Friday, October 17, 2008

John Fredell: It's very clear from the draft EIS that the impacts can be mitigated and can be fully mitigated Here's a recap of yesterday's meeting discussing the effects of Colorado Springs' proposed Southern Delivery System on Pueblo Reservoir, from the Pueblo Chieftain. From the article: Colorado Springs is proposing to build an outlet from the north outlet of the Pueblo Dam as an alternative to tying into the joint-use manifold south of the river. The move, part of the Southern Delivery System, would eliminate the need to put a pipeline under the Arkansas River, provide redundancy for other users and still allow Pueblo West to tie into the project. It would also allow the Bureau of Reclamation to build or contract for hydroelectric generation at Pueblo Dam as originally envisioned in the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project. At the same time, it would maintain flows in the Arkansas River at historical levels. Except during floods, the north outlet is the source of most direct flows into the river. The redundancy is important as municipal water users begin to plan how they will cope with zebra and quagga mussels that have been found in Lake Pueblo, John Fredell, SDS project director, said Thursday at a public meeting designed to explain the project and hear local concerns... In earlier technical reports, however, a cross-connection with the north outlet works would be needed later in the project if Pueblo were to require its full capacity and the Arkansas Valley Conduit is built. Pueblo West and the Fountain Valley Conduit also take water through the manifold and its capacity is not large enough to accommodate the maximum 96 million gallons per day that could move through SDS. The timing of the north outlet project, a $6 million component of the project, would be moved up in the new option, said Bruce Spiller, SDS program manager. The north outlet project would build three 4-foot tubes in addition to the SDS intake that would shoot water into the Arkansas River below the dam. There would also be a connection that Reclamation could use, if it chose, to provide hydroelectric power... The officials spoke with a sparse crowd at the request of Pueblo County, which is now evaluating a land-use application for SDS under 1974's HB1041. Thursday's meeting was the first of four designed to discuss specific parts of the project. Future meetings will look at impacts to Pueblo West on Thursday and Oct. 27, and to Fountain Creek on Oct. 30... SDS will have little effect on recreation around Lake Pueblo, Fredell said. There would be minor disturbance of trails while the project is being built. A large pump station would be built north of the Arkansas River, near the current Pueblo West pump station. Although it would be about 25 feet high, the earth-tone building would be located behind a berm and not visible from the Rock Canyon Swim Beach and most public areas of Lake Pueblo State Park. Water levels at Lake Pueblo would, on average, be about 3 feet lower when SDS is at full capacity in 2046. Historically, water levels have fluctuated about 100 feet, with a maximum of 60-70 feet in a given year. In the driest year, the water level of Lake Pueblo would drop 20 feet after SDS is in operation, Spiller said. Construction is scheduled to begin next year, if SDS can get all the necessary permits from Reclamation, Pueblo County, the Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies. The construction would be staged over three years, with the north outlet project first, then the pumping plant and pipelines, Spiller said. At the same time, there would be construction in El Paso County because the treatment plant at the other end of the system would take the full three years. SDS could be online by 2012. The total expenditure for the first phase of the project is expected to be about $600 million, with $172 million in Pueblo County. Fredell said the project most likely would be bid out in sections, to provide opportunities for contractors in both counties and to keep bonding abilities manageable... "It's very clear from the draft EIS that the impacts can be mitigated and can be fully mitigated," Fredell said. "Those mitigations cover a wide spectrum, and that includes Fountain Creek. Through the 1041 process, there will be extensive mitigation required, but we don't know what that is." More Coyote Gulch coverage here. Category: Colorado Water 6:41:18 AM     Windy Gap firming project: Draft environmental impact statement Reclamation has extended the comment period for the Windy Gap Firming Project, which includes the proposed Chimney Hollow Reservoir, according to the Loveland Connection. From the article: Loveland officials say the proposed Chimney Hollow Reservoir could add enough to the city's water supplies to guarantee coverage during a 100-year-drought at least until 2030. But detractors wonder at what cost a 90,000-acre-foot reservoir filled with Windy Gap water will have on the already struggling Colorado River. "We feel that Windy Gap is digging this hole deeper and not helping figure out the problem," David Nickum, executive director of Colorado Trout Unlimited, said before a recent public hearing on the project. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation confirmed Thursday that it will extend the public comment until Dec. 29, for the project. The draft plan for the firming project outlines building Chimney Hollow Reservoir west of Carter Lake...As proposed, Chimney Hollow will take the long-owned water rights by these entities on the Fraser River in Grand County, near the Colorado River, and store them in Chimney Hollow. Pumps were built to ship Windy Gap water in 1985, when it is accessible, to the Eastern Slope via the Big Thompson Water Project. But for most of the water rights owners, such as Loveland, there's little storage to keep that water, which is why Chimney Hollow was proposed. Loveland has a $21 million stake in the reservoir project to store 7,000-acre-feet of water, said Ralph Mullinix, Loveland's director of water and power. The storage guarantees Loveland's 40 units of Windy Gap water are stored and available during drought years, he said... About 40 percent of Loveland's water is piped over from the Western Slope. Water in Chimney Hollow might have a larger impact, though. A city of Broomfield official said last week that water in Chimney Hollow will make up 25 percent of that city's supply... Mullinix also said he believes something was worked out in 1985, with completion of the huge pumps on the Fraser River that capture the water. "We've invested millions into this for the last 20 years," Mullinix said of the mitigation of the Colorado River. Indeed, the Northern Water Conservancy District paid the Colorado River Water Conservancy District $10.2 million, using municipal money, in the 1980s to mitigate the project's impact, said Jill Boyd, spokeswoman for the conservancy district. That money then was used to help build the Wolford Mountain Reservoir to serve the Western Slope, said Jim Pokrandt, spokesman for the Colorado River Water Conservancy District. However, Pokrandt said that doesn't necessarily mean impacts of the Chimney Hollow project were dealt with in 1985. "I think it's still up for debate," he said... Colorado River Water Conservancy District officials see the Chimney Hollow project affecting the Colorado River and therefore consider it a new project. Building a large reservoir to "firm" the Windy Gap rights has always been in the plan for the project. But it only began to move forward in 2004 when Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District and Larimer County partnered to buy the 3,500-acre Chimney Hollow property from Hewlett-Packard. The county pitched in $2.9 million of open space dollars to acquire 1,850 acres of the property as public open space, said K-Lynn Cameron, manager of Larimer County Open Lands. The purchase helps connect a series of open space projects from Carter Lake west to the Roosevelt National Forest near Pinewood. The land sits west of Carter Lake and directly north of Flat Iron Reservoir. The county's portion of Chimney Hollow will open to the public whether the reservoir is built or not. If it is built, it would not be for at least another five years, Cameron said. More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here. Category: Colorado Water 6:32:25 AM     Northern Colorado regional planning From the Loveland Reporter Herald: "Loveland City Manager Don Williams...joined McWhinney's Rocky Scott, Greeley City Manager Roy Otto, Colorado State University professor Bill Shuster, state House Rep. Don Marostica and former Fort Collins current planning director Cameron Gloss at a panel discussion on regional planning Thursday morning at the Hilton in Fort Collins...'We need to be looking at even a combined Northern Colorado water utility, Otto said." Category: Colorado Water 6:18:24 AM

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