It's a wrap on the Arkansas River

Senate passes funding mechanism to allow full $1.3 billion pipeline from Pueblo Reservoir to Lamar in SE Colorado

by Allen Best

The front page of Denver’s Rocky Mountain News on Aug. 17, 1962, carried a front-page photo from Pueblo the previous day. President John F. Kennedy had been there to help launch the 0-Arkansas Project that had been authorized by Congress.

The final federal funding for completion of a final component of that project envisioned in 1962 was announced on Tuesday. The Senate passed a bill by unanimous acclamation. It had begun in the House and allows the Southwestern Water Conservation District in Pueblo to finally move forward on building the full 130 miles of pipeline that will deliver relatively pure water from Pueblo Reservoir to 50,000 people in 39 communities down the valley as far downstream as Lamar.

The politics of this are kind of interesting. The funding bill in 2024 was introduced in the Senate. The sponsors were, naturally, Colorado’s two senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper. Both are Democrats. The bill did not make it out of the House, which is run by Republicans.

This year, those working behind the scenes decided to start in the House. They got Rep. Lauren Boebert and Jeff Hurd, who represent different parts of the Arkansas River Valley, to co-sponsor the bill. Both are Republicans. The authorizing legislation this time got through the House and, with just a bit of time to spare in this legislative year, the Senate.

Groundbreaking on the project actually begin in 2020 at Pueblo Reservoir. But the estimated cost for the total project has ballooned since 2019 from $600 million to $1.3 billion.

The project has received dollops of money in recent years from both Congress and from Colorado, but not the final measure that was needed to allow the project to move forward without reservation.

This bill reduces interest payments and allows for a federal determination of economic hardship to relieve payment obligations. This will allow local communities more flexibility to finish their investments in this critical project.

Both Colorado senators — who will both be running for election in 2026 — were happy to announce the news.

Bennet, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, pointed to Kennedy’s visit to Pueblo in 1962 and the promise to build the Arkansas Valley Conduit.

“Now, I am pleased to see my Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act head to the president’s desk to be signed into law. The bill will ensure the federal government makes good on its promise to Southeastern Coloradans to deliver a safe and reliable water supply.”

Hickenlooper stretched the timeline to before Kennedy was in Pueblo in 1972. It was, he said, the valley’s life blood long before, perhaps back to the time of Bent’s Fort. “Shovels are in the ground,” he said.

Why the need for the water from Pueblo Reservoir? Higher water quality.

The 39 water providers along the river that will be served get their water from aquifers along the river. Those aquifers always have been saline and high in elements like manganese and iron. One water system has high levels of radionuclides that are naturally occurring in deeper wells that tap into the Dakota formation, said Chris Woodka, the senior policy and issues manager for the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District.

The Fryingpan-Arkansas Project diverts water from the Fryingpan River, upstream of Basalt, through the Boustead Tunnel under the Continental Divide to Turquoise Reservoir near Leadville via the five-mile-long Boustead Tunnel.

In addition to Turquoise, Ruedi Reservoir was built on the Western Slope as part of the project and Pueblo Reservoir on the east. The transmountain diversions, which now average 58,000 acre-feet per year, began in 1972.