A city`s waterworks - Southern Delivery System

A8
❘ the gazette ❘ Saturday, april 4, 2009
subject
A city’s waterworks
VAIL
RI
V
Homestake
Reservoir
2
3
ER
FRY-ARK
COLLECTION
SYSTEM
Montgomery
Reservoir
Turquoise
Lake
Blue River
pipeline
LEADVILLE
Otero
intake
pipeline
Twin Lake
Reservoir
TWIN LAKES
COLLECTION
SYSTEM
1
SO
UT
HP
FRYING
PAN
R
R
HOMESTAKE
COLLECTION
SYSTEM
BLUE RIVE
IVE
IVE
R
ER
Colorado Springs doesn’t lack water; it has a plumbing problem.
The city consumed an average 75 million gallons a day in 2008; 130 million a day in June
2008. The city’s pipelines, which bring in water from Pikes Peak and several other drainages,
can deliver 82 million gallons a day.
In winter, the city’s thirst for water is low enough that its mountain reservoirs can be
replenished. In summer, water demand runs high, and the reservoirs are drawn down.
The city has rights to more than twice the 93,000 acre-feet it now uses each year, but
the current pipeline system can’t handle any more. An acre-foot of water equals about
326,000 gallons. The difficulty has always been getting it here.
LA
TT
ER
EA
GL
DENVER
70
2
25
LOCAL
COLLECTION
SYSTEM
Monument
Creek
MI
PL DDL
E
AT
Otero
TE FOR
RI
K
pumping
VE SO
station
U
R
Divide
pumping
station
TH
Clear Creek
Reservoir
Pikes
Peak
INEN
T
CON
ek
Cre
South slope
reservoirs
THE
E
IVID
D
TAL
SOUTH
ARKANS
AS
RIVER
n
tai
Lower Homestake
pipeline
SALIDA
R
AS
NS
A
A
RK
E
RIV
CAÑON
CITY
5 To accommodate expected population
Las Vegas
growth, and provide redundancy in
wastewater Proposed Upper
the sprawling water system,
treatment Williams Creek Reservoir
Utilities hopes to build the
plants
Southern Delivery System, a
Proposed Regional
water pipeline from Pueblo
Wastewater Plant
Reservoir. The $1.1 billion
Preferred route
pipeline would bring 78 million
of the Southern
Proposed Williams
gallons a day to a new reservoir
Delivery System
Creek reservoir
east of Colorado Springs. Pueblo
County commissioners gave
Fountain
tentative approval earlier this month,
Valley water
and Colorado Springs City Council will decide in
treatment
April whether to move forward under the conditions
plants
Pueblo attached to the project. Officials have said they
hope to begin construction this year. It will be the most
5
expensive project ever undertaken by Utilities.
COLORADO SPRINGS
1
n
Fou
Upper Homestake
pipeline
In 1953,
the Blue River pipeline began delivering water to Colorado Springs,
1
taking water from the high country above Breckenridge. The pipeline was the
city’s first transmountain project, taking water that otherwise would flow into
the Colorado River, and ultimately the Pacific Ocean.
3 In 11967, the Homestake pipeline opened. The Homestake project diverts
water from the Holy Cross Wilderness south of Vail and funnels it
Pine Valley and
through a pipeline that feeds Turquoise Lake near Leadville.
McCullough water
treatment plants
4 In 11985, the Fountain Valley pipeline began delivering water
Ute Pass water
to Fountain, Security, Widefield and Colorado Springs. A
treatment plants
piece of the Fryingpan-Arkansas project built in
conjunction with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the
Mesa water treatment plants
pipeline draws water from Pueblo Reservoir.
Rampart
Reservoir
North slope
reservoirs
The city began to assemble its supply system in the late 1800s. Now there are 10
reservoirs in the Pikes Peak watershed, which provides about 20 percent of the city’s
needs.
Fountain Valley
Authority pipeline
4
PUEBLO
Pueblo
Reservoir
THE GAZETTE