Funding will be renewed until August 2014, at which point stakeholders are expected to have a more sustainable method of funding, according to Udall spokesman Mike Saccone.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The current funding) is by design a short-term solution. . This (refunding) is meant to give stakeholders more time to find a more sustainable funding source for the program,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The program covers 12 states in the Western United States, including Colorado.<\/p>\n
\u201cWater is the lifeblood of the West, and our water managers need the best information on snowpack to keep our rivers, farms and cities strong,\u201d Udall said in a news release.<\/p>\n
In Colorado, the snow-survey program focuses on water-supply management, flood control, climate modeling, recreation and conservation planning, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service website.<\/p>\n
The state river system in Colorado generates an average of 16 million-acre feet or renewable water annually, about two-thirds of which is required to leave the state, according to the Colorado Water Conservation Board.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven Colorado\u2019s critical role in providing water, not just in state but also to other basin states this data is important to region,\u201d Saccone said.<\/p>\n
Despite the temporary refunding, stakeholders still need to find a new method of sustaining the program before the expiration in August.<\/p>\n
While we received our statewide operational budget for the year, the allocation for the snow-survey program was far less than what is needed to fully implement the program even with the streamlining efforts we are implementing within the state,\u201d said Phyllis Ann Philipps, state conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Colorado. \u201cWe will need (the stakeholders) continued input and support as the fix I\u2019ve implemented is an interim one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Colorado senators as well as Tipton also have written a letter to the Natural Resources Conservation Services reiterating the importance of the continuation of the survey services.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur state contains nine major watersheds, each with its own distinct snowfall patterns and obligations to downstream states. For example, current water supplies across the state range from 100 percent of normal in some areas to 40 percent in others,\u201d the letter said. \u201cThe ability to accurately measure snowpack in each basin . is essential for water districts and municipalities to meet the demands of competing users.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Funding will be renewed until August 2014, at which point stakeholders are expected to have a more sustainable method of funding, according to Udall spokesman Mike Saccone. \u201c(The current funding) is by design a short-term solution. . This (refunding) is meant to give stakeholders more time to find a more sustainable funding source for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[188,13,1163],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-59527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-dolores-star","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-weather-science"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59527\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59527"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=59527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}