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PUEBLO WATER BOARD APPROVES SHORT-TERM LEASES -Leases of more than $600,000 for more than 15,500 acre-feet of water were approved Tuesday by the Pueblo Board of Water Works. The water board annually leases water that it does not need early in the year on the spot market, accepting bids for the water. Water delivery dates are important as well, so the water is moved out of storage at the right time. The amount of leases and one-time sales that do not change the ownership of the water are greater than in the past few years because of likely high runoff from a generous snowpack. snowpack is running about two months ahead of schedule, and bidders have agreed to take water early to allow Pueblo to clear storage accounts to make room for new water coming into the system. The water board also has long-term leases of water to Aurora, Xcel Energy for the Comanche power plants and numerous smaller operations like gravel pits. Those leases total 14,950 acre-feet, plus an Aurora trade of 4,000 acre-feet. They provide more than $4 million of revenue to the water board. Xcel's contract is $2.5 million, while Aurora's trade and a lease of 5,000 acre-feet, total about $1.2 million. Even though the water board leased 12,000 acre-feet of water on the one-year spot market last year, Pueblo's water storage continues to hit record levels. At the end of January, Pueblo had more than 42,000 acre-feet of water in four reservoirs, about 4,000 more than last year at the same time. The water board's own reservoir, Clear Creek, was still only 40 percent full after being drained for repairs last year. Pueblo also stores water in Turquoise, Twin Lakes and Lake Pueblo. The water board received 36 bids for nearly 26,000 acre-feet of water and could, if supplies are right, lease more water later in the year. The 24 bids approved Tuesday ranged from $15.38 to $100 per acre- foot. The largest bids were for the Bessemer Ditch, three contracts totaling 5,000 acre-feet for $121,500; Colorado Water Protective and Development Association, a well augmentation group, 4,000 acre-feet for $200,000; and the Ordway Feedyard, four contracts totaling 2,500 acre-feet for $118,125. The remaining bids for about 10,300 acre-feet ranged from $5-$15 per acre-foot. PUEBLO WATER BOARD STUDIES UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENT -The plumbing for a new development near Colorado State University-Pueblo will be available for short-term developments, but long-term will require more pumping and storage stations. The Pueblo Board of Water Works on Tuesday looked at the master plan fora 600-acre development by the new football stadium just east of the university, called Villa Bella, and discussed more generally the issue of providing water to the 24,000-acre Pueblo Springs development to the north along Fountain Creek. ~18~