The Colorado Springs City Council is wasting no time acting on Pueblo County’s permit conditions for the city’s proposed Southern Delivery System. Here’s a report from the Colorado Springs Gazette. From the article:
Utilities officials and city council will hold a public hearing on the conditions Thursday, April 9 at 7 p.m., at City Hall, 107 N. Nevada Ave. Residents will hear a presentation on the conditions and be able to submit comments.
Comments can also be submitted in writing to the city clerk, at 30 S. Nevada, through 5 p.m. on April 9, and at the public hearing.
City council will vote on accepting the conditions April 14.
Meanwhile Pueblo West officials are voicing concern over SDS, according to a report from Jeff Tucker writing for the Pueblo Chieftain:
With the county’s approval for the Southern Delivery System, Pueblo West could see a second water pipeline brought to the community and a loss of up to a third of its total water supply, the Pueblo West Metropolitan District Board of Directors were told Tuesday. Steve Harrison, public works director for Pueblo West, gave directors a presentation about concerns over a requirement by the Pueblo County Board of Commissioners in their approval of the SDS 1041 regulations. Harrison said the community has asked the county to be exempted from requirements that would make Pueblo West contribute to a flow management program that maintains levels through the Arkansas River and the kayak park through Downtown Pueblo…
Harrison estimated that if the community was required to return flows down the Arkansas, it could cost Pueblo West at least 3,000 acre-feet a year, or a third of the water supply the district currently uses. Harrison told directors and a crowd of nearly 200 people Tuesday that their water supply, for now, wasn’t in danger. “Everyone here has enough water. Today. It’s what we have to plan for at future build-out,” Harrison said. Harrison said he doesn’t believe Pueblo West should be a part of the flow management agreement because its process never has been shown to damage the river. However, he believes participating in the flow management program will damage the community. “I’ve challenged Colorado Springs and the Pueblo Board of Water Works to prove to me that it won’t harm us, and I have yet to see (proof),” he said.