From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
he North Outlet Works, added to SDS as a primary feature last fall, would give redundancy to those water users who now use the Joint Use Manifold on the south side of Pueblo Dam. Colorado Springs Utilities, the major partner in SDS, is trying to find out who else might be interested in using the new connection in order to design it to the right size now, Dan Higgins, project construction manager, told the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District board Thursday…
“This is a great opportunity for everyone to get on board,” said Roy Vaughan, manager of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project for Reclamation. “There are costs associated with this, but there would be greater costs later on.” The North Outlet Works would back up existing deliveries from the dam at the Joint Use Manifold should it be necessary to shut down the south outlet because of zebra mussels, or any other reason. Repairs for such a shutdown could take months, Vaughan pointed out. The Joint Use Manifold is shared by the Pueblo Board of Water Works, Fountain Valley Authority, Pueblo West and the Arkansas Valley Conduit, a proposed project by the Southeastern district…
The project has several components, including a large concrete platform that would tow into the base of the dam, a pipeline that would connect to two gates within the dam and a junction box that would send water either into the Arkansas River or toward the proposed SDS pumping station north of the river, Higgins said. Tests by Reclamation showed the new equipment would have to be able to meet the full rate of evacuation from the outlet for the dam – 1,100 cubic feet per second – making the engineering specifications critical to the evaluation, Higgins added. The cost for the project, as designed so far by Colorado Springs, would be about $14 million. It would cost about $1 million for others to hook on, Higgins said.