Manitou Springs Council Members Finding Flood Answers

Manitou Springs residents want answers to the floods that have hit them, and council members went out to Waldo Canyon’s burn scar to find it today.

Government leaders from all over El Paso County took a tour around the burn scar, they saw projects done by Waldo Canyon’s Recovery Groups.

Manitou Springs Councilman Randy Hodges says when he saw Williams and Waldo Canyon, he felt fear because of the potential damage it can do to his town.

“The magnitude of the problem we have for years to come.”

Waldo’s burn scar has been visible for more than a year.

Manitou Springs Councilwoman Coreen Toll felt the tour educated her on how bad things can get, but she is reassuring residents that there are plans to improve her city’s flooding problem.

“We’re hiring engineers to look at our lists and to do their own assessment so that we, through the funding we are getting from the state and federal government, we can start some of these mitigation projects.”

Toll and Hodges feel the work done up in Williams and Waldo Canyon is helping all over Manitou Springs, especially at Fountain Creek.

“Those catchman basins goal is get all of the debris caught up in the slopes so that just the clean water can come into Manitou.”

U.S. Forest Service Hydrologist Dana Butler says Waldo Canyon Recovery Groups can’t stop the water, but they can limit the damage.

“What we’re doing is reducing the amount of sediment and debris that are making its way into town.”

Hodges says even though the flood projects in the burn scar are working, there’s still work left.

“Please realize are doing everything we can possibly do in as an effective as we can do.”

Hodges says that includes buying 11 properties near Canon Avenue for future flood projects.