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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for stable livelihoods. Abandoned farmsteads would increase
in number and blight the rural landscape as they deteriorated.
Some cultivated land would be used as rangeland due to the
lack of adequate quantities of quality water.

with new technology and range management techniques, lands
under private ownership could become more productive. How-
ever, without improved management techniques, eKisting
grassland and forage conditions would prevail.

In summary, continued economic and industrial development
of Pueblo and the Arkansas Valley would be heavily depen-
dent upon establishing an adequate water supply. These
water supplies may be obtained by changing the priority
of water use from agricultural to municipal and industrial
use.

Water quality will be dependent upon interpretation and
enforcement of water quality legislation.

C. Environmental Impacts of Proposed Action

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1. The reservoir will inundate eight small family farms. These
families were paid for their holdings and moved by the Bureau
of Reclamation to new locations. All of the families stayed
within the general area and are continuing farming/ranching
operations or are now employed in nearby towns.

2. Pueblo Dam will regulate Arkansas River flows and provide
flood control. Stored water will supplement present irriga-
tion water supplies for about 280,600 irrigable acres in the
Arkansas Valley. Municipal and industrial water will supple-
ment existing supplies, which in many communities according
to the Office of Saline Water, does not meet minimum quality
standards. Development of a new supply of municipal and in-
dustrial water has the potential as a major environmental
improvement in terms of health and general welfare of the
people in the valley. Sedimentation of part of the main stem
of the Arkansas River below the damsite will be lessened by
Pueblo Reservoir which will provide about 103,100 acre-feet
of storage capacity for a 100-year accumulation of sediment.
Flood control storage will not be depleted by sediment during
the life of the Project.

3. The operation of Pueblo Dam may influence the quality of water
in the Arkansas Valley. The Project provides supplemental

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