From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
The Pueblo Board of Water Works Tuesday agreed to renew a 25-year agreement with Colorado Springs Utilities to work together on water issues of mutual concern or benefit.
The agreement was first drafted in 1990 and renewed for another 25 years on Tuesday.
“In 1990, we executed an agreement with Colorado Springs on exchanges and storage space,” said Terry Book, executive director of Pueblo Water. “The new agreement eliminates some provisions that no longer apply or weren’t as straightforward as we thought.”
“How much water is involved?” asked board member Jim Gardner.
“It’s the spirit of the agreement,” replied Alan Ward, water resources manager. “It says (things such as) we’ll share storage when it’s available, but it doesn’t say how much.”
Among provisions of the agreement:
The right to use each other’s reservoir space if it is available. Contract exchanges, which allow water to be traded between reservoirs. Cooperation to maximize opportunities for exchange and reuse of water. Right of first refusal for long-term contracts of exchange opportunity by either party. The agreement grew out of legal cases during the 1980s which set priorities among Pueblo Water, Colorado Springs Utilities and Aurora Water for exchanging water into Lake Pueblo. Pueblo has the first priority for exchanges.
All three entities use exchanges to maximize water rights that either bring water into the basin from the Colorado River system or, in Aurora’s case, take it out of the Arkansas River system.
The new agreement incorporates more recent changes, including:
Intergovernmental agreements in 2004 that establish Arkansas River flow regimes through Pueblo. A recovery of yield program associated with those agreements. A 2009 low flow program that was adopted as part of Utilities’ Southern Delivery System and Pueblo Water’s purchase of Bessemer ditch shares.
