Pueblo Chieftain: "An online computer model will measure return flows on Monument and Fountain creeks as communities to the north use more non-native water. The model, developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, will help the Colorado Division of Water Resources track an ever-more-complex network of exchanges while deducting Mother Nature's fair share in the form of transit loss. The program was explained Friday by an El Paso County committee studying transit loss on Fountain Creek. The committee has been meeting nearly three years to look at how to account for reusable water - brought in from the Western Slope, groundwater basins or the consumptive use of former irrigation water now being used by Colorado Springs...
"The state now uses a USGS model to track flows and measure transit loss from the Colorado Springs Las Vegas wastewater treatment plant to the confluence of Fountain Creek and the Arkansas River. The transit loss is the water that is lost to evapotranspiration, seeps into banks or otherwise leaves the stream. Colorado Springs is by far the largest water user on Fountain Creek, sending an average 46 million gallons daily 40 miles downstream to the Arkansas River. Much of the water is imported from other basins via the city's three pipelines and so the return flows can be reused. Colorado Springs physically recycles some of the water through park irrigation and power generation. Rather than physically reusing the rest of its non-native water, Colorado Springs has obtained court decrees which allow it to release return flows in the form of wastewater in exchange for fresh water supplies from other water rights it owns. The city loses about 7 percent of its water annually to transit loss on Fountain Creek, although the amount varies daily, depending on how high natural flows are, Snyder said. This week, for instance, the loss is about 25 percent because flows in the creek are at a low point...
"The new model will track return flows and transit loss from Colorado Springs' Pikeview wastewater treatment plant and other communities on Monument Creek, said Gerhard Kuhn of the USGS, who is developing the model. It will account for flows from the Denver Basin well field which are pumped into the Arkansas River basin, a growing source of Fountain Creek flows as the area to the north of Colorado Springs expands. The model divides Fountain Creek into 33 separate reaches from Palmer Lake to the confluence. The reaches will allow calculation of flows from every tributary and ditch along Fountain Creek, and can be calibrated with USGS stream gauges along the way, Kuhn said. Flows can be tracked along the way from one point to the next, depending on whether the water is to be diverted or used for augmentation. The model will help users maintain control of the water until it reaches the desired point."
Category: Colorado Water
7:57:56 AM 
|
|
