Councilman tries to put plug in SDS water project

As Colorado Springs Utilities prepares to enter its fourth round of negotiations with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation over multimillion dollar water contracts needed for the Southern Delivery System, a Colorado Springs city councilman has thrown a couple of wild cards onto the table.

In a 27-page letter sent last month to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Councilman Tom Gallagher, a longtime critic of the SDS project, asked that negotiations be suspended and the environmental review process be re-opened to address numerous questions.

“It’s time to put the brakes on this and look at alternatives that don’t use Pueblo Reservoir,” he said Thursday.

The Southern Delivery System is a 62-mile pipeline that will move water from the reservoir to Colorado Springs. The first phase of the project is expected to cost roughly $2.3 billion in construction and financing costs over the next four decades. Utilities has said it needs the pipeline to ensure that it will have adequate water supplies for the future.

In his July 7 letter, Gallagher argued that major events have occurred since the environmental review process was completed in 2009, including the abolishment of the stormwater enterprise by Colorado Springs voters and the imminent construction of another pipeline, the Arkansas Valley Conduit, which will be built to serve communities east of the Pueblo Reservoir in the Arkansas Valley

CSU spokesperson Janet Rummel pointed to letters from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation stating that CSU will still be able to meet its commitment to protect water quality in Fountain Creek, despite the loss of the stormwater enterprise. The construction of the Arkansas Valley Conduit will not affect the storage space that SDS will need in Pueblo Reservoir, she added.

Michael Connor, head of the Bureau of Reclamation, rejected Gallagher’s request on Aug. 3, saying that the environmental review process was complete and that issues raised by Gallagher had been adequately addressed. He added, however, that Reclamation, an agency within the Interior Department, was continuing to monitor this “local and regionally significant” project.

Gallagher’s letter has drawn fire from Mayor Lionel Rivera, who penned his own letter to Salazar, telling him the dissident council member “does not represent the official position of the Colorado Springs City Council on the SDS project.”

 “We strongly disagree with Mr. Gallagher’s assertions that SDS requires additional analysis through the National Environmental Policy Act,” wrote Rivera. “As you know, the project has been the subject of analysis for more than a decade, including a comprehensive five and a half year review process for the Environmental Impact Statement which cost our community $17 million.”

A spokesman for the Interior Department said it’s reviewing Rivera’s letter, as well as a follow-up letter that Gallagher wrote in August.

John Fredell, who directs the SDS project for Utilities, pointed out that the numerous federal agencies approved the pipeline project. Permits were also obtained from federal, state and local officials.

“To repeat that effort would waste millions of dollars in duplicating extensive environmental studies and put our valuable permits at risk,” he said.