The Colorado Water Quality Control Commission will consider standards for the protection of fish in our streams and lakes in January - Comments addressing your in-the-stream experience are needed!!!
The CO Water Quality Control Commission will hold a hearing on January 8, 2007 to revise temperature standards for the protection of fish in our streams and lakes. The standards adopted will define the temperature levels allowed in streams and lakes so as to protect fish and wildlife – just like standards are set for ammonia, dissolved oxygen, metals, and other measures of water quality.
Colorado has had temperature standards in the books for over 20 years but they are somewhat unclear and seldom, if ever, used.
The most fundamental issue in this hearing is delay in protecting fish. Under either the Division of Water Quality’s proposal or a proposal by industrial, water supply and wastewater entities, it may take between 5 and 10 years to have fully applicable temperature standards across the state.
In the meanwhile, fish in some rivers like the Fraser and upper Colorado, and creeks such as Bear Creek, are struggling to stay alive. High temperatures have led to fish kills directly and have stressed fish, making them more vulnerable to disease and other threats. Trout and trout anglers know that water temperature matters – and it is time for the Commission to stop delaying and adopt protective standards for immediate use.
The Commission needs to realize that stream temperature problems are not abstract. They are real! The Commission needs to hear real life stories from you and others who have felt the impact of increasingly high stream temperatures – on your life, your business and your ability to enjoy and benefit from our streams and lakes!
Colorado Trout Unlimited supports a proposal which includes daily and weekly maximum temperature levels for streams and lakes that have an aquatic life designation, together with a maximum 3 degree deviation from ambient conditions to protect fish from sudden changes in temperature (thermal shock) and to allow fish reproduction and non-adult life stages. These standards are to be applied state-wide as “default” standards – meaning that they would apply unless site-specific conditions dictate different levels of protection.
The Division of Water Quality’s proposal falls flat in protecting fish. First, the state-wide temperature standards could not be automatically used to establish that a stream aquatic life use is impaired because of temperature problems. Identifying impairment is important because it triggers a mechanism to find ways to solve the problem. Under the Division’s proposal, an impairment decision could not be made until a site-specific temperature standard is adopted, a process that may take years. Second, the standards exempt a number of dischargers from their application – some of them until a site-specific standard is set, others indefinitely.
The industrial, water supply and wastewater entities have proposed an alternative which would postpone adoption of temperature standards (and for only adult fish) until site-specific hearings for each stream and lake are held – a process that could take years.
Please contact the Commission with your stories and the message – “DON'T DELAY ANYMORE - ADOPT EFFECTIVE TEMPERATURE STANDARDS THAT CAN BE USED TO PROTECT OUR FISHERIES TODAY”.
You can e-mail the Commission at cdphe.wqcc@state.co.us or send a letter to: Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, OED-OPPI-A5, 4300 Cherry Creek Drive South,Denver, CO 80246-1530. Please copy e-mails to jrosapepe@tu.org and letters to CTU, 1320 Pearl Street, #320, Boulder, Colorado 80302.
Or, you can testify in person at the hearing in Denver on January 8 - public comment periods are set for 1-2 p.m. and 5-6 p.m. If you'd like to share your concerns in person with the Commission, contact CTU's West Slope Organizer John Rosapepe for more information at jrosapepe@tu.org.
Thank you for helping protect Colorado's trout!