C150073 Final Feasibility Study - Laserfiche WebLink

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Feasibility Evaluation of the Arkansas Valley Pipeline Water Works! Committee June 2003 (EPA's drinking water standard). Additionally, various water suppliers have recently reported measurable concentrations of radionuclides in their water. This extremely poor groundwater quality, combined with increasingly stringent quality regulations of the Safe Drinking Water Act, has caused several local water suppliers to invest in expensive water treatment facilities to assure a reliable water supply for their customers. Due to poor groundwater quality, some local water providers are already out of compliance with the increasingly stringent water quality regulations of the Safe Drinking Water Act. Others are increasingly at risk of being designated out of compliance. Facing federal sanctions, several water suppliers have investigated expensive water treatment facilities to achieve compliance with the federal. regulations and to assure a reliable water supply for their customers. The risk posed to the economically depressed region's ratepayers by requirements for as many as 10 new treatment facilities with uncertain costs are considered unacceptable. Rather than continuously spending funds for upgraded water treatment facilities and increased operation and maintenance costs, it has been proposed that a pipeline from Pueblo Reservoir could be used to provide higher quality water to users in the Lower Basin. The water available from Pueblo Reservoir readily satisfies the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act and is not expected to change significantly in the future. The benefits of the proposed pipeline are that the well-defined costs of constructing and operating a pipeline could replace the continuously increasing and unconstrained costs of water treatment. Additionally, the improved quality of potable water will result in a better quality of life for water users in the basin. 1.2 Background Representatives of local and county governments, water districts, and other interested citizens of the Lower Arkansas River Basin formed a committee in 2000 to consider a feasibility study of an Arkansas Valley Pipeline. These interested parties formed the Waterworks! Committee and, through a grant from the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) and the support of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District (SECWCD), commissioned this feasibility study of a proposed Arkansas Valley Pipeline. A previous study of a proposed Arkansas Valley Pipeline was prepared for the SECWCD, the Four Corners Regional Commission, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) in 1972 (Black & Veatch, 1972). The report's recommendations for construction of a water treatment plant, pumping station, and a pipeline to serve 16 communities and 25 water associations east of Pueblo were not implemented at that time due to the lack of federal funding. Evaluations on the quantity of water needed to satisfy long-range objectives for water users in the SECWCD were prepared in 1998 (GEI Consultants, Inc., 1998) and 2 GEI Consultants, Inc. 01264 03-06-30 Feasibility Evaluation Final