Nearly finalized New Blue River agreement to provide more water for Colorado Springs
An agreement is nearly finalized that will provide more water for Colorado Springs and increase water storage on Colorado’s Western Slope.
If approved by all seven subject parties, the agreement will settle about nine years of debate and allow Colorado Springs Utilities to expand its Montgomery Reservoir in Park County, between Alma and Hoosier Pass, to increase Colorado Springs’ water supply, officials with the city-owned utility told its board of directors in mid-January.
“The agreement gives more certainty in our Blue River water supply. For the general customer, it brings more reliability for how we go forward and what our future looks like” as Colorado Springs continues to grow, said Abby Ortega, Colorado Springs Utilities’ general manager of infrastructure resources and planning.
The deal too will advance plans to build a new water reservoir at the southern base of Quandary Peak for use by Summit County and the town of Breckenridge.
All six Western Slope entities have approved the agreement — Breckenridge, Summit County, the Colorado River Water Conservation District, the Ute Water Conservancy District, the Orchard Mesa Irrigation District and the Grand Valley Water Users Association.
The Colorado Springs City Council, which acts as the Utilities Board of Directors, will vote on the proposal Feb. 13.
At the crux of the arrangement are conditional water rights Utilities holds in the Blue River, a Colorado River tributary that flows some 65 miles from southern Summit County through the Dillon Reservoir. The Blue River transmountain system takes water from the Colorado River and South Platte River basins and moves it to the Arkansas River Basin for use in Colorado Springs.
Since Colorado Springs lacks an adequate natural water source it supplies 70% of its water from the Western Slope, about 100 miles away.
The city-owned utility has held conditional water rights on the Blue River since 1948. Conditional water rights are those a water user holds but hasn’t yet “put to beneficial use,” Utilities Senior Water Resources Project Manager Maria Pastore told the Utilities Board last month.
Owners can lose water rights if they do not use them.
To keep conditional water rights, the user must prove it is taking steps to use the water. Utilities has submitted applications with the state water court to maintain its conditional rights on the Blue River every six years for the past 50 years, officials said.
This map shows the Blue River collection system.
The agency could use those rights to build three new reservoirs in Summit County that would store water from the Colorado River Basin and flow from the Hoosier Tunnel to the Arkansas River Basin, where it will eventually be used by Colorado Springs.
When Utilities filed its application in 2015, the six Western Slope parties objected.
“It’s the same concerns any municipality or water rights holder has when an entity files and it may or may not impact your water rights,” said Eric Mamula, a Summit County commissioner and Breckenridge’s former mayor. “Especially in a place like Colorado, where water is so valuable, it’s really important that all these entities on the West Slope protect water rights that we’ve worked for hundreds of years to protect.”
Pastore recently told the Utilities Board the three proposed reservoir sites in Summit County are challenging to build and permit. The sites are remote, located at high elevations on rugged, steep terrain, and drainages above the reservoirs are small and often limited with water.
Expanding the Montgomery Reservoir will “capture the full yield of the system and eliminate the need to build these conditional sites,” she said.
Under the agreement, Colorado Springs Utilities will abandon conditional storage rights and plans to build two of its undeveloped reservoirs: the Spruce Lake Reservoir with storage capacity of 1,542 acre-feet and the Mayflower Reservoir with storage capacity of 618 acre-feet.
In return, the six Western Slope entities won’t object to enlarging the Montgomery Reservoir, which currently has a storage capacity of 5,699 acre-feet.
Expanding it would raise the total storage limit to around 13,800 acre-feet and allow Colorado Springs Utilities to capture an additional 4,000 acre-feet of water a year, on average, during typical and wet years, Utilities spokeswoman Jennifer Jordan said.
An acre-foot of water can serve about four families for a year in Colorado Springs. An extra 4,000 acre-feet of water a year can serve almost 16,000 households in the community, Ortega said.
“Storage serves as a buffer against the variability of what Mother Nature provides from year to year. When we have good, wet years, we need to be able to store that additional water for our customers to use in drier years,” Ortega said. “… It’s a significant amount of water that is legally available to us but that we don’t currently have the capacity to hold. And, because they are transbasin supplies, their value to our community increases when you consider the water can be reused.”
Utilities will also convey a portion of its storage in the undeveloped Lower Blue Lake Reservoir to Summit County and Breckenridge.
Colorado Springs agrees to share half the cost — around $7.5 million — to design, construct and permit a future reservoir with a capacity up to 600 acre-feet near Quandary Peak, to be owned and operated by Summit County and Breckenridge. Colorado Springs will give up to 300 acre-feet of water in dry years and up to 475 acre-feet of water in wet years for their use. The rest of the water in this reservoir would come from existing water rights held by Summit County and Breckenridge.
At the same time, the Colorado River Water Conservation District is trying to acquire water rights related to the Shoshone Hydro Plant in Glenwood Springs, “which will substantially benefit the health of the entire Colorado River and provide substantial economic and environmental benefits to the West Slope,” district General Manager Andy Mueller said in an emailed statement.
As part of the agreement, Colorado Springs Utilities won’t oppose the conservation district’s efforts.
The agency will also limit how much water it diverts each year from the Hoosier Tunnel.
Once the agreement is executed by all parties, they will start the permit application process to build or expand the proposed reservoirs. Colorado Springs could begin expanding the Montgomery Reservoir in 2028.
Colorado Springs is nearing a deal with six Western Slope entities that will allow the city-owned utility to expand its Montgomery Reservoir near Alma and provide more water for Colorado Springs users.
