|
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, 70 percent of the water we drink and use
comes from the other side of the Rockies. As the only large, Front
Range city not located near a major river, getting water here is
no easy task.
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, which will be required
around 2012 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.
|