April 20, 2008--Is Upper Ark Valley safe from water raids? (Pueblo Chieftain)
Colorado Springs has finalized an agreement with Fremont County for the proposed Southern Delivery System, Fountain and Widefield bought a Custer County ranch for the water and Pueblo West and the Pueblo Board of Water Works indicated they will be looking upstream of Lake Pueblo for future water rights. Water quality in the Upper Arkansas is generally better than downstream, because the water has not collected as many sediments by flowing through miles of channels, been recycled through city streets or agricultural fields and been joined by relatively muddy Lower Arkansas tributaries like Fountain Creek. Most big conversions of water rights from agricultural to municipal in the Arkansas Valley have been downstream from Lake Pueblo, where cities have gone into large mutual ditch systems to purchase water rights. The main exceptions are Twin Lakes Reservoir & Canal Co. and Clear Creek, which once benefitted irrigators, but were sold to cities.
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