Colorado and the West is running out of water . . . (Denver: high school, price)

[Mike from back east]

Here's one from today's Denver Post.... indicates just how serious the issue of water is in the state of Colorado.

Seems a developer who wants to build in Minturn may have to look elsewhere for water as Aurora is about to buy the rights to the water in Minturn, or that's how I read the article.

[Josseppie]

Interesting but I in my opinion is a great example as to why Pueblo still has as much power as we do. Keep in mind Pueblo is buying more water so in the end we will have more not less while the state fights over water rights we no longer want. That will give us more money that we can use to keep the rates low and give us the ability to buy more water downt the road.

As a side note tomorrow I am going on a trip sponsored by the Pueblo Board of Water Works to see where Pueblo gets its water. When I come back i will post what I find along with pictures.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by Josseppie

Interesting but I in my opinion is a great example as to why Pueblo still has as much power as we do. Keep in mind Pueblo is buying more water so in the end we will have more not less while the state fights over water rights we no longer want. That will give us more money that we can use to keep the rates low and give us the ability to buy more water downt the road.

As a side note tomorrow I am going on a trip sponsored by the Pueblo Board of Water Works to see where Pueblo gets its water. When I come back i will post what I find along with pictures.

Yeah, so more Colorado farmers won't have water to irrigate crops. You, after umpteen posts on this subject, still don't get it. By the way, I already know where Pueblo gets it water--and have for about 30+ years now. Glad to see you are finally catching up . . .

[Bideshi]

Has water rationing ever been seriously discussed by cities like Pueblo and Colorado Springs?

[Josseppie]

Originally Posted by Bideshi

Has water rationing ever been seriously discussed by cities like Pueblo and Colorado Springs?

The only time Pueblo had rationing was the drought of 2003 and that was only a few months as Pueblo has more then enough water for a city our size.

[Josseppie]

Today was my first of a two day trip to find out where Pueblo gets our water. I am in Leadville so tonight I will summarize what I saw on my first day then when I get back I will post pictures of the reservoirs and some great pictures of Leadville and my trip back with my final report that will be more deailed.

My first day was very interesting. We started out at the main treatment plant in Pueblo, named the Whitlock water treatment plant named after a former bored of Pueblo water works director. It is a big facility as it handles over 84 million gallons of water a day. They said that Pueblo has over 550 miles of pipes and 18 water storage tanks.

They gave a brief history on Pueblo's board of water works. Pueblo started its board of water works in 1874 for mainly fire protection. Today, we have water rights that date back to 1861, 1868, 1874 and 1886. That gives Pueblo some of the most senior water rights in the state.

From there we went to the Clear Creak Reservoir. It was built in 1902 and bought by the Pueblo board of water works in 1950 for 2.7 million dollars but worth a lot more then that today. That gives us the water in there and it currently holds 11,500 acer feet but they want to expand it to hold over 30,000 acer feet.

From there we went to Twin Lakes where Pueblo has 23% of the water and Colorado Springs has 52% of the water. This is where Pueblo and Colorado springs get our water form the western slope via a tunnel. Pueblo gets 40% of our water from eastern slope and 60 % from the western slope. We want to make it 50/50 as Pueblo feels that in a drought western slope water is not reliable. To put it in perspective Colorado Springs gets 20% of its water form Eastern slope and 80% from the western slope.

Finally we ended up in Leadville where I am now and had a few drinks at 10,000 feet so I am happy lol. They told us that Aurora will buy our shares in the Columbine ditch for 30 million dollars and that will allow us to buy shares in the Bessemer ditch. Pueblo wants to do that because it will give us more water per share and the Bessemer ditch is Eastern Colorado water so it will get us to the 50/50 split we want.

Tomorrow we have more stops as we head back to Pueblo.

This is just a brief summery on my first day. I will go in more detail on my final report where I will also have pictures!

[fnord]

The fad of golf courses in the Southwest deserts will be the first to go - and not a day too soon. Grass lawns will be next. The massive dairy operations will cease to exist in the middle of a desert. What's more important: hitting a small ball with a club across acres of heavily irrigated grass or having fresh water to drink and prepare food with?

[Bideshi]

Originally Posted by fnord

What's more important: hitting a small ball with a club across acres of heavily irrigated grass or having fresh water to drink and prepare food with?

This is a tough one because I enjoy golf. Let me agonize for a bit. Argh! Arrrr! Ohhhh, Unnnh! Man, all this agonizing makes a man mighty thirsty! OK, I'll go with water to drink!

[Josseppie]

This is my second of a three report series on how Pueblo gets its water. Today I will focus on what I learned on the second day.

Before I get started on what we did I want to talk about two great videos we saw.

The first was on the Fry Pan Arkansas project.

It was named after the two rivers that were affected, the Fry Pan River and the Arkansas river.

In 1958 the south east Colorado water conservancy district formed.

In 1962 the United States Senate authorized the Fry Pan Project

President Kennedy came out to Pueblo to sign the bill in 1962.

This project transfers water from the western slope to south east Colorado and also helps out with flood control. Aurora has became a major player as well although technically they are not part of the project. That just means they have to pay more for the water since they don't get taxed like cities who are in the project.

The second film showed President Kennedy's visit to Pueblo and his speech at district 60 stadium, now known as Dutch Clark Stadium.

It was amazing seeing a old film from 1962 and how President Kennedy thought the Fry Pan project would help the region in the future. He even said he hopes people from the 1980's and the end of the century look back on what we are doing in 1962 with admiration the same way we look back on people who came before us as its our job to make life better for the next generation. It was kind of a surreal moment for me as I am the "next" generation and seeing what he said on film and studying it like I am makes me think how forward thinking they were and in deed life is better in Pueblo today because of the Fry Pan Ark project. Also, with how today we are working on projects that will hopefully make life better in Pueblo for the next generation.

On the second day we started by looking at Turquoise reservoir. This was built by the former CF&I and was called Sugar Loaf Reservoir. When it was first build it held 50,000 acer feet of water. Then the Ark-Fry pan bought it and increased in capacity and it now holds 131,000 acer feet of water.

Next we went to the Curtlon Tunnel, it brings water from the western slop to the front range. It was built as a railroad and water tunnel but now is only used as a water tunnel. There has been a small collapse but it remains viable to transport water.

Then we looked at the Blue Sted Tunnel is 5 miles long built from 1964 to 1982 and is still in use today. Then we looked at the Busk Ivanhoe System which is located 12 miles west of Leadville over Hagerman Pass. The Pueblo Board of Water Works bought 50% of it in 1971 and in 1988 the city of Aurora bought 95% of the remaining shares. Today the Pueblo Board of Water Works and Aurora share the system.

Then they talked about Rude Eye Reservoir. It was built on the western slope as a way to compensate for the front range taking some water. In fact it had to be done before any of the fry ark pan projects began.

Then we looked at the Wurtz ditch. It is located on the continental divide 15 miles north west of Leadville by Ski Cooper and is 6 miles long. It was built in 1929 and the Pueblo Board of Water works bought in 1938. In order to buy it a bond issue had to be voted on by the citizens of Pueblo for the price of 50,000 dollars and it passed. As he was talking about it I thought about my grandfathers generation going over all the details and voting for it as they thought it would be good for future generations. A extension of 6 1/2 miles was built in 1953 to give more water to Pueblo.

Then we looked at the Ewing Ditch that was built in 1880 and is one of the oldest diversions of western water to the eastern slope of Colorado. In 1955 the Pueblo Board of Water works bought the ditch along with Clear Creak reservoir in 1955 for 2.7 million dollars and has become a important part of Pueblo source for water.

Finally we looked at the Columbine ditch which was constructed in 1931 for irrigation purposes. It was purchased by the Pueblo Board of Water Works in 1953 for $15,000. This is the ditch that Pueblo is in the process of selling to Aurora so we can buy shares in the Bessemer ditch. Their hope is that the Pueblo Board of Water Works become the "buyer of choice" for people who want to sale their shares of the Bessemer ditch in the future.

Tomorrow I will post the pictures I took of the reservoirs and ditches as well as my final thoughts on what I learned the past two days.

[CosmicWizard]

fnord wrote:

What's more important: hitting a small ball with a club across acres of heavily irrigated grass or having fresh water to drink and prepare food with?

<cynicism>

From the looks of things, it appears to be hitting a small ball with a club across acres of heavily irrigated grass. Heck people don't have to drink water out of the tap anyway. They can buy it in a throw away plastic bottle. Now that's real water! AND, bottled water has the added benefit of expanding the landfills. Landfills have to be mankinds most ingenuis way to make wasteland usable. And they are so pretty to look at too. So keep watering those golf courses. It'll stimulate the economy by forcing people to buy bottled water, which will keep the plastic bottle manufactures in business, it'll keep the truckers busy hauling the bottled water to market, it'll keep the oil companies in profit to fuel the trucks, it'll keep the road repair companies busy repairing the extra wear and tear on the highways, and it'll keep the landfills booming too. Perhaps the Obama administration ( if it's not being done already ) should add Golf Course building and irrigation to the stimulus package...then all of our problems would be solved.

</cynicism>