Hearing on HR 3881: Testimony of Steve Arveschoug

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The City of Pueblo Issue -- Before the PSOP was completed in September of 2000, the District's Storage Study Committee and District staff worked with staff from the City of Pueblo's Planning Department in an effort to consider flow issues below Pueblo Dam through the City of Pueblo. While we were working on our storage plan the City was working on the Arkansas River Legacy Project with the assistance of the Corps of Engineers. We realized that our future plans for additional storage had to work with the City's plan to provide greater recreation opportunities on the river below Pueblo Dam. The participants in the development of the PSOP agreed to develop a "Pueblo Flow Management Program" that would target a 100 cfs minimum flow below Pueblo Dam and would operate similar to the successful Upper Arkansas Flow Management Program. The commitment to this Pueblo Flow Management Program is included in the District's Preferred Storage Options Plan Report (September 2000), the PSOP Implementation Committee Report (April 2001) and now in H.R. 3881. As currently written, H.R. 3881, Section 3 (Section 8, d) would require all water users contracting with Reclamation for use of excess capacity in the Fry -Ark Project to sign an agreement with the District committing to "cooperate in a flow management program designed to maintain target minimum flows of 100 cfs on the Arkansas River just below Pueblo Dam..." The PSOP participants have been working with attorneys representing the City of Pueblo over the last several months in an attempt to add details to the flow program and, in response to the City's concerns, have agreed to establish the 100 cfs target flow as set threshold whereby they would reduce or curtail storage operations at times when flows in the river below Pueblo Dam are at or below 100 cfs. The City has recently filed for a "recreation in- channel diversion" (RICD) water right for 100 cfs during the winter storage period (November 15 to March 14) and 500 cfs during the remainder of the year. That water right is for a city- planned boating course. That RICD water right has the potential to stop any future water development in the lower Arkansas, including making it nearly impossible for communities in the Arkansas Valley to execute future water exchanges of their own water rights through the planned for Arkansas Valley Conduit, a project that is vital to the future of towns like La Junta and Rocky Ford. It would also make it nearly impossible for cities like Fountain to exchange their water into Pueblo Reservoir, which is a must if they are to provide water for their constituents. The City's recent RICD filing certainly adds a new twist to the discussions on the Pueblo Flow Management Program, but the PSOP participants are committed to seeking a win /win resolution of this issue. That commitment is represented in H.R. 3881 and by our record of performance with the Upper Arkansas Flow Management Program. 9