Pipeline route still unknown

   The city of Colorado Springs, which has spent $74 million on its pipeline project, has stopped buying land for an east-side reservoir that has cost $6.4 million.

   Colorado Springs Utilities' hesitation to buy more land for Jimmy Camp Creek Reservoir reflects the uncertainty around which route the pipeline will take.

   One calls for running the pipeline from the Arkansas River in Fremont County to the Upper Williams Creek Reservoir near Drennan Road.

   The other is the preferred alternative - to pipe water from Pueblo Reservoir to Jimmy Camp Creek on the city's northeast side.

   The preferred option is cheaper, with residential rates predicted to rise by 126 percent by 2015, compared with 155 percent if the pipeline goes through Fremont County.

   The $1 billion project would increase the city's water supply by a third and begin delivering water in 2012.

   The city has been working on the Southern Delivery System for years. As of March 31, it had paid consultant CH2M Hill $37.6 million for engineering, environmental permitting support, project management, legal work, water treatment testing and mapping and surveying.

   The city has spent $6.9 million on land, most of it on 400 acres bought from 14 landowners in the Jimmy Camp Creek area. It needs 1,474 more acres owned by the Banning Lewis Ranch Management Co., which is developing most of the 23,000-acre ranch, a chief reason the additional water and pipeline is needed.

   Now, the city is eyeing Upper Williams Creek.

   Appraisals on both reservoir sites were done this year that the city has refused to release because Utilities may rely on them in future negotiations.

   "We're not ready to engage Banning Lewis Ranch at this time in negotiations until we know more" from the federal environmental review and the city's analysis, Utilities project manager John Fredell said.

   Jimmy Camp could pose problems because of cultural resources, natural springs and fossils, and its potential cost, Fredell said.

   "We at Banning Lewis Ranch think it's a very valuable piece of ground," said vice president of property operations John Cassiani. "It has the most pine trees, scrub oak, white sandstone outcroppings. It's where the championship golf course and most expensive housing would go."

   Cassiani said development has slowed compared with predictions. He added he didn't know if that affects the timing of the city project.

   Utilities chief water officer Bruce McCormick said the city will decide on a reservoir site by the end of the year.

   Despite economic downturns, the pipeline will be needed, Utilities spokeswoman Janet Rummel said. Considerations include the housing market, industry and military expansion.

OTHER SDS DEVELOPMENTS 

   - The city filed a pre-application for land-use approval with Pueblo County, which opposes the project.

   In its letter, the city asks for a "finding of no significant impact." If it's granted, the city would sidestep the county's regulatory process, called 1041 after the House bill that gave local governments control.

   Pueblo County rewrote its 1041 rules in 2005 after Utilities began meetings in 2003 with county officials to understand the rules.

   Utilities notes in its pre-application letter that other projects have been built in Pueblo County in which findings of no significant impact were granted and no 1041 permit required. Those include a Pueblo West sewer line last year, Pueblo Board of Water Works' pipeline in 1998 and the Fountain Valley Conduit permitted in 1975.

   Pueblo City Councilman Randy Thurston said on his Web site the Fremont plan is bad for Pueblo. That's because Pueblo would lose guaranteed river flows and Lake Pueblo's level would decline. The city also might lose Colorado Springs as a partner in improving Fountain Creek, he wrote.

   "Our win-win situation would become a winlose situation, with the citizens of Pueblo being on the losing end," he said.

   Utilities officials will participate in a panel discussion Monday from 5 to 8 p.m. hosted by the Pueblo City Council at the Pueblo Convention Center. 

   - Springs officials have met with Fremont landowners about the pipeline's potential impact and surveying needs. The entire project crosses about 400 to 500 properties.

   Fremont will require various approvals involving zoning, special use permits and site development plans. 

   - A final public meeting held by the Bureau of Reclamation's environmental study will be 6 to 8 p.m. May 29 at the Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center, 210 North Santa Fe Avenue, Pueblo. To comment on the draft environmental impact statement, go to www.sdseis.com. Deadline is June 13.

   The bureau studied the pipeline project because the preferred plan relies on a 40-year storage contract in Pueblo Reservoir, a federally owned facility.
   THE GAZETTE

THE COMPONENTS

Southern Delivery System proposed for Pueblo County would occupy 238 acres, with an additional 92 acres needed temporarily for construction, Springs Utilities said in a March 26 letter to Pueblo County. Other aspects of the project:

- 2,200 feet of buried 78-inch diameter pipe and 1,100 feet of buried 72-inch pipe.

- 160 feet of buried 36-inch pipe to carry Pueblo West's share of water from Pueblo Reservoir. 

- 18.4 miles of buried 66-inch pipe to convey water to Colorado Springs. 

- Pump station equipped with seven 3,000-horsepower turbine pump units. 

- 21.4 miles of fiber-optic cable that parallels the water line.

Most of the pipeline would align with existing utility easements.

   SOURCE: Colorado Springs Utilities