Pueblo Chieftain: "While a plan to enlarge Lake Pueblo remains stalled, other projects are moving ahead to increase storage in the Arkansas Valley. The Preferred Storage Options Plan, first advanced in 2001 as a way to meet some of the Arkansas Valley's storage needs, has stalled again, as negotiations started almost two years ago continue. In the process, other plans are moving forward. 'What I've always said is that if we can't work together as a group, certain entities will move ahead on their own,' said Pueblo Board of Water Works Executive Director Alan Hamel. 'When things start to happen, who gets left behind.' Hamel was president of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District in 2001, when the final PSOP Implementation Committee Report was issued. The report, in addition to listing the preferred options, listed other projects that might move ahead without PSOP. Now, with PSOP at least six years behind schedule, Hamel sees other projects envisioned by the studies leading up to PSOP going forward...
"Even though the valley's water supplies have dwindled to about one-third capacity since the drought of 2002, Hamel said the increased storage still is needed. The number pegged by early studies of the Southeastern District was 173,000 acre-feet in the next 40 years. PSOP addressed, at most, about 125,000 acre-feet of the total need through Lake Pueblo enlargement, Turquoise enlargement and 'reoperations' (now called excess capacity) at Lake Pueblo. Other projects by individual entities were envisioned to soak up the storage gap...
"Reservoirs in the lower Arkansas Valley are not usually full, while mountain reservoirs are drawn down in fall, winter and early spring in anticipation of runoff and diversions from the Western Slope. For instance, Lake Pueblo was 36 percent full and John Martin nearly empty last week. Meanwhile, the mountain reservoirs Turquoise and Twin Lakes were 86 percent full. The mountain reservoirs will be lowered this winter by about 25 percent - or 50,000-60,000 acre-feet, according to Tom Musgrove, director of the Pueblo office of the Bureau of Recreation. Actually, Turquoise Lake is usually drawn down more in the winter months, because Twin Lakes is constantly filled through exchanges by municipalities, retains a pool of water needed for hydroelectric power generation and has a deeper inactive pool. Lake Pueblo has never been completely 'full' in winter, and reaches summer capacity in only the wettest of times. Since it began filling in 1974, it has been at 75 percent of capacity on a regular basis only from 1984-88 and 1995-2000...
"One change since the 2002 drought has been increased of Fry-Ark water by municipalities. Pueblo began now storing water in its Fry-Ark account for the first time after the drought in addition to obtaining 'if and when' storage in Lake Pueblo. For years, Pueblo has relied on its direct flow rights to meet water needs, but storage will become increasingly more important. The water board has filed in court to triple storage in Clear Creek Reservoir. If it used all its appropriated and contracted space in Lake Pueblo, it would amount to 14 percent of the water during summer storage. A much larger impact will be felt as the Fountain Valley Authority - which includes Colorado Springs, Fountain, Widefield, Security and Stratmoor Hills - uses more of its potential. The authority has 78,000 acre-feet of Fry-Ark space available, along with an 'if-and-when' contract request for 28,000 acre-feet. That would amount to 45 percent of the summer storage. In its Southern Delivery System plan, Colorado Springs is planning to build reservoirs at Jimmy Camp Creek and Williams Creek east of the city. The city wants up to 30,000 acre-feet in enlargement to fill a 66-inch-diameter pipeline Colorado Springs has moved ahead with a 40-year, 28,000 acre-feet excess capacity contract outside the PSOP process in hopes of securing some of the storage space it says its needs for SDS...
"Two alternatives below Lake Pueblo are getting serious study: forming lakes from former gravel pits and aquifer storage. The Board of Water Works last year flirted with the purchase of Stonewall Springs Ranch east of Pueblo as a way to recover water passed on to maintain minimum flows through Pueblo. The sale fell through, but Colorado Springs developers Jim and Mark Morley exercised their option on the property and plan to eventually develop a reservoir near the Pueblo Chemical Depot. The Morleys also are proposing an enlarged reservoir at Brush Hollow with hydroelectric capability for pumped-back storage. Aurora also has an option to purchase a gravel pit site east of Pueblo as well. Aurora also is developing its own reservoir on Box Creek in Lake County. Meanwhile, the Arkansas Basin Roundtable is actively studying sites for aquifer storage, building on a recent report by the Colorado Geological Survey. Williams Creek, identified as a site for storage of return flows on Fountain Creek is part of Colorado Springs Utilities' water resource plan and a live part of the primary SDS plan, as well as several alternatives. Pueblo Board of Water Works is in the process of enlarging Clear Creek, and still could build a reservoir on Tennessee Creek in Lake County, a plan slowed down by environmental concerns. Pure Cycle Inc., a Thornton water developer, closed its purchase of High Plains A&M on Aug. 31. The company's plan is to move water from a reservoir on the Fort Lyon Canal to new development to the north along the Front Range. High Plains' attempt to do the same thing was rejected by the Colorado Supreme Court because no end user was identified."
Category: Colorado Water
7:49:24 AM 
|
|
