River Feud Forces City to Oppose Dam Study

Home Browse Search

River feud forces city to oppose dam study Page 2 of 2 The two sides will make their arguments Tuesday when U.S. Rep. Joel Hefley convenes the House Subcommittee on Water and Power to conduct a hearing on HR 3881. Hefley, a Republican who represents Colorado Springs and the 5th Congressional District, is the prime sponsor of the study legislation. City Manager Lee Evett said council members will testify at the hearing as well. Pueblo officials set the stage for the collision last year when the city filed a claim for in- channel recreational water rights through the Downtown. The claim calls for a minimum flow of 500 cubic feet per second from March to November and a guaranteed flow of 100 cfs during the winter. Recreational water rights are relatively new and are broadly opposed by more traditional users, including the Colorado Water Conservation Board. In fact, a lawsuit that established the city of Golden's recreational rights to river water is pending before the Colorado Supreme Court. Pueblo's claim has already attracted more than a dozen "objectors" in the Division 2 Water Court. All of them essentially argue that they have senior rights to water that could be stored in an expanded Lake Pueblo and their rights would be damaged if the instream claim is granted. The collision is forcing regional water interests to take sides and few are backing Pueblo at the moment. The city's own lobbyist, former Congressman Ray Kogovsek, also represents the Southeastern district and he informed city officials last week that he would no longer be representing Pueblo, but would keep lobbying for the conservancy district. "I hope its a temporary situation, but most of my other clients are water interests, so I feel more comfortable continuing to represent Southeastern," Kogovsek said Tuesday. In the city's letter to the delegation, Council President Mike Occhiato said, "Pueblo is very concerned that while much of the benefit of the increased storage capacity of the reservoir will accrue to entities other than Pueblo, the city and its residents will bear a disproportionate share of the burdens of the proposed project." Specifically, the Ietter warned that enlarging the storage capacity of the lake will diminish the amount of water that flows through Pueblo unless that flow is guaranteed. One reason the city made its claim for recreational water rights was the Army Corps of Engineers' decision to rehabilitate the river channel through the Downtown, a $6 million project that will include improving fish habitat and allow the construction of a kayaking course. City officials met with many of the objectors a week ago, hoping to work out a compromise agreement. That meeting did not go very well, according to Assistant City Attorney Tom Florczak. Although the city did offer some concessions, the other water interests were unwilling at the time to make any concessions about their own water rights, Florczak said. 01996 -2002 The pueblo Chieftain Online http://www.chieftain.com/print/archive/2002/mar/13/nil.htrn 03/13/2002