FLOOD02760

• Designation Number: 540
• County: El Paso
• Community: Unincorporated El Paso County
• Basin: Arkansas
• Title: Flood Insurance Study - El Paso County, Colorado & Incorporated Areas - Volume I of IV
• Date: 8/1/1999
• Designation Date: 1/1/2001
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Floodplain Report/Masterplan

Interstate Highway 25, u.s. Highway 85-87, State Highways 24,83,94,115, and County
Road 38 are located in the floodplains of the county. Rail lines serving the county are the
Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company; Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific
Railroad Company; and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company.

The growth rate of Colorado Springs has been among the highest in the nation since 1970.
Development is continuing at a relatively high rate. Most of the residential development is
along the oortheastern and eastern corporate limits. Major housing developments are planned
for the Pine Creek, Kettle Creek, Cottonwood Creek, Jimmy Camp Creek, and Sand Creek
basins .

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Beckers Lane Tributary flows parallel to Beckers Lane in the eastern part of the City of
Manitou Springs and drains an area of 0.85 square mile. The stream flows in an area of the
city that is less developed than the floodplain of the other drainageways.

Butler Canyon flows eastward from the hills onto an alluvial fan and into Palmer Lake.
Palmer Lake discharges northward into Carpenter Creek, which flows northward for
approximately 10 miles before joining East Plum Creek at Larkspur. The floodplains are
generally limited to narrow boundaries along each side of the low-water channel and lake.

Camp Creek originates in the Pike National Forest northwcst of Colorado Springs
approximately 5 miles northwest of Glen Eyrie, continues south approximately 3 miles to
Colorado Springs, and joins Fountain Creek near 30th Street. The creek flows in a concrete-
lined channel in residential areas.

Cottonwood Creek, an east bank tributary of Monument Creek, originates near the Black
Forest and has an approximate drainage area of 18 square miles above its confluence with
Monument Creek. The upper reach has an approximate gradient of 193 feet per mile. The
lower reach. which is flat and wide, has an approximate gradient of 88 feet per mile. The
stream along most of its course is deeply eroded into rock outcrops and, in the lower reach,
is lined with willows. Within the corporate areas of Colorado Springs, developers have
confined Cottonwood Creek to a sand-bottom, riprap-sided channel.

Douglas Creek (North and South) drains an area in and adjacent to northwestern Colorado
Springs. The stream flows southeasterly for approximately 8 miles to join Monument Creek
near the Templeton Gap Floodway outlet. Lower portions of Douglas Creeks North and
South have been channelized into concrete-lined drainage structures.

Dry Creek and its tributaries drain the Dry Creek Basin. The Dry Creek Basin is bounded
on the west by the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, on the south and north by ridges,
and on the east hy Monument Creek. It slopes from west to east toward Monument Creek,
rising from an elevation of 6,250 feet to an elevation of 9,250 feet. The western portion of
the basin is heavily forested, mountainous terrain, drained by three major tributaries of Dry
Creek. The central portion of the basin is characterized by gently rolling wide valleys,
separated by foothill ridges and mesas. Through the central portion of the basin, Dry Creek
is poorly defined and flows through broad, gently sloping meadows. The eastern portion of
the basin is fully developed, and Dry Creek flows through well-defined and eroded channels
as well as greenbelt areas (Reference 5). For the most part, flow in Dry Creek and its
tributaries is intermittent.

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