Getting Water to Colorado Springs
As the only large city along Colorado’s Front Range not located near a major river, getting water to Colorado Springs is no easy task. Thanks to the wisdom and will of our parents and grandparents, Colorado Springs has a strong track record of stepping up to meet the community’s need for clean, reliable water. The city we know today couldn’t exist without it. Today, up to 70 percent of the water we drink and use comes from the other side of the Rockies. Water History Until the 1950s, when Colorado Springs had a population of 50,000 – one eighth of what it is today – we relied entirely on water from this side of the Rockies. The 1953 Blue River Project marked the Springs’ first venture into transmountain water diversion. Our next big transmountain project, Homestake, was completed in 1967. Because of its size and cost, Homestake brought a doubling of Colorado Springs water rates – and the investment has proven to be an extremely good one. Nearly a decade later we began receiving water from the massive Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, built by the Federal Bureau of Reclamation. And completion of the Fountain Valley Conduit in 1985 enabled us to move water from Pueblo Reservoir via a pipeline to Colorado Springs. The 1996 Water Resource Plan outlined our water needs over the next 40 years, including SDS to bring needed water to Colorado Springs and our regional partners. Now, it’s our turn to do what our parents and grandparents did. Investing in SDS ensures we’ll have enough water to meet our own needs and those of our children and grandchildren. Gazette story on city’s water history: Like a duck to water, city always looking for more When Gen. William Palmer laid out a new town in the shadow of Pikes
Peak in 1871, he probably never imagined it would grow to nearly
380,000 residents, the second-largest city in the state. If he had,
he might have built it somewhere else. Colorado Springs averages
just 17.4 inches of precipitation a year - less than half that in
Palmer's native Philadelphia. The city has no Delaware River, like
Palmer's hometown; or a South Platte River, like Denver; or an Arkansas
River, like Pueblo. To keep up with population growth, Colorado
Springs has extended straws in practically every direction, from
the high peaks of the Sawatch Mountains to the arid southeastern
plains, a water system spread out across hundreds of miles. The
Southern Delivery System may be the last straw. The exact route
of the $1.1 billion pipeline - from either Pueblo Reservoir or the
Arkansas River in Fremont County - is undecided, but it seems likely
the Department of Public Utilities will begin construction this
year. It will bring 78 million gallons of water a day to a new reservoir
east of Colorado Springs, which officials say will provide enough
to meet demand here through 2046. It will be the most expensive
project Utilities has ever done. Even the economic slowdown - and
the impact it could have on population projections for Colorado
Springs - won't slow the pipeline. — The Gazette, April 4,
2009.
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