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<br />,... .. I" .- <br />'}. u":' <br />.. J <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />CHAPTER III <br /> <br />DESCRIPTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT <br /> <br />A. Climate <br /> <br />The Fountain Valley Conduit is within a semiarid climatic region <br />which receives an average annual precipitation of 15.73. inches along <br />the north end of the conduit alinement near Colorado Springs; and <br />11.97 inches near Pueblo. The area has relatively low humidity. <br />About 83. percent of the precipitation falls during the growing <br />season. Winds are common in the early spring and late winter. <br />Prevailing winds from the west and northwest bring dry air from the <br />mountains, while summer winds are mostly from the south and <br />southwest. On the northern end of the alinement, high winds have <br />been reported at 60 miles per hour with an average of 10.4 miles <br />per hour. On the southern end of the alinement, winds to 80 miles <br />per hour have been reported during short gusts, although the <br />average wind velocity is 8.6 miles per hour. The driest period <br />is in the autumn and winter. Sunshine can be expected in the <br />area about 73 percent of the daylight hours. Temperatures at <br />Colorado Springs range from _260 to lOOoF. At Pueblo the <br />temperature range is from _350 to l050F. <br /> <br />.~ <br /> <br />B. Physiography and Geological Characteristics <br /> <br />1. Physiography <br /> <br />The 4S-mile long Fountain Valley Conduit corridor is located in <br />the southern end of the southern end of the Colorado Piedmont <br />section of the Great Plains physiographic province. The line <br />of the conduit lies 3 to 10 miles east of the sedimentary-igneous <br />r.nnta("f" WhPTP f'"h~nllf"hp.rn Rorky Mn1mt-~in Prm7"inl"'P, hpginQ <br />Hogback ridges characterize the contact. East of the hogback <br />ridges, the pediment surfaces are dissected to varying degrees and <br />blend into a rolling surface eastward. The Colorado Piedmont is <br />a north-south trending trough where the Tertiary sedimentary bedrock <br />has been removed in many places, exposing the underlying <br />Cretaceous bedrock. Local scarps may be present where resistant <br />ledges in the underlying bedrock are present. Much of the <br />bedrock in the conduit course is blanketed with 20-40 feet of <br />unconsolidated Pleistocene alluvium, and relief is limited to only <br />10-20 feet in the intermittent stream channels. The first 3-1/2 <br />miles of the conduit from Pueblo north traverse an area where the <br />topography is quite different from the rest of the area. It is <br />characterized by bluffs 100 to 150 feet high that are capped with <br />resistant limestone beds of the Cretaceous Niobrara Formation. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />III-l <br />