From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
“I really want to work on getting a mill levy proposal before voters in the next 12 to 24 months,” [Jeff Chostner, chairman of the Fountain Creek Watershed Flood Control and Greenway District] said. The district can assess property in El Paso and Pueblo counties at up to a 5-mill rate under the legislation, but it would require approval from voters in both counties. No decisions have been made on the size of mill levy that would be initially requested, and that would be one of the purposes of establishing a committee to look at the issue, Chostner said. The district has primary land-use authority in the 100-year flood plain from Fountain to Pueblo, and an advisory role in decisions throughout the watershed.
Chostner, a Pueblo County commissioner, was elected chairman at the Friday meeting of the district’s board, replacing El Paso County Commissioner Dennis Hisey. The chairmanship rotates between the two counties, and goes to an elected official under bylaws. The board also reappointed Larry Small, a former Colorado Springs councilman, as executive director.
Here’s a report about the possible effects on senior rights from proposed Fountain Creek projects from Chris Woodka writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:
“If you change the timing, you change the water right,” Bill Tyner, assistant division engineer, told the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District board last week. The state Division of Water Resources denied a substitute water supply plan for a side detention pond in Pueblo last fall because a wave of water that roared down Fountain Creek showed the pond did not work as intended. Tyner showed a slide of water still in the pond one month after mid-September rains inundated the pond. “This was not the intent of the original design,” he said…
All water rights in the Lower Arkansas Valley could be satisfied if flows at Avondale gauge on the Arkansas River were maintained at 6,000 cubic feet per second, Tyner said. Right now, the gates at Pueblo Dam are used to reduce flows above the Fountain Creek confluence to reduce flooding risk when flows at Avondale reach the 6,000 cfs mark. Fountain Creek structures in the future might detain flows as well, reducing the likelihood of downstream flooding. However, artificially prolonging that level could change the relationship of junior and senior water rights, as well as having an impact on the river call upstream from Pueblo, Tyner said.