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The Pueblo Chieftain Online <br />Ark Valley dry -up looms as real threat <br />r_ <br />It could happen here. <br />Page 1 of 2 <br />A recent Denver Post article documented the threat to Grand County, especially <br />the Winter Park ski area, from plans to pump more water out of the Fraser <br />River headwaters to Denver and the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy <br />District. <br />The same threat looms for Pueblo and the Lower Arkansas Valley from plans to <br />pump more water out of the Arkansas River to Colorado Springs and to divert <br />clean high- mountain water through exchanges to Aurora. <br />Of course, the two water export controversies have different histories. <br />Denver's rights to the headwaters of the water -rich Western Slope predate the <br />development of Winter Park, which, in fact, is owned by the city of Denver and <br />leased to a ski -area operator. <br />Pueblo and other communities along the Arkansas River also export water from <br />the Western Slope farther south, around the headwaters of the Fryingpan River <br />upstream from another ski resort N Aspen. <br />The Fryingpan- Arkansas Project, passed by Congress and signed by then - <br />President John F. Kennedy in 1962, has brought water through the mountains <br />to help sustain the Arkansas Valley's population and economy for three decades <br />now. <br />These Western Slope imports combine with native waters originating on this <br />side of the mountains for the flows we see in the Arkansas River. While not yet <br />dried up to the extent Grand County is, the Arkansas waters steadily are being <br />diverted to Colorado Springs, within the Fry -Ark Project, and to Aurora, which is <br />in another river basin entirely N the South Platte. <br />Fry -Ark facilities N Lake Pueblo and Turquoise reservoirs and a system of <br />tunnels and pipes N were intended to serve the needs and future of the <br />Arkansas Valley, not to help Aurora export water out of the basin. <br />http: / /www. chieftain. com /print.php ?article = /metro /1093986119/7 8/31/2004 <br />