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<br />.1 <br />- r <br />, <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />The Hanna Ranch was purchased when the city acquired the Pinello Ranch, <br />on January l, 1973. Located about 4 miles south of Fountain, the Hanna Ranch <br />is the site of the new R.D. Nixon powerplant. Water rights for the Owen and <br />Hall ditch acquired with the ranch are used, in part, in a plan of augmenta- <br />tion for l4 wells on the ranch. Water from the wells supply the town of <br />Fountain, and Unit 1 of the R.D. Nixon powerplant. An average of 4,700 acre- <br />feet per year is supplied to the powerplant from this source. <br /> <br />The Supreme Court of Colorado determined that Colorado water law allows <br />municipalities "...to reuse, make successive uses, and after use to have the <br />right of deposition of imported water..." (Radosevich and others, 1975). In <br />recent years, Colorado Springs used an average of 6,200 acre-feet of imported <br />return flow. Reuse of imported water is for nonpotable purposes, such as <br />irrigation of golf courses, parks, parkways, for cleaning streets, and it may <br />be used for cooling water to powerplants. Transmountain-return flow also is <br />used to offset ground-water depletions at the Pinello and Hanna Ranches, to <br />offset storage and excess diversions from the Pikes Peak watershed, South <br />Suburban storage, and Fort Carson water reuse. For this purpose, a strict <br />accounting of transmountain-return flow and reuse is made by Colorado Springs <br />to the Water Commissioner (Irrigation Division No.2, Water District lO). <br /> <br />City of Pueblo <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />The city of Pueblo obtains its water through the Pueblo Board of Water <br />Works; a public, revenue-supported water utility. The city's raw-water supply <br />is from three sources: (l) Direct-flow rights; (2) storage rights; and (3) <br />transmountain diversions. The existing treatment plant is designed to process <br />from 53 million gallons per day (82.0 cubic feet per second) to a maximum of <br />80 million gallons per day (l23.8 cubic feet per second). At Pueblo's present <br />size, direct flow rights satisfy municipal demand most of the year. Critical <br />periods occur early in the spring, before snowmelt runoff begins, and in the <br />fall, when the river is low. During these times, streamflow is supplemented <br />with reservoir water. <br /> <br />The Pueblo Board of Water Works operates Clear Creek Reservoir on Clear <br />Creek in Chaffee County (fig. l5). The storage rights for Clear Creek <br />Reservoir include ll,439 acre-feet from the waters of Clear Creek; the <br />reservoir also stores the Board's transmountain diversions by exchange. <br /> <br />Transmountain diversions, which are storable in the Arkansas River basin, <br />are from the Ewing Ditch, the Warren E. Wurtz Ditch, the Wurtz Ditch exten- <br />sion, the Columbine Ditch, the Busk-Ivanhoe Tunnel, the Homestake Project, and <br />the Twin Lakes Project collection system (fig. l5). <br /> <br />The Ewing, Wurtz, and Columbine Ditches are open ditches, conveying water <br />from the headwaters of the Eagle River in the Colorado River basin, through <br />saddles in the Continental Divide into West Tennessee Creek and the'East Fork <br />Arkansas River north of Leadville. <br /> <br />e <br />; <br />I <br />1 <br /> <br />----- <br /> <br />The Ewing Ditch is 3/4-mile long, diverting into a tributary of West <br />Tennessee Creek. It intercepts runoff from a drainage area of 2,400 acres. <br />The decree is for l8.5 cubic feet per second, and dates from 1906. Ewing <br />Ditch conveys an average of 1,100 acre-feet of water per year. <br /> <br />25 <br />