FLOOD02335

• Designation Number: 258
• County: Pueblo
• Community: Pueblo
• Basin: Arkansas
• Title: Flood Insurance Study - Pueblo
• Date: 9/1/1986
• Designation Date: 9/1/1986
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Floodplain Report/Masterplan

6.0 OTHER STUDIES

In July 1972, the COE, Albuquerque District, completed a draft Flood
Insurance Study for the City of Pueblo (Reference 28). The city datum
was used in the 1972 study and was corrected to the NGVD of 1929. However,
the correction factor used (-11.79 feet) was found to be in error. Because
of this error, the hydraulics for this study were redone, and only surveyed
data remained valid and usable.

In November 1977, the COE completed another draft Flood Insurance Study
for the community (Reference 1). The community disagreed with a number
of the results of the 1977 study. The COE data were found to be in error
or outdated in several cases. As a result, FEMA directed the study con-
tractor to undertake a restudy of the c01lllllunity. This stUdy supersedes
the 1977 draft study.

The COE has completed five Flood Plain Information reports (References 29-
33) covering the following streams in or near Pueblo: Fountain Creek;
Goodnight Arroyo, Dry Creek, and Wild Horse-Dry Creek; St. Charles River;
Salt Creek; and Sixmile Creek. For the 1977 draft study (Reference 1),
the COE developed a new frequency curve based on 10 additional years of
record for Fountain Creek. These data superseded previous calculations.
Because all studies were made by the COE, Albuquerque District, reconcili-
ations of differences between the Flood Plain Information reports and
the 1977 draft study were made within the agency. This study supersedes
the results of the Flood Plain Information reports.

The USGS has published Flood Prone Area Maps (Reference 24) for the Pueblo
area. Approximate flood plain boundaries for Fountain Creek were taken
from these maps. In other areas, flood plain boundaries presented on
the Flood Prone Area Maps generally do not agree with the results of
this study. These differences are attributable to differences in the
scopes of study and depth of analyses.

A Flood Insurance Rate Map has been published for the City of Pueblo
(Reference 27). It is the source of some approximate boundaries in this
study. In other areas, however, this study represents a more recent and
comprehensive analysis and, therefore, supersedes the previous Flood
Insurance Rate Map.

A Flood Hazard Boundary Map has been published for the unincorporated
areas of pueblo County (Reference 26); however, it does not agree with
this study in some areas. Detailed-study flood plains for Wild Horse-
Dry Creek and for the Arkansas River and Fountain Creek (near their con-
fluence) are adjacent to approxi.lllate-study areas in the county. This
difference and differences between the lOa-year boundaries are attributable
to the differences in the scopes of study and study methods. The Flood
Hazard Boundary Map and this study also disagree concerning the northern
corporate limits where the Flood Prone Area Map (Reference 24) was used
as the source of approxi.lllate flood plain boundaries for Fountain Creek.
The Flood Hazard Boundary Map was the SOUrce of approximate flood plain

32