Southern Delivery System update

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

SDS is still on course for completion by 2016, [John Fredell, SDS project director] said…

The first phase of SDS — pipelines, pump stations and a treatment plant — would cost $880 million and require $2.3 billion in financing costs. Colorado Springs water rates are expected to double by the time it’s built. Colorado Springs has spent $108.3 million on SDS so far and issued the first round of bonds to pay for the project. Money has been spent primarily on permitting, engineering, land acquisition and project management.

Growth is only one of the primary reasons for constructing SDS, Fredell said. “It’s also related to reliability of supplies, drought protection and the backup of our other pipelines,” Fredell said.

The Homestake system, which brings water from the Eagle River through a tunnel into Turquoise Lake and through the Otero Pipeline, has been taken offline seven times in the last 10 years, most recently for six months, he noted. “Reliability goes beyond that, however,” Fredell said. “We also have to take drought, climate change and Colorado River issues into account.”[…]

Colorado Springs and its SDS partners are still working out contract details with the Bureau of Reclamation for the storage and delivery contracts needed to make the project a reality. Public negotiations on the SDS contracts wrapped up in August, but the final contracts have not been prepared.

More Southern Delivery System coverage here and here.