If Alan Hamel had his druthers, the study of enlargement of Lake Pueblo would have been done by now, and - if enlargement was feasible - cranes would be out there right now adding some gates to the top of the spillway. Hamel, executive director of the Pueblo Board of Water Works, was instrumental in developing the Preferred Storage Options Plan, stemming from a study of storage possibilities in the Arkansas Valley that began a decade ago. Hamel was president of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District in 2001 when PSOP recommendations were first made. Those suggestions included: enlargement of Lake Pueblo and Turquoise Lake, chosen from a long list of possible projects; using excess-capacity contracts to better use Lake Pueblo when it isn’t full of Fryingpan-Arkansas Project water; and giving Aurora a place in the project. 

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