COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Colorado Springs Utilities is negotiating with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation this week on water contracts for the Southern Delivery System pipeline.
The 62-mile pipeline would move water from Pueblo Reservoir to Colorado Springs. But before construction begins, the municipally owned utility and the federal government must agree on costs associated with storing and conveying extra water through the reservoir.
The reservoir is part of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project that moves water from the Western Slope to the Front Range. It is managed by the Bureau of Reclamation, and it provides water to Pueblo, Colorado Springs, and small towns, ranching communities and farms along the Arkansas River.
As a beneficiary of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, Colorado Springs Utilities can store about 56,000 acre feet of water in Pueblo Reservoir. Through short-term excess capacity contracts, the utility has increased its water in the reservoir by up to 20,000 acre-feet annually.
Now with construction set to begin on the Southern Delivery System pipeline, the utility wants to enter into a long-term excess capacity storage contract beginning in 2011 through 2049 to store up to 28,000 more acre feet.
Utilities’ partners in the pipeline—Pueblo West, Security, and Fountain—want similar contracts to collectively store an extra 14,000 acre feet of water.
The Bureau of Reclamation has proposed that Utilities pay $75 an acre-foot to store and convey water in the reservoir, plus a 3.08 percent annual inflation adjustment.
“Reclamation’s proposal would mean more than $200 million in additional costs for the SDS partner communities that will already face a doubling of their water rates to pay for this project,” Colorado Springs Utilities said in a written statement.
By comparison, Aurora entered into a 40-year contract in 2007 that charges it a little over $45 per acre foot and a 1.79 percent annual inflation fee for storage.
Jay Winner, executive director of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, said the Bureau of Reclamation is not singling out Utilities. He said the federal agency has begun charging more for water throughout Colorado.
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Information from: The Gazette,
