Evaluating stormwater issues beyond Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs recently announced a 20-year, $460 million commitment to stormwater projects primarily affecting Fountain Creek, but do communities upstream and downstream have similar plans?
It’s a question that many people are asking in the weeks since Colorado Springs reached an agreement with Pueblo County to avoid legal action by that county.
Jim Hardin, an area resident, emailed these questions to KRDO NewsChannel 13: “What are the towns downstream required to spend on their projects? What about cities upstream? Shouldn’t they be required to spend equal amounts on water coming our way from them? Shouldn’t Pueblo have to spend millions on projects going downstream from them?”
KRDO NewsChannel 13 has learned that most communities upstream of and downstream from Colorado Springs are spending money on stormwater projects.
For example, El Paso County plans to repair damage at the Hanson Trailhead in Fountain, flooded by heavy rain last spring.
Daniel Geistel hiked at the trailhead often before the flood.
“I see projects all over,” he said. “There’s progress, and that’s promising. We should all be responsible for our part of it.”
The county also wants to mitigate erosion under the Riverside Mobile Home Park that forced a future buyout and relocation of the residents.
Last week, the Fountain Creek Watershed District received the first of five $10 million checks from Colorado Springs Utilities.
The district manages the creek from south of Colorado Springs to its confluence at the Arkansas River in Pueblo County.
The utility will pay the district through 2020 for projects to control flooding and erosion, and improve water quality.
“It’s still probably only half of what we really need,” Larry Small, the district’s executive director, said. “We know what the impacts and issues are. Now we have to find the specific sites where the problems are occurring.”
Small said the money also pays for several studies to give the district a better idea of needed projects.
Pueblo and Pueblo County together will spend around $2 million over the next three years on stormwater projects unrelated to impacts from Colorado Springs.
“Ninety percent of our concerns come from north of us,” said Pueblo County Commissioner Terry Hart. “But we need more studies on how that impacts us, and we have projects to remove debris and sediment in the creek.”
Hart said any community using water from the new Southern Delivery System is required to have a stormwater control system.
The city of Pueblo has a stormwater enterprise fee that generates revenue for projects.
