Docket ID: EPA-HQ-Oq-2010-0505

John Weisheit to: Nick Parsons 08/04/2010 03:22 PM

Mr. Nick Parsons

Environmental Engineer

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

OAR/OAQPS/SPPD/CCGEPA Denver (Region 8)

Parsons.Nick@epamail.epa.gov

Dear Mr. Parsons:

The Canyonlands Watershed Council would like to use this opportunity to inform 

the Environmental Protection Agency about our concerns pertaining to the 

impairment of air quality on the Colorado Plateau . Our organization is based 

in Moab, Utah in the area of the Colorado Plateau where all the major 

tributaries of the Colorado River basin converge and enter Lake Powell . The 

Colorado Plateau has the largest concentration of federal reserve lands in the 

United States. The critical habitat of the Colorado River above Lake Powell is 

also the last hope for the recovery of its endangered fish species . 

The Colorado Plateau is rich in hydrocarbon fuels including coal , oil, natural 

gas, oil shale and tar sands. The cumulative impacts of the hydrocarbon 

extraction industry on air and water resources of the Colorado Plateau is 

increasing despite federal mandates , such as Secretarial Order 3289, to reduce 

greenhouse gases and implement renewable energy programs . 

Additionally, the impacts of fugitive dust on the Colorado Plateau is causing 

rapid and early snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains . As stated by Secretary 

Salazar in December of 2009, the Colorado River basin will be affected by 

climate change more than any other river basin in the United States . 

The Bureau of Reclamation announced in February 2010 that the rising trend of 

water consumption in the Colorado River basin now exceeds the declining trend 

of water supply. Reclamation has also determined that the streamflow of the 

Colorado River for the last decade has declined by 30%, which is unprecedented 

in the modern instrument record. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration's RISA program (Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments ) 

at the University of Colorado at Boulder has determined that in four decades 

the annual yield of the Colorado River will only be 12 million acre-feet, 

which is alarming considering that the current hydrologic determination of the 

basin is 15 maf.

The two greatest threats to the streamflow of the Colorado River basin are 

atmospheric in nature: greenhouse gas emissions and fugitive dust . If these 

two threats are not reduced immediately , then it is reasonable to conclude 

that the people and businesses dependent on the Colorado River water will 

suffer.

It will take national leadership and strategic programs with substantive 

funding mechanisms to solve a these problems . Since federal and state 

legislatures are at an impasse politically on issues of energy production and 

climate change, perhaps it is time for the EPA to mobilize willing communities 

that want to adjust to climate change by instituting appropriate 

airshed/watershed planning documents and programs .

We are willing to assist in such an initiative and invite EPA to work with us 

and the other communities of the Colorado Plateau .
Sincerely yours,

John Weisheit

Canyonlands Watershed Council