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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />c <br /> <br />Colorado Springs and El Paso County are exploring local funding alternatives and the City of <br />Pueblo and Pueblo County are doing the same thing. Concepts that are being explored include <br />the creation of a drainage district (like the Urban Drainage and Flood Control District in the <br />Denver area) and a set of intergovernmental agreements. The premise of these efforts related to <br />funding alternatives is that some reliable source of revenue will be needed if the problems <br />associated with flooding on Fountain Creek are to be addressed in a meaningful way. <br /> <br />Technical Assistance from Other Entities - The Watershed Forum and other interests in the <br />watershed have been seeking technical assistance from various entities. They have <br />communicated with the CWCB and with the Corps of Engineers about technical assistance and <br />funding. The CWCB and the Corps of Engineers made presentations to the Policy Development <br />Committee this summer in Pueblo. Since that time the Watershed Forum has been actively <br />pursuing a General Investigation by the Corps of Engineers. The first phase of a General <br />Investigation is a Reconnaissance Study. The Reconnaissance Study costs $100,000, with no <br />local share required. Its primary purposes are to determine whether there is a federal role in the <br />watershed, to define what the scope of the Feasibility Study phase (the second phase of a General <br />Investigation) would be and to establish who the most logical local sponsor(s) might be. One <br />important matter to note is that the Corps of Engineers has stated that erosion problems would <br />not be addressed by a General Investigation. Flooding problems would be addressed, but if <br />erosion problems were of concern, another funding authority would have to be pursued. <br /> <br />In addition to working with the Watershed Forum on the possibility of a Reconnaissance Study, <br />the Corps of Engineers is performing a cursory hydrologic analysis, They are examining all of <br />the stream gages along Fountain Creek to determine the flood hydrology at each gage site, <br />However, to tie these gages to one another would require additional funding for computer <br />analysis of the whole watershed. The ongoing cursory analysis will simply indicate whether <br />current hydrologic information is generally valid or not and it will give an idea of how the maj or <br />inconsistency in flood hydrology between El Paso County and Pueblo County might be resolved. <br /> <br />Another Corps funding authority that might be applicable to the Fountain Creek watershed is <br />Section 22 (Planning Assistance to States). It is not known whether there are any funds currently <br />available through the Albuquerque District of the Corps of Engineers for Section 22 assistance <br />for the Fountain Creek watershed. If there is local interest, the CWCB will ask the Albuquerque <br />District about such funding in the near future. Under Section 22, the state can determine what <br />specific assistance to request from the Corps of Engineers. The Corps then decides whether it <br />has the staff resources and the funding to provide that particular assistance, <br /> <br />The Turkey Creek Soil Conservation District worked with the Colorado Soil Conservation <br />Board, which is a Colorado DNR agency like the CWCB, to obtain funding for technical <br />assistance. Their Severance Tax request for $96,000 has also been forwarded to Governor <br />Owens. That funding would be used to provide the Watershed Forum with a watershed <br /> <br />3 <br />