/><BR/>Finally, a third option that should be evaluated is the creation of a single “public water utility” entity in the lower South Platte whose mission would be to buy private water rights, water works, and create conservation-type easements and keep the water on the land and invest in other improvements and management practices to optimize water management. The utility would lease-back these water rights to farmers. This proposal creates a win-win-win scenario.<BR/><BR/>For example, benefit will be maintaining property taxes, land values and giving Front Range urban communities a “single entity” to negotiate for lease of irrigated water rather than outright purchase to meet growth in municipal demand through “rotational fallowing”. Finally, ditch companies, rural farm cooperatives and family farms will be able to pool their resources through the new water utility to develop the expertise to negotiate with Front Range communities and federal agencies for minimum stream flow maintenance under the Endangered Species Act and Colorado’s Water Quality Standards, in conducting environmental studies and seeking federal grants for water storage projects and the like.<BR/><BR/>I have a particular expertise and experience in the geopolitics of obtaining federal grants for water storage projects. I testified to this summarily in Greeley last week and look forward to the opportunity of discussing my views at the appropriate time.<BR/><BR/>I hope that in time I will earn your trust and confidence as an ordinary man who tries in his own way to serve the public good. I look forward to getting to know your wife Jeannie on Tuesday night in Windsor.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Sincerely yours,<BR/><BR/><BR/>Frederic A. Eidsness<BR/>970 402-1536<BR/><BR/>cc Rebecca SwansonEric Eidsnesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03102597747040660172noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455386977159890234.post-18864547247148830812007-06-05T19:41:00.000-07:002007-06-05T19:41:00.000-07:00We have made some changes to make it easier for you to post your thoughts. Just click on comments and give us your vision.Progressive 15http://www.blogger.com/profile/12254587487714965307noreply@blogger.com