Aurora Seeks Ways to Recycle its Water: Pueblo Chieftain

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The Pueblo Chieftain Online Page 2 of 4 water ever more difficult and costly to obtain, reusing existing supplies appears to make good economic sense. "In the long term, it's something we all need to look at," said Alan Hamel, executive director of the Pueblo Board of Water Works. "But different communities are at different points in time (of water - resource development), and they face different geographic considerations that determine how they can use and reuse their water." But call it recycling, call it reuse, call it reclamation N the term can have several somewhat different meanings. Colorado law, generally speaking, allows the owner of a water right to use that water one time. Whatever remains after the water is put to beneficial use N whether by industry, agriculture or a municipal provider N must return to the river basin from which it originates, whether as return flow from a farm, for example, or effluent from a wastewater - treatment plant. That one - time -use principle has several significant exceptions, however. Water that is brought into one drainage from another can legally be used and reused until it is gone because it will never return to the basin from which it originated. Examples include water brought to the Arkansas or South Platte River drainages from Colorado's Western Slope, and water moved from the Arkansas basin to the South Platte system. Similarly, a portion of water from agricultural transfers can be reused because it otherwise would have been consumed by crops or in other ways lost to the stream from which it came. Water from some deep wells, such as those tapping the Denver Basin Aquifer, also can be reused because it otherwise would not be in the stream system. Such "imported" water provides the basis for reuse efforts along Colorado's Front Range. Up to 90 percent of Aurora's water supply is reusable, while Colorado Springs at present imports 85 percent of its total. (That would increase with development of the proposed Southern Delivery System, which eventually could pump up to 78 million gallons a day to El Paso County. An estimated 50 to 75 percent of SDS water could be reused, according to Colorado Springs Utilities officials.) Pueblo could reuse about 34 percent of its current supply. When its transmountain sources are in full use, that would increase to 49 percent. The three cities have differing approaches to reusing that water. "Fulfilling our needs through recycling will be a major direction for us," Kemper said. "We're pretty well limited as far as bringing in new water from other sources. We might get some more from the upper Eagle River, but that's about it." http : / /www.chieftain.com/print.php ?article= /metro /1092549600/1 8/16/2004