Pueblo Dam impounds water for a variety of water users in the Arkansas River basin as part of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, constructed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Following a busy month of coordinating with multiple state, federal and private stakeholders, officials with the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District believe they have avoided the need to release water stored in Pueblo Reservoir.
“There was, up until last week, a potential spill of 8,000 acre-feet of water,” said Chris Woodka, issues management program coordinator with the Southeastern conservancy district. “Since that time, enough water was released from Pueblo Reservoir to lower the number to 300 acre-feet, but additional releases have made it likely that no water will spill this year.”
Pueblo Reservoir was built as part of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, which is administered by the Southeastern conservancy district.
When excess storage capacity is available in Pueblo Reservoir, non-Project water can also be stored there, but when the flood control mandate takes effect in April, water must be released, which hasn’t happened in more than 20 years.
The Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, created in 1958, extends along the Arkansas River from Buena Vista to Lamar, and along Fountain Creek from Colorado Springs to Pueblo.
In 1965, the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation and Southeastern conservancy district entered into a contract providing “construction of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project works for the purpose of supplying water for irrigation, municipal, domestic and industrial uses; generating and transmitting hydro-electric power and energy; controlling floods; and for other useful and beneficial purpose.”
The Fry-Ark Project imports water from the West Slope into the Upper Arkansas Valley at Turquoise Lake via the Boustead Tunnel.
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