Colorado Springs’ utilities provider has advanced a plan to City Council that it says will make easier the management and development of a new reservoir in Boone, a town in Pueblo County. 

The proposed reservoir would fulfill the need for Colorado Springs Utilities to stabilize water storage through waterways protected from exchanges to maintain flow through the city of Pueblo. 

“It’s a key part of the Colorado Springs system to be able to move water from Fountain Creek,” said Scott Lorenz, a senior project manager with Colorado Springs Utilities at a Utilities board meeting Wednesday. 

Utilities is a main partner in the Intergovernmental Agreement dating back to 2006, along with the city of Aurora, the Board of Water Works of Pueblo and three smaller members. The partners agreed to explore the possibility of water storage instead of operating exchanges for water needs. 

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According to Lorenz, there was “buzz” around the possibility of a reservoir 20 years ago but plans did not materialize. Things started moving in 2021, when the IGA partners identified and bought land near Boone for the purpose of a 5,000 acre-foot storage reservoir. 

Plans for the $30 million reservoir are still a decade out, but the board decided on Wednesday to forward a proposal to Colorado Springs City Council to form a water authority out of the IGA partners — an organization that would have more streamlined ability to make decisions about the management of the land before and after the reservoir comes to fruition. 

Each member would still retain proportional voting rights to its buy-in on the project, but the water authority would maintain its own debt. Decisions about funding the project would still lie in the hands of the partnered agencies and municipalities, said Lorenz. 

“The tail does not get to wag the dog in this,” he said. 

The board unanimously recommended the plan to City Council, which is expected to vote on the consent item at its Aug. 12 public meeting. 

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