From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
Donala Water District in El Paso County has filed an application in Division 2 Water Court that would allow it to use agricultural water it purchased in Lake County. The application leaves open a wide variety of ways to deliver the water, including the proposed Southern Delivery System. It would change the use of water from agricultural to municipal and other uses. Pueblo District Court Chief Judge Dennis Maes is the water judge for Division 2, which covers the entire Arkansas River basin. Donala, which serves about 2,700 homes north of Colorado Springs, bought the Mount Massive Ranch for $4.7 million in November. The district expects the ranch to yield about 300 acre-feet of water, or one-fifth of its annual supply.
The problem is moving the water to the district, Dana Duthie, Donala general manager, told the Arkansas Basin Roundtable earlier this year. The district lies 50 miles north of the Arkansas River and has no way, right now, of bringing the water into its system. The application gives no clue about how that will be done, reflecting the fact that the district has made no final decision for using the water. Storage in reservoirs from Turquoise Lake in Lake County to Holbrook Reservoir in Otero County is included in the application, including a reservoir yet to be built in Pueblo County at Stonewall Springs near the Pueblo Chemical Depot. Clear Creek Reservoir in Chaffee County, owned by the Pueblo Board of Water Works, is also included as a potential storage point. The district wants to use SDS, a water delivery pipeline proposed by Colorado Springs, Security, Fountain and Pueblo West, but would still need to get approval from Colorado Springs Utilities to use the project to move water through the project.