Arkansas - CSU Geospatial DDS for Integrated Water Mgmt_Contract & Scope of Work

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Scope of Work and Budget for Water Supply Reserve Account Application Data Assessment and Collection in Support of Improved Water Management in the Arkansas River Basin T. K. Gates, J. W. Labadie, J. D. Niemann Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Colorado State University January 2009 tntroduction Colorado's Arkansas River Basin, the largest in the state, composes a varied and complex water system. Emerging as a snowmelt-fed alpine stream and cutting through alluvial, glacial, and basin-fill deposits, it extends about 165 miles and drops more than 4900 ft before gathering into Pueblo Reservoir to be released again onto the southeastern plains. Along the remaining 195 miles of its course (including through John Martin Reservoir) before it flows into Kansas, the river winds through a broad and varied alluvial valley that supports extensive irrigated agriculture. In the Upper Arkansas River Basin (UARB), above Pueblo Reservoir, the water resources of the stream-aquifer system supply the demands of mountain communities and front range cities, recreation and fisheries, and some irrigated agriculture. In the Lower Arkansas River Basin (LARB), irrigated agriculture is the predominant water consumer with a growing municipal and industrial demand. In addition to natural snowmelt and rainfall sources, the Arkansas River Basin receives inflows from the Colorado River Basin via the Fryingpan- Arkansas and Twin Lakes trans-mountain diversions. Pressures for increased diversions out of the Arkansas Basin also are mounting. Water managers and users in the Arkansas River Basin need information to help them enhance overall beneficial water use, redress problems of water quality degradation (e.g. salinity, selenium, and uranium), and conserve water. Sound water management requires a good database to characterize the stream-aquifer system and to undergird existing and future modeling tools. The project proposed herein focuses on assessing data needs and collecting additional key data in representative regions of the basin. This document provides a summary of the scope of work for the proposed project. Details (e.g. final numbers, locations, and frequency of sampling) will be determined and refined in dialogue with the staff of the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) and cooperating agencies in the weeks following project implementation. Objectives The data-focused objectives of this two-year project, with associated work tasks indicated in parentheses, are: (1) Assess the need for data to adequately characterize and model the stream-aquifer system of the Arkansas River Basin in Colorado with a view toward improved water management (Task 1), (2) Identify and compile existing data (Task 1), (3) Gather selected new field data in representative regions of the Arkansas River Basin (Tasks 2- 5),