NOREEN: So far, so good to get the pipeline flowing

We really ought to change the name of that lake west of Pueblo to Colorado Springs Reservoir.

It's so far, so good for the biggest public works project in Colorado Springs history. City officials think they're close to clearing a pair of regulatory obstacles en route to the $1.1 billion Southern Delivery System.

In January they expect to get a federal sign-off on the environmental impact statement for the project and by early February they hope to have a key land use permit from Pueblo County.

"I'm optimistic," said John Fredell, SDS project director. "We've put in a lot of time and effort with their staff. We've still got a lot of hurdles we've got to clear."

Monday night, Colorado Springs Utilities officials endured another public grilling in Pueblo, but so far, the Pueblo County commissioners' concerns have been mostly rational. They're worried about what increased flows will do to Fountain Creek, which runs into the Arkansas River not far from Pueblo's downtown.

Together, the two communities appear ready to work on a plan to ensure that higher flow rates won't cause too much erosion or pollution. The costs of such mitigation will be borne by Colorado Springs ratepayers, who will see substantial rate increases to pay for SDS.

A potential sticking point involves the Pueblo County commissioners' desire to make sure Pueblo-area contractors get a piece of the pie when construction starts. But only a handful of companies are qualified to perform the work and a couple of them are not only in Pueblo, but have done work for Utilities in the past.

Dividing the work among a few contractors would be required, anyway, Fredell said, because the job will be too big for one firm's bonding power to cover it all.

The game is not over and getting to this point was not easy. Utilities officials have had to deal with mostly apathetic Colorado Springs residents, a demagogic media blitz by Pueblo's daily newspaper and Pueblo officials who have little grasp of their objectives.

For instance, the Pueblo County commissioners are insisting that Colorado Springs promise not to sell any SDS water outside the Arkansas River Basin, meaning that none of the water is to go to the Denver area. It's nutty to think Colorado Springs wants to build a $1.1 billion project so it can help the Denver Metro area.

Colorado Springs had no problem agreeing with that.

One thing people in both cities fail to grasp is that Utilities officials have a nearly theological attitude about SDS. They believe pumping water straight from the reservoir is the most sensible engineering solution, and they believe they've earned the right to do it.

About 72 percent of the Southeast Colorado Water Conservancy District's share of building the Pueblo dam has been paid by El Paso County taxpayers. We've paid the piper, yet Pueblo still gets to call the tune for our reservoir.

"We do believe we have a big investment," said Keith Riley, planning and permitting manager for SDS. "It is the right way to do it."

Colorado Springs Reservoir? Don't worry, Pueblo Chieftain editorial writers: We all agree that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and not any city, owns the reservoir, right?

You guys can still call it Lake Pueblo. Just let us have our water.

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Contact Noreen at 636-0363 or noreen@gazette.com. He appears Fridays at noon on KOAA TV channels 5/30 and KRDO radio 105.5 FM and 1240 AM at 6:40 a.m.