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<br />15 feet in the mountainous upper reaches. The oreek flows south- <br /> <br /> <br />ward from a preoipitous canyon in the Monument area through the <br /> <br />transitional foothills to the high plains, joining Fountain Creek <br /> <br /> <br />at Colorado Springs. The sparse vegetation covering the land is <br /> <br /> <br />typical of Colorado foothill regions. <br /> <br />South of Colorado Springs, the watershed west of <br /> <br /> <br />Fountain Creek is in the Frontal Range foothills while the eastern <br /> <br /> <br />portion is primarily high plains. The rolling high plains terrain <br /> <br /> <br />is rough, broken, and sparsely vegetated. On either side of the <br /> <br /> <br />flood plain, the vegetation is sparse and typical of the semi-arid <br /> <br /> <br />high plains--predominantly sage brush, oaotus, and native grass. <br /> <br /> <br />The flood plain is comprised of narrow-strip irrigated farms, <br /> <br /> <br />clumps of oottonwood trees, salt oedar, and other thiok undergrowth. <br /> <br /> <br />The Fountain Creek valley varies from a few hundred feet to 2,000 <br /> <br /> <br />feet in width within the study reaoh. <br /> <br /> <br />Fountain Creek is perennial except for a few days <br /> <br /> <br />during the summer when irrigation and munioipal demands equal or <br /> <br /> <br />exceed the low summer flows. Some irrigation-return flows are <br /> <br /> <br />experienced in the plains seotor of the creek. Irrigation and <br /> <br /> <br />munioipal waters originate for the most part in the west-bank <br /> <br /> <br />mountain tributaries. Few, if any, of the ,east-bank plains <br /> <br /> <br />tributaries are perennial. <br /> <br />The damaging floods at Pueblo on fountain Creek <br /> <br /> <br />normally originate south of Colorado Springs on the main stem and <br /> <br /> <br />tributaries. The long, narrow main stem and tributary watersheds <br /> <br /> <br />are oonduoive to fast rises and high peak flows of short duration <br /> <br /> <br />in this reaoh. On the east bank, the tributaries of primary <br /> <br /> <br />ooncern are Jimmy Camp, Sand, and Williams Creeks; on the west <br /> <br /> <br />bank, they are Little Fountain Creek, Young Hollow and Steele Hollow. <br /> <br /> <br />The streambed elevations within the study reach vary <br /> <br /> <br />from 4,365.6 feet at the mouth of Fountain Creek to 5,152.1 feet <br /> <br /> <br />at the north Pueblo County line. The channel slopes uniformly <br /> <br />12 <br />