Pueblo County laid out their requirements for Colorado Springs’ proposed Southern Delivery System yesterday, according to a report from Debbie Bell writing for the Cañon City Daily Record. From the article:
A lengthy list of terms and conditions — some quite costly — received a stamp of approval Wednesday evening from the Pueblo County Commissioners. Even though the preferred route of the Colorado Springs Utilities project is from Pueblo Reservoir north, the decision-making work now begins in earnest. “The heavy lifting really begins now, in terms of our management and our council making a good business decision,” SDS Project Manager John Fredell said this morning. Fredell said the Colorado Springs City Council, which also sits as the board of directors of CSU, will make the final determination after it receives a recommendation from utilities management…
Pueblo slapped on conditions, including a $50 million investment in Fountain Creek over the next five years and another $75 million in sanitary sewer system upgrades…
Fredell said the determination will not be made on final costs alone. Colorado Springs also must consider the project’s time frame and anticipated demand for water. If Colorado Springs Council accepts the conditions from Pueblo County, SDS workers will prepare comparisons for the two alternatives [ed. Fremont County has approved the project route through the county] to present to utilities management and council. “They’ll make a business decision at that point in terms of which alternative they want to pursue,” Fredell said. “That could take two to three months.” Fredell expects a final decision by summer.
More coverage from the Colorado Springs Gazette:
The conditions are meant to mitigate the environmental impacts of taking more water from Pueblo Reservoir and sending more treated effluent down Fountain Creek. Utilities has agreed to pay $50 million for improvements to the creek and $75 million to upgrades its wastewater or water reuse systems. While dozens of permits are required, approval from Pueblo County is the most significant hurdle. At one point in the long history of the pipeline, which would bring 78 million gallons a day to Colorado Springs, opposition in Pueblo seemed so great, Utilities sought approval from Fremont County for a backup plan.
Wednesday night, Colorado Springs officials embraced each other and their Pueblo County counterparts. “(I am) just ecstatic, like everything I’ve done in the last 8 years was worth it,” said Colorado Springs councilwoman Margaret Radford, who leaves office next month after working for years to get the pipeline approved…
The money must be used for erosion, sedimentation, flood control and water quality projects on Fountain Creek. Other Colorado Springs officials heralded the finalizing of conditions as a new direction in relations between Colorado Springs and Pueblo, which have long been divided over water issues, including water quality and flooding on Fountain Creek below Colorado Springs…
[Mayor Lionel Rivera] said the city will hold a public hearing in Colorado Springs to let residents comment on the conditions. No date has been set. Pueblo commissioners set April 2 as a date for a final decision on a 1041 land-use permit, though Rivera doubts a hearing and council vote can take place by then.
While Pueblo County officials allowed Utilities’ attorney to make minor semantic changes to the conditions Wednesday, Commissioner Jeff Chostner said the tenets of the conditions are not negotiable. “This is an unalterable document that you take to your city council,” Chostner said…
To see a complete list of the county’s SDS conditions, visit www.co.pueblo.co.us.
More coverage from the Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
It won’t be a straight-up decision for Colorado Springs, since council will need to review both the Pueblo County and Fremont County options for its proposed $1.1 billion pipeline project. “It is partly a business decision and a political decision,” Rivera said, saying the relative costs of coming through either county must be weighed. “Business is a huge factor, but you’ve got to remember it’s a 40-year project. We have to do what’s best for the community.”[…]
The conditions set up new water quality monitoring sites on Fountain Creek, controlling storm water, dredging the creek to preserve the effectiveness of Pueblo levees and places some restrictions on how new water or new users could be added to the pipeline. The conditions include $6 million for repairing roads, $2,000 per acre for revegetation and construction procedures like dust control or road closures…
The strongest objection to approving SDS at the hearing was voiced by Joe Santarella of the Rocky Mountain Environmental Labor Coalition. He recommended denial or at least adding eight more stringent conditions to limit depletion of the Arkansas River through the pipeline. “Water is too precious of a resource and valuable of a commodity and the impacts on Pueblo County and its residents are far too pervasive and significant to allow CSU to sell the excess water as a water broker to the highest bidders throughout El Paso and Teller counties,” Santarella said. He also said Colorado Springs is “trying to play you with an empty hand” by holding out Fremont County as a realistic option.