Ark Valley Dry-Up Looms as Real Threat: Pueblo Chieftain

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The Pueblo Chieftain Online But that's about to happen. Page 2 of 2 The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees Fry -Ark for the federal government, is conducting an environmental assessment on awarding long- term contracts to allow Aurora to store 10,000 acre -feet of Arkansas River native water N but not imported Fry -Ark flows N behind Pueblo Dam. If and when the bureau approves the deal, Aurora would be able to store water in Pueblo and exchange it upstream to take yet more water through the Otero pipeline near Leadville into the South Platte Basin. Aurora's partner in the Otero pipeline and pump station is Colorado Springs, which has another project currently before the Bureau of Reclamation. It would move 75,000 acre -feet of water a year from Pueblo north to serve Colorado Springs, Security and Fountain. Thus, the bureau is considering Aurora and Colorado Springs diversions totaling 85,000 acre -feet of water a year. (An acre -foot is 325,851 gallons, enough to serve up to two families for a year.) Colorado Springs already diverts an average of about 60,000 acre -feet a year. Its proposed pipeline would more than double the diversions northward. Aurora currently takes about 36,000 acre -feet of water out of the Arkansas Basin and uses the river to divert another 18,000 from the Western Slope. All told, the diversions threaten the water supply that is the lifeblood of the Arkansas Valley. Admittedly, the threat of Denver and Northern Colorado diversions to the Fraser Valley already has exacted lasting damage. They take 267,000 acre -feet, or roughly 65 percent, of Grand County's water now with plans to increase it to 85 percent. The Arkansas Valley is fast becoming the next region of Colorado threatened with being dried up by outside water grabs, although not yet reaching the extent of the dewatering of Grand County. The threat is growing here, though. High Plains A &M speculators want to siphon water from the Fort Lyon Canal, the largest irrigating ditch system in the Arkansas Valley. There's a water rights case pending on appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court. It poses a clear and present danger to our region. Research Director Tom McAvoy is a member of the editorial board. ©1996- 2004The Pueblo Chieftain Online http://www.chieftain.com/print.php?article= /metro/l093986119/7 8/31/2004