Reclamation’s Eastern Colorado Area Office

Transcontinental Diversions Provide Water for East Slope Cities and Farms

Approximately 80 percent of the state's precipitation falls on the west slope while nearly 80 percent of Coloradans live on the east slope which possesses land better suited to farming. It's the job of the Eastern Colorado Area Office (ECAO) to manage the projects that divert water across the Continental Divide, transporting the state's precipitation from where it mostly falls to where its citizens mostly live, work, and farm.

The ECAO main office is located near Loveland, Colorado by the Flatiron Reservoir and the Pueblo Field Office is just outside of Pueblo, Colorado. The Area Office manages its two primary responsibilities, the Colorado-Big Thompson Project and Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, both of which store water on the west slope to convey to the arid-yet-arable east slope. Staff are also stationed at Estes, Flatiron, Green Mountain, and Mt. Elbert power plants and Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel treatment plant.

In total, the region's projects in Colorado serve over 3,500 farms producing over $350 million worth of crops annually by irrigating nearly one million acres. Additionally, the ECAO's projects provide water to a rural and urban population of over one million people all while generating 880 megawatt hours of electricity per year – enough to power 60,000 homes. Vast efforts are needed to maintain and operate the complex system of dams, conduits, canals, diversion facilities and power plants that accomplish this work.

The Big Two Projects:

The Colorado-Big Thompson (C-BT) Project constitutes one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken by Reclamation and was designed to serve northeastern Colorado. The C-BT choreographs over 100 water and power facilities to collect, regulate, store, pump, and generally move water from the west slope to the east all while generating electricity. Water transfer under the Continental Divide occurs via the Alva B. Adams tunnel, a 13.2-mile journey. On the other side more than 120 water user organizations and municipalities utilize the water while the Western Area Power Administration sells the resultant electricity. The ECAO works closely with the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District who operate the west slope collection system and the segments of the east slope facilities that distribute C-BT water to users.

The Fryingpan-Arkansas Project accomplishes much the same work as the C-BT but for southeastern Colorado, diverting water from the Upper Colorado River Basin (the Fryingpan River) and delivering it to the Arkansas River Valley. The project has five storage reservoirs and one pumped storage unit with power generating capacity. The terminal storage feature is Pueblo Dam near the city of Pueblo. The Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District is the sponsoring agency of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, distributing Fryingpan-Arkansas water to users.

Large-Scale Developments:

The Mt. Elbert storage power plant is preparing for a $60-million-dollar project to rehabilitate the facility's two turbines and related infrastructure. Currently the turbines are over 30 years old and unlike most plants, they both generate electricity and pump water. Turbines will be fixed one at a time to maintain plant operability while the rehabilitation will significantly improve power plant reliability, availability, maintainability, predictability, and safety. Unique to both the C-BT and Fry-Ark projects, Mt Elbert generates electricity during daytime peak demand and then pumps water during low demand at nighttime for power generation availability the next day.

The Arkansas Valley Conduit is a long-term project to provide safe drinking water to the lower Arkansas River, a public safety concern given that this portion of the river is the most saline stream in the United States and both surface and groundwater along its route are contaminated with radionuclides. The conduit is planned to run from Pueblo Reservoir and is an original feature of the Fry-Ark Project legislation in 1962 but was not built due to the cost to local communities. In 2009, Congress amended the original Fry-Ark legislation featuring a cost sharing plan with 65 percent federal and 35 percent local funding. The locally funded portion would be repaid by the District to the federal government over a period of 50 years. Improving the water supply provides capacity to grow into the foreseeable future for the citizens and businesses within the district's boundaries.

Additional Activities:

The Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel under a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System discharge permit. The tunnel, constructed between 1943 and 1952 by the Bureau of Mines, historically discharged water containing heavy metals into the Arkansas River. Reclamation assumed ownership of the tunnel in 1959 for the price one dollar and began operating the treatment plant in 1992. Since that time all discharges to the river have met or exceeded environmental standards.

Pueblo Dam rises beyond Pueblo Fish Hatchery which was originally built as a part of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project.

Published on January 11, 2017