Editor’s note: The $50 million allotment that started the Fountain Creek Watershed District in 2009 offset impacts to the creek from the Southern Delivery System, a regional water project that moves water north from the Pueblo Reservoir.

A special district that has been managing conservation projects on Fountain Creek for nearly two decades is pushing for a new revenue stream to continue its work.

The Fountain Creek Watershed District presented the plan at its first-ever summit last week, telling over a hundred local stakeholders how it plans to continue functioning after a $50 million funding pool to offset effects from a water pipeline has dwindled to less than $10 million.

“We’ve been doing a lot of good project work, but without new funding, our hands are tied,” said District Director Alli Schuch.

The district is pursuing government approval to start selling environmental “credits” to developers whose projects would impact protected aspects of the creek’s watershed, which covers more than 900 square miles between El Paso and Pueblo counties.

Called an in lieu fee, the credits are a way for developers to meet federal and state regulations that require developers to mitigate and offset harm recognized under laws like the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and Regulation 87, a state statute that limits “dredge and fill” excavation activity.

If the intended project cannot prevent harm to the watershed or recreate what’s been lost, then developers can pay for an equivalent or greater amount of conservation projects in “credits” to an entity that conducts them.

“They can simply write a check and walk away,” said Lucy Harrington, a senior regulatory specialist and project manager with GEI Consultants who presented at the summit.

While the option has been available to builders in the Pikes Peak region for about five years, there is not currently an organization within the Fountain Creek watershed that can take credits, said Harrington.

Schuch said credits exist in places like Trinidad and around Lake Meredith in Crowley County, but not in the Pikes Peak region where the local watershed effects are felt.

“It’s not how it should be,” she said.

Schuch said that the Fountain Creek Watershed District would aim to start selling credits by this fall, pending approval. They would then have three years to amass private funding before government deadlines to start construction on mitigation projects.

She said the idea would be to pool funding into big projects that impact the watershed, rather than smaller mitigation efforts for each development’s credits.

The $50 million allotment that started the district in 2009 offset impacts to the creek from the Southern Delivery System, water infrastructure installed by Colorado Springs Utilities that puts strain on the watershed. That money had several requirements on its use, including that all projects needed to have a substantial benefit on the southern half of the waterway in Pueblo County.

The money was also confined to new projects, not ongoing maintenance that Schuch said is essential.

With the in lieu fee system, the district could consider projects along the breadth of the watershed, including in northern communities nearer to headwaters like Monument, Green Mountain Falls and Manitou Springs.

Funding decisions within the district are decided by a board made up of primarily local government officials in El Paso and Pueblo counties. Schuch said a subcommittee was currently in charge of setting up the in lieu fee program, including the decision on how much to charge and how to prioritize projects.

She said the breadth of the waterway had about $1 billion in possible projects to undertake. The district’s previous efforts have been focused on stopping major erosion and sediment loss from the city of Fountain south.

“We’re very nimble and efficient,” she said.