The latest batch of grants from Great Outdoors Colorado could fund the first trails along the Yampa River in Hayden. The state organization known as GOCO, which uses lottery revenues to protect and enhance wildlife areas and parks across the state, announced a $2 million grant Monday that will fund projects along the Yampa River in Steamboat Springs and Hayden.

Thursday's override of a presidential veto on the Water Resources Development Act means $120 million for Colorado projects. "(We) will now be able to move forward on providing funding for urgent water projects that will have critical and long-lasting impact in Colorado," Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said in a statement.

A plan to allow some northern Colorado farmers to start pumping water from their wells to feed crops appears viable, water officials said Tuesday night. But plenty of legal wrangling remains before actual pumping begins, perhaps by this spring.

In what could become a landmark ruling in one of the largest and most complicated water court cases in Colorado history, Judge Roger Klein of the Division 1 Water Court has determined that irrigators in the Well Augmentation Subdistrict of the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District will receive a decree to operate their wells in the future.

The South Platte River is 90 percent wastewater below the city of Denver 90 percent of the year, according to Colorado University Integrative Physiology Professor David Norris. “All rivers in the Western United States are wastewater dominated,” he said at Morgan Community College Thursday.

More than 200 wells along the South Platte River - roughly half the number ordered shut down in May 2006 - may be allowed to start pumping again, but only if they can meet stiff new requirements for replenishing the river.

Colorado’s Cache la Poudre River tumbles 80 miles from its high-alpine headwaters in Rocky Mountain National Park down to the South Platte River on the plains below. The upper Poudre is the only designated wild and scenic river in the state – but after it exits Poudre Canyon, 90 percent of its flow is siphoned off for farmers and homeowners around Fort Collins.

Managing aquifers is more than a pipe dream in Colorado, and four success stories from around the state were shared this week at a conference looking at state groundwater issues. Stories of successful programs on Fountain Creek, the Rio Grande, the South Platte River and Denver Basin Aquifer were shared at the Colorado Groundwater Management Policy Forum.

Aurora’s new plan to transport water more than 30 miles from the South Platte River may provide Brighton and Commerce City with new trails, tax revenues and added water options of their own. Officials from Aurora Water gave presentations to city councils in both Brighton and Commerce City Sept.

A new task force charged with bringing calm to the battle-weary South Platte River Basin has 90 days to create a water plan for lawmakers to consider in September. Any solutions likely will have to serve farmers and fast-growing cities equally, and may focus on better managing the river's scare supplies, as well as improving reservoir systems on the Eastern Plains.