WSP06131

• File Number: 8149.911
• Description: Miscellaneous Small Projects and Project Studies - SE Needs Assessment and PSOP
• State: CO
• Basin: Arkansas
• Water Division: 2
• Date: 8/1/2001
• Author: US Army Corps of Eng
• Title: Arkansas River From John Martin Dam To The Colorado-Kansas State Line Channel Capacity and Riparian Habitat Planning Study
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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The Colorado Water Quality Control Commission (1989, 1996) has classified beneficial
uses and established basic quality standards for surface water in the state. The Arkansas River
from immediately above the confluence with Fountain Creek downstream to the Colorado-
Kansas border is designated as "Use-Protected", that is, water that does not W8JTant the special
protection provided by the High QUBlity I and 2 designations. This reach of the Arkansas River
has the following use classifications:

Class 2 warm water aquatic life: water that is not capable of sustaining a wide variety
warm water biota due to physical habitat, water flows or levels, or uncoJ1'eCtable water
quality conditions;
Secondary contact recreation: water that is riot suitable for prolonged and intimate
contact with the body;
Domestic water supply: water suitable or intended to become suitable for potable water
supplies; and
Agriculture: water that is suitable or intended to become suitable for irrigation of crops
and which is not hazardous as drinking water for livestock.

Numeric water quality and metal concentration standards that must be maintained in
surface water in the study reach are described in Colorado Water Quality Control Commission
(1989, 1996) regulations.

Although surface water in most of the Arkansas River basin within Colorado is of a
quality suitable for most uses, mining in the headwater areas and irrigation in the primarily
agricultural lower basin have substantially degraded:water quality in many reaches of the system
(Colorado Water Quality Control Division 1990). Generally, the concentrations of dissolved
solids, sulfate, total nitrogen, selenium, and suspended sediment increase in the river from the
headwaters to the Colorado-Kansas border. The declining specific conductance (an indicator of
salinity and total dissolved solids) measured near the Kansas border between 1970 and 1989;
however, can most likely be attributed to changes inwaler management and improved irrigation
practices (Middelburg 1993).

2.5 THE CHARACTER OF THE ARKANSAS RIVER: A mSTORIC PERSPECTIVE

In order to understand the river, what has happened and what is happening to it, the
following overview, from a historic perspective, will provide insight into how variable and
adaptable the Arkansas River has been. This overview will generally cover the geological,
biological, and climatological aspects of the study area and provide documentation of numerous
human impacts.

In the West, there has been what some would call an "old mentality" that says: if a person
was having a problem caused by river water backing up or threatening to damage some human
construction, the solution to the problem is to just take a bulldozer and construct a straight
channel so that that water could move down river faster to get it out of the problem area. In the
short lenn and in the localized area this actually works; however, only with total disregard for
downstream and upstrelUD effects. "Solutions" like this are a problem: and instances such as this
are stiIl occurring today, not that a person intends to cause downstrelUD effects but that they just

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