A proposed agreement to boost water storage on the Western Slope and send more water to Colorado Springs is in the final stages of approval after years of debate.
The deal focuses on water rights on the Blue River, a tributary of the Colorado River that begins in southern Summit County and flows northward into Dillon Reservoir. If approved, the agreement would set in motion a plan to build one new reservoir for Western Slope use and expand Montgomery Reservoir — which will increase the water supply for Colorado Springs.
“It’s really important for how we go forward, as we put money into developing this additional infrastructure, that we have this agreement in place,” said Abby Ortega, general manager of infrastructure and resources planning for Colorado Springs Utilities.
The Front Range utilities provider has conditional water storage rights on the Blue River that date back to 1948. For decades, Colorado Springs has been returning to water court to prove that it is working to put these conditional rights to use — a filing that is necessary to keep the water rights.
Conditional water rights allow water users to hold onto their water right without immediately putting the water to use as long as they can prove that they’re consistently taking steps to use the water — a helpful option when water projects can take decades to complete.
Typically, water must be used or the owners of the rights can lose them. The rule is meant to keep people from hoarding water rights.
This Fresh Water News story is a collaboration between The Colorado Sun and Water Education Colorado. It also appears at wateredco.org/fresh-water-news.
In 2015, Western Slope entities opposed the filing, including Colorado River Water Conservation District, Summit County, Breckenridge, Grand Valley Water Users Association, Orchard Mesa Irrigation District and Ute Water Conservancy District.
“I would say the initial concern would always be taking water out of our basin and sending it to another basin and what that amount of water would be,” Summit County Commissioner Eric Mamula said Wednesday, after the county voted to approve the agreement Tuesday.
Colorado Springs Utilities could use its conditional water rights to build three reservoirs to store Colorado River Basin water and release it through the Hoosier Tunnel. From there, it would eventually reach the Arkansas River Basin and showers, toilets and gardens in Colorado Springs.
What is an acre-foot?
An acre-foot is a unit of volume. It equals the amount of water it takes to cover one acre, about the size of a football field, in one foot of water. One acre-foot of water equals about 326,000 gallons. >> MORE
Colorado Springs, which does not have a major body of water near it, relies primarily on surface water that must be transported from more than 100 miles away. The city is not alone: A significant amount of water used on the Front Range comes from transmountain diversions — over 500,000 acre-feet annually, according to the 2023 Colorado Water Plan.
This water does not return to its basin of origin — in this case, the overstressed Colorado River Basin, which provides water for 40 million people across the Southwest.
There were also concerns about road access to the potential reservoir sites, permitting requirements and environmental concerns, like the presence of endangered species and fragile, ancient wetlands, called fens, according to news reports.
For eight years, Colorado Springs and the Western Slope negotiated what would happen to the reservoirs and the water rights tied to the Blue River.
In late 2023, they had an agreement, and as of Wednesday, all of the Western Slope entities had approved it. The Colorado Springs City Council is expected to approve the deal at a meeting Feb. 13.
“Our community continues to grow,” Ortega said. “We want to make sure we have some resiliency in our water supply in those really dry years.”
As part of the agreement, Colorado Springs would give up any plans and rights to build two reservoirs only if it can expand Montgomery Reservoir, which is located northwest of Alma and Fairplay.
These reservoirs — called Mayflower and Spruce Lake — would have been located on Spruce Creek and, together, would have had a total storage capacity of 2,160 acre-feet.
Colorado Springs also gave some of its Lower Blue Lake Reservoir water storage rights to Summit County and the town of Breckenridge.
“Leaving water on the West Slope is never easy, but we recognize the overall benefit of this agreement,” Ortega said.
In exchange, Western Slope entities will not oppose plans to expand Montgomery Reservoir. The reservoir’s current storage capacity is about 5,700 acre-feet. The enlargement would add an additional 8,100 acre-feet for a total capacity of about 13,800 acre-feet.
One acre-foot of water is enough to supply two to three families for a year.
Summit County and Breckenridge can use the Lower Blue Lake water storage rights to create a new reservoir on Monte Cristo Creek south of Quandary Peak.
The new reservoir would hold up to 600 acre-feet of water. Colorado Springs would contribute 300 acre-feet to 475 acre-feet, depending on the annual water supply. The rest would come from existing water rights owned by Summit County and Breckenridge.
Summit County, Breckenridge and Colorado Springs will also share the cost of building the new reservoir, a much more affordable option for the local communities, Mamula said.
“This is a big deal. This agreement itself has been worked on by water attorneys for a long time,” he said. “This is an important one for the county.”
As part of the agreement, Colorado Springs will not oppose the Colorado River Water Conservation District’s effort to buy coveted water rights tied to the Shoshone Power Plant, located on the Colorado River near Glenwood Springs.
That effort “will substantially benefit the health of the entire Colorado River and provide substantial economic and environmental benefits to the West Slope,” Andy Mueller, the district’s general manager, wrote in an email.
Colorado Springs clearly specified limits on the total amount of water it can divert through the Hoosier Tunnel, which Mueller said will also benefit the Western Slope in the future.
“Putting the volumetric limits on our system, which will potentially limit what we can do in the future with it, was certainly an intensive point of negotiation,” Ortega said.
When the agreement is officially approved by all parties, the water providers will move forward with long permitting processes to bring the proposed reservoirs into reality. Colorado Springs aims to begin construction on Montgomery Reservoir in 2028.
For Colorado Springs, the agreement offers certainty as the city prepares for drier years and future growth. The population of El Paso County is projected to exceed 1 million by 2050, according to the state demography office. About half of the county’s current population is in Colorado Springs,
“We waited until our community was growing enough to be able to use that water so we don’t develop water unnecessarily,” she said. “When we do bring water into our community, we value it. We use it as efficiently as possible.”