WSP02139

• File Number: 8170
• Description: Arkansas Basin Water Quality Issues
• State: CO
• Basin: Arkansas
• Water Division: 2
• Date: 1/1/1990
• Author: USGS
• Title: Water Quality of Fountain and Monument Creeks - South-Central Colorado - with emphasis on Relation of Water Quality to Stream Classifications
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

The streamflow of Upper Fountain Creek has been gaged from 1959 through
1983 at site F12 (station 07103700, Fountain Creek near Colorado Springs)
(fig. 1) located upstream from the city of Colorado Springs diversion. The
streamflow has been smallest during winter; it is largest during the spring
from snowmelt runoff and during the summer from thunderstorms (fig. 3A).

Variability in streamflows also can be illustrated by the streamflow-
duration curve for site F12 (fig. 38), Streamflow-duration curves are useful
for evaluating the flow characteristics of a basin (Searcy, 1959), The rela-
tively steeper slopes at the upper end of the curves in figure 38 indicate
that larger streamflows vary substantially and result from direct runoff such
as that produced by intense thunderstorms, The relatively flatter slopes,
especially at the lower end of the curves (fig. 38), are indicative of peren-
nial storage in the basin (Searcy, 1959, p, 22). The perennial storage tends
to sustain streamflow during periods of little or no precipitation or direct
runoff (October through April, fig. 3A); in Upper Fountain Creek, streamflows
probably are sustained primarily by releases from reservoirs in the basin and
ground-water discharge to Upper Fountain Creek and its tributaries. The
frequency curve of instantaneous streamflows, made in conjunction with water-
quality samples collected from 1975 through 1983 at site F12, is nearly iden-
tical to the mean daily streamflow-duration curve (fig. 3B). Therefore,
water-quality samples collected at site F12 should characterize the water-
quality conditions that occur approximately 98 percent of the time.

Lower Fountain Creek

Lower Fountain Creek has a stream length of approximately 52 mi, which
extends from a point immediately upstream from the confluence with Monument
Creek to the confluence with the Arkansas River at Pueblo (fig. 2). This
stream segment has been classified for class 2 recreation, domestic water
supply, and agricultural uses. Numeric water-quality standards associated
with these classifications for specific water-quality constituents are listed
in table 1,

The northern part of Lower Fountain Creek is perennial and receives flow
from a variety of sources including Upper Fountain Creek, Monument Creek,
tributaries that drain the Colorado Springs area and Fort Carson, effluent
from five wastewater-treatment plants, and the alluvial aquifer, The stream
traverses residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural areas and
consists primarily of sewage effluent (Edelmann and Cain, 1985), most of which
is discharged to Fountain Creek by the Colorado Springs Wastewater Treatment
Plant located about 0,5 mi downstream from site F17 (station 07105500 Fountain
Creek at Colorado Springs) (fig. 1). The streamflow in the northern part of
Lower Fountain Creek is the primary source of recharge to the alluvial aquifer,
which serves as the water supply for the communities south of Colorado Springs
and which supplements the Colorado Springs water supply, A portion of the
streamflow in the northern part of Lower Fountain Creek is diverted and used
for agricultural purposes.

8