WSP05262

• File Number: 8146.400
• Description: Pueblo Dam - Reports
• State: CO
• Basin: Arkansas
• Water Division: 2
• Date: 5/1/1972
• Author: US DoI BoR
• Title: Final Environmental Statement
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: EIS

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The Project will be operated to conform with the criteria and
limitations established in the "Operating Principles, Fryingpan-
Arkansas Project," adopted by the State of Colorado on April 3D,
1959, as amended. Project construction began in the summer of
1964 with the award of a contract for Ruedi Dam, on the Fryingpan
River near Basalt, Colorado. The Fryingpan-Arkansas Project is
approximately 36 percent complete based on expenditures as of
January 1, 1972. Completed facilities include Ruedi Dam and
Reservoir; Sugar Loaf Dam and Turquoise Lake Enlargement; Charles
H. Boustead, Chapman, and South Fork Tunnels and appurtenant
diversion works. Present work schedules call for completion of
construction in 1978.

The Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District has con-
tracted with the United States to repay the reimbursable costs
allocated to irrigation, municipal and industrial water supplies.
The district extends along the Arkansas River from Buena Vista
to Lamar, and along Fountain Creek from Colorado Springs to
Pueblo.

2.

Pueblo Dam and Reservoir

Pueblo Reservoir is the terminal eastern slope storage feature
for the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project. The damsite is located on
the Arkansas River in Pueblo County, and is about six miles
upstream and west of the city of Pueblo, Colorado (population
97,452). The dam is immediately downstream from the existing
Rock Canyon Barrier Dam which will be inundated by Pueblo
Reservoir. (See fig. 2-Pueblo Dam)

An area of 18,012 acres has been purchased for the dam and
reservoir, and their associated functions. About 45 percent
of this acreage is allocated for the dam and the reservoir at
the maximum water surface level. The rest of the land is
allotted to requirements for recreation (27 percent) and wild-
life (28 percent).

The land area is triangular in shape, is about 5 miles wide at
the dam end and extends about 13 miles upstream along the
Arkansas River. At minimum pool level, the impounded reser-
voir will be about 3.5 miles in length, and will vary from a
few hundred feet to about 1.3 miles in width. At the top
of the conservation pool, the impoundment will have a length
of over 9 miles, a maximum width of about 2,2 miles that
narrows to less than three tenths (.3) mile, and a shoreline

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