Water Quality of Fountain and Monument Creeks

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The streamflow of Upper Fountain Creek has been gaged from 1959 through 1983 at site F12 (station 07103700, Fountain Creek near Colorado.Springs) (fig. 1) located upstream from the city of Colorado Springs diversion. The streamflow has been smallest during winter; it is largest during the spring from snowmelt runoff and during the summer from thunderstorms (fig. 3A). Variability in streamflows also can be illustrated by the streamflow - duration curve for site F12 (fig. 3B). Streamflow- duration curves are useful for evaluating the flow characteristics of a basin (Searcy, 1959). The rela- tively steeper slopes at the upper end of the curves in figure 3B indicate that larger streamflows vary substantially and result from direct runoff such as that produced by intense thunderstorms. The relatively flatter slopes, especially at the lower end of the curves (fig. 3B), are indicative of peren- nial storage in the basin (Searcy, 1959, p. 22). The perennial storage tends to sustain streamflow during periods of little or no precipitation or direct runoff (October through April, fig. 3A); in Upper Fountain Creek, streamflows probably are sustained primarily by releases from reservoirs in the basin and ground -water discharge to Upper Fountain Creek and its tributaries. The frequency curve of instantaneous streamflows, made in conjunction with water - quality samples collected from 1975 through 1983 at site F12, is nearly iden- tical to the mean daily streamflow- duration curve (fig. 3B). Therefore, water - quality samples collected at site F12 should characterize the water - quality conditions that occur approximately 98 percent of the time. Lower Fountain Creek Lower Fountain Creek has a stream length of approximately 52 mi, which extends from a point immediately upstream from the confluence with Monument Creek to the confluence with the Arkansas River at Pueblo (fig. 2). This stream segment has been classified for class 2 recreation, domestic water supply, and agricultural uses. Numeric water - quality standards associated with these classifications for specific water - quality constituents are listed in table 1. The northern part of Lower Fountain Creek is perennial and receives flow from a variety of sources including Upper Fountain Creek, Monument Creek, tributaries that drain the Colorado Springs area and Fort Carson, effluent from five wastewater - treatment plants, and the alluvial aquifer. The stream traverses residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural areas and consists primarily of sewage effluent (Edelmann and Cain, 1985), most of which is discharged to Fountain Creek by the Colorado Springs Wastewater Treatment Plant located about 0.5 mi downstream from site F17 (station 07105500 Fountain Creek at Colorado Springs) (fig. 1). The streamflow in the northern part of Lower Fountain Creek is the primary source of recharge to the alluvial aquifer, which serves as the water supply for the communities south of Colorado Springs and which supplements the Colorado Springs water supply. A portion of the streamflow in the northern part of Lower Fountain Creek is diverted and used for agricultural purposes. 0