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<br />Wild Horse-Dry Creek is sometimes referred to as Dry Creek. The <br />Arkansas River flows eastward through the urban center of Pueblo, <br />dividing the city into north and south sections. The three tribu- <br />taries flow south to the Arkansas River, dividing the northern <br />section of Pueblo into four subsections. <br /> <br />Above the mouth of Fountain Creek, the Arkansas River watershed <br />comprises approximately 4,704 square miles, excluding the Wild <br />Horse-Dry Creek area. The terrain descends from the mountain head- <br />waters of the Arkansas River near Leadville, Colorado, where mountain <br />peaks exceed 14,000 feet, to approximately 4,700 feet at Pueblo. <br />The Arkansas River above Canon City is a typical mountain torrent <br />that descends over 6,000 feet in elevation over a distance of less <br />than 130 miles at gradients often exceeding 50 feet per mile. Between <br />Canon City and Pueblo, the valley is generally narrow and the stream- <br />bed is well-defined, with a gradient ranging from 10 to 23 feet <br />per mile. <br /> <br />The Fountain Creek watershed, approximately 65 miles long as measured <br />from Palmer Lake, Colorado, to the Arkansas River confluence at <br />Pueblo, is a max~um of 25 mdles wide in the vicinity of Colorado <br />Springs and constitutes a drainage area of 927 square miles. The <br />creek originates approximately 7 miles northwest of Pikes Peak, in <br />the mountains of the Rampart Range of the Rocky Mountains, near <br />Colorado Springs. Elevations in the watershed vary from 14,109 <br />feet at Pikes peak to 4,627 feet at the river's mouth in Pueblo. <br />The streambed elevations within the study reach vary from 4,627 <br />feet at the mouth of Fountain Creek to 5,152 feet at the north <br />Pueblo County line. The channel slopes uniformly at approximately <br />24 feet per mile. <br /> <br />The Dry Creek (East) basin is 5.5 miles long from the headwaters <br />to the mouth and drains an area of 5.4 square miles. Elevations <br />range from 5,265 feet at the headwaters to 4,608 feet at the conflu- <br />ence with the Arkansas River. The average slope in the watershed <br />is approximately 114 feet per mile. Dry Creek (East), an ephemeral <br />stream, originates at the southern extremity of Baculite Mesa, in <br />the high plains northeast of pueblo, and flows southerly to discharge <br />into the Arkansas River. <br /> <br />University Park Tributary is an unnamed tributary of Fountain Creek. <br />It flows south of the University Park subdivision and empties into <br />Fountain Creek upstream of State Highway 47. It is referred to as <br />University Park Tributary in this study for purposes of clarity <br />and convenience. <br /> <br />The Wild Horse-Dry Creek watershed, approximately 17 miles long <br />(as measured from the headwaters to the Arkansas River confluence <br />at Pueblo) and averaging 5 miles wide, has a drainage area of 85.8 <br />square miles. Elevations vary from 6,000 feet near the headwaters <br />to 4,670 feet at the mouth. The separate ephemeral streams, Wild <br /> <br />6 <br />