A local company started by a Colorado College grad has inked a deal with Colorado Springs School District 11 to build a solar garden on D-11 land.

SunShare built the Colorado Springs Community Solar Garden, the first public-private partnership of its kind in the nation, at Venetucci Farm last year. It has 300 households and schools as subscribers, and is subscribing a second project.

The D-11 deal was approved by the school board Wednesday night.

Here's SunShare's press release about it:

In another move for national firsts, SunShare announces its partnership with Colorado Springs School District 11 to build its next community solar garden. The project will be the first of its kind in the nation to be built in conjunction with a public school.

• The Independent
• David Amster-Olszewski: Growing a business.

The 2,500-panel solar garden will be built on a previously unusable piece of D-11 land located north of McAuliffe Elementary School. Its south-facing slope was unsuitable for school expansion, but is perfect for solar. Construction will begin this summer, and is expected to be complete before school resumes in the fall.

The solar garden is already 90% sold out to homeowners and schools across El Paso County, and will provide carbon-free energy for the District, helping to offset over $100,00 of their utility costs in the first 20 years. Each solar panel lease costs $550, with 10 panels powering 50% of the average Colorado Springs home, saving over $10,000 in rising electricity costs. The whole project will save Colorado Springs’ families $2.5 million over 20 years.

In return for the land, SunShare will pay the school district a combination of cash and solar panels, feeding power directly into the school, and saving the district money on it's electric bills for the next 30-50 years.

"Responsible energy management is a key focus for District 11 as we work to demonstrate fiscal prudence and financial responsibility. This partnership with SunShare will help our district recognize energy savings, while allowing both organizations to maintain high levels of organizational social responsibility," says District 11 Deputy Superintendent Glenn Gustafson.

“We are thrilled to be working with the District on this community solar garden. Together we can bring more solar energy to more households in the community, in a location that facilitates learning about the importance of renewable resources,” says SunShare founder and CEO David Amster-Olszewski.

Started in Colorado Springs, community solar gardens are gaining legislative traction in states across the country, including California, Texas, Maryland, Delaware, New York, and 8 others.

After congratulating Colorado College students Tuesday on the completion of an intensive research project on the Colorado River Basin, Gov. John Hickenlooper clarified a remark attributed to him in 2003, when he was elected mayor of Denver.

The remark: Denver wouldn’t be Denver without Western Slope river water. Hickenlooper said what he meant was that all Front Range cities, also including Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Fort Collins, benefit if everyone uses less water. Because by keeping more water on the Western Slope and using less in urbanized areas, not only do skiing, white-water rafting and other tourism businesses succeed, but so do the ranchers and farmers.

“There’s a direct benefit here. A home on the Front Range is worth more than a home in Kansas City or Indianapolis,” he said.

On the heels of addressing the Global New Energy Summit at The Broadmoor earlier Tuesday, Hickenlooper breezed into Colorado College to deliver a brief speech on “Managing Colorado’s Water for Future Generations.”

The presentation was part of the college’s annual State of the Rockies Project Conference, held Monday and Tuesday. This year’s findings: Unless actions are taken now, the demand for Colorado River water in a few decades will far exceed the dwindling supply.

The key, in the governor’s mind, to saving the Colorado River Basin from becoming a mere trickle instead of a mighty force as a result of climate change and competing water rights interests?

Conservation.

“We know, in the next 40 years, somewhere around 4 to 5 million more people will be in Colorado, and we know that there’s no single silver bullet for this challenge,” Hickenlooper said. “We’re not going to develop our way out of this crisis any more than we can conserve our way out of this crisis. Bigger, better dams aren’t the ultimate solution; we can do more with less. We’ve cut Denver water consumption by 20 percent since 2002.”

Hickenlooper says he advocates new creative ways of saving water and a commitment from every resident to do so. Front Range utilities companies now use about 60 percent of the water that originates in the upper Colorado River basin.

“A lot of it is our own self-motivation or discipline," Hickenlooper said. "How we make it joyful and give people a kick out of it? I think that’s where the youth come in. If we can find ways of using that combination of youthful exuberance and optimism and technology, we have the formal framework to achieve changes.”

Hickenlooper also praised his Colorado River Cooperative Agreement, which he helped create last year between stakeholders in the Denver area and on the Western Slope to improve management of future water projects.

But it does not address two additional proposed diversion projects that would further deplete the river. And unlike U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, who spoke at CC’s conference on Monday, Hickenlooper did not mention the potential impact of oil shale development on the river, which some in Congress are pushing for, including U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs.

• Ken Salazar

Environmental heavyweight Ken Salazar stopped by his old stomping grounds of Colorado College on Monday evening to weigh in on students’ findings that the Colorado River Basin is in danger of severe water shortages in coming years if preventive steps aren’t taken soon.

As President Obama’s appointed U.S. Secretary of the Interior, the San Luis Valley native and 1977 CC graduate is familiar with the problems associated with what’s often called “the hardest-working river” in the nation.

“The Colorado River is already a water-short river — more water has been allocated than what that river has today, not only along southern states but with the treaty with Mexico,” Salazar said during the 2012 State of the Rockies Project conference, which continues Tuesday.

But Salazar assured the hundreds of conference attendees that his department is working on the issues and hopes to announce a new allocation agreement with Mexico soon.

At the same time that demand for municipal, agricultural, industrial and recreational water use is increasing, supply is decreasing due to drought, rising temperatures and other factors.

The river supplies about 25 million users with drinking water and irrigates 2.5 million acres of farmland, according to Marcia McNutt, director of the U.S. Geological Survey, who also addressed conference goers.

This is the ninth year for CC students to research issues affecting the environmental, social and economic health of the Rocky Mountain region. Since last summer, students have been studying the sustainability of the 1,400-mile Colorado River, which starts in Wyoming, winds through seven southwestern states and flows into Mexico to what’s now a dry delta.

The river is ruled by a compilation of decrees, rights, court decisions and laws that together are referred to as the “Law of the River.” The keystone is the 1922 Colorado River Compact, an interstate agreement for general water allotments, which Salazar said overestimated by 2 million acre feet the annual amount of water that could be extracted from the river.

In response to a question from the audience, Salazar said he doesn’t think the Compact will ever be opened up for negotiation: “The legacies that have been created over 89 years are so embedded in the Law of the River,” he said.

But that doesn’t mean issues such as water shortages, environmental needs, recreational activities and dealing with areas downstream, such as Mexico and the river’s dry delta can’t be solved, he said.

“I’m optimistic no matter how hard these problems are, we can solve any one of these problems,” he said.

Salazar also seized on the connection between the dwindling water supply and the energy industry, deriding the push by U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, for expanded oil shale development.

“We need to let the world know how much water would be required to develop those oil shale resources — the estimates I’ve seen are over 1 million acre feet and some at 2 million,” Salazar said. “Where would that water come from? What’s going to be the consequences to the ranchers and farmers dependent on the Colorado River?”

Gov. John Hickenlooper will be the keynote speaker at Tuesday’s conference. He will discuss how the natural resource can be managed for future generations. The presentation starts at 11:45 a.m. at Armstrong Hall, 14 E. Cache la Poudre St., on the CC campus. It’s free and open to the public. For the conference schedule, go to http://www2.coloradocollege.edu/stateoftherockies/.

• Let's hope the seismic activity doesn't get this bad from oil drilling.

Reacting to a study showing earthquakes resulted from an oil and gas injection well, the state of Ohio has adopted strict rules forbidding the injection of oil and gas drilling byproducts deep under ground.

This should be of interest to everyone in Colorado, where the development of more effective drilling techniques has created renewed interest in underground fossil fuel deposits, including the Niobrara formation that underlies part of El Paso County. The county might see rampant drilling by Ultra Resources of Houston, which has obtained mineral leases on thousands of acres and acquired 18,000 acres on the east side of Colorado Springs.

As we reported in January, seismic activity has been linked anecdotally with the use of injection wells to get rid of fracking materials used in oil and gas drilling, but the Ohio study is a watershed finding that could reverberate across the country.

Ohio's Department of Natural Resources reports that the EPA says there are more than 144,000 Class II disposal wells injecting more than two billion gallons of brine every day in the United States. "The U.S. EPA considers the deep injection of brine using Class II disposal wells as the preferred and environmentally safe method for disposal of oilfield fluid wastes," the Ohio agency says on its website.

But when earthquakes started happening in the Youngstown area in 2010, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources delved further, as reported by the agency's website:

In November 2011, newly appointed ODNR Director James Zehringer sought to obtain the additional data. After his first briefing on the seismic activity, Director Zehringer ordered the Ohio Geological Survey to seek an outside research partner and deploy the needed portable seismometers around the Youngstown area. The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University had the available equipment and was willing to assist the state. The seismometers were deployed on Dec. 1, 2011.
On Dec. 24, the newly deployed equipment recorded a 2.7-magnitude earthquake in the area. Data from the portable seismometers was downloaded and analyzed by experts at Lamont-Doherty. On Dec. 29, Lamont-Doherty presented ODNR with their preliminary findings, which indicated the seismic event depth was 2,454 ft. below the injection well.
Based on the Lamont-Doherty data, Director Zehringer instructed ODNR regulators to seek the immediate halt of injections at Northstar 1, either voluntarily by the operator or by agency order. At 5 p.m. on Dec. 30, ODNR inspectors witnessed the shut down of the well. (Lamont-Doherty Analysis)

The findings led the state to issue this notice today:

COLUMBUS, OH — Ohio’s oil and gas regulators today announced new environmentally responsible standards for transporting and disposing of brine, a by-product of oil and natural gas hydraulic fracturing. The new regulatory framework makes Ohio’s rules for brine monitoring and disposal among the nation’s toughest. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) developed the new regulations after researching the link between a series of seismic events in the Youngstown area and a brine disposal well.

The new safeguards: prohibit any new wells to be drilled into the Precambrian basement rock formation; mandate operators submit extensive geological data before drilling; and implement state-of-the-art pressure and volume monitoring devices including automatic shut-off switches and electronic data recorders. In addition, ODNR will require that brine haulers install electronic transponders to ensure “cradle to grave” monitoring of all shipments.

“Ohio has developed a new set of regulatory standards that positions the state as a national leader in safe and environmentally responsible brine disposal,” said ODNR Director James Zehringer. “Ohioans demand smart environmental safeguards that protect our environment and promote public health. These new standards accomplish this goal.”

The new safeguards will be added to Ohio’s existing disposal well regulatory framework. The regulations will apply to new Class II disposal well permit applications and to existing disposal wells, if applicable. Ohio regulates Class II disposal wells on behalf of the U.S. EPA. In 1983, the U.S. EPA gave Ohio regulatory authority over its Underground Injection Control program because the state’s disposal well regulations met or exceeded U.S. EPA standards.

The comprehensive list of proposed new regulations includes:
· Requires a review of existing geologic data for known faulted areas within the state and a prohibition on locating new Class II disposal wells within these areas;
· Requires a complete suite of geophysical logs (including, at a minimum, gamma ray, compensated density-neutron, and resistivity logs) to be run on newly drilled Class II disposal wells. A copy of the completed log, with analytical interpretation, will be submitted to ODNR;
· Authority for ODNR to require the plugging with cement of wells penetrating into the Precambrian basement rock and prohibiting injection into the Precambrian basement rock;
· Requires the submission, at time of permit application, of any information available concerning the existence of known geological faults within a specified distance of the proposed well location, and submission of a plan for monitoring any seismic activity that may occur;
· Evaluates the potential for conducting seismic surveys;
· Requires a measurement or calculation of original down hole reservoir pressure prior to initial injection;
· Requires conducting a step-rate injection test to establish formation parting pressure and injection rates;
· Requires the installation of a continuous pressure monitoring system, with results being electronically available to ODNR for review;
· Requires the installation of an automatic shut-off system set to operate if the fluid injection pressure exceeds a maximum level to be set by ODNR; and
· Requires the installation of an electronic data recording system for purposes of tracking all fluids brought by a brine transporter for injection.

All of the reforms will be considered during the permitting process for new Class II disposal wells and will be implemented as attached permit conditions until they are either codified in law or written into administrative rule, which carries the weight of law.

Colorado has more than 800 injection wells, as we reported last month in a story about disposal of hydraulic fracturing waste from oil and gas drilling.

As the then head of the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission, Dave Neslin, told us, the state is monitoring injection wells in light of the seismic activity registered elsewhere and in Colorado in the past. From our story:

The most common way to dispose of waste material is by injecting it 12,000 feet into the ground, Neslin says.

He acknowledges that earthquakes began in 1963 in the Denver area after an injection well was drilled at the nearby Rocky Mountain Arsenal. When injection stopped in 1968, so did the seismic activity, a memo posted on the COGCC's website says.

"This is an issue we're looking at now and coordinating with the Colorado Geological Survey as part of our permitting for underground injection wells," Neslin says. "We want to be sure the new wells being drilled are being sited in areas that will reduce or avoid the risk of any seismic connection."