Finally, a group met that knew all the answers for questions about Fountain Creek.
Well, OK, 73-97 percent of the group knew the correct answers.
Oh, and there were only 10 questions, carefully selected - some said they were “loaded.”
Um, and a lot of them have been cramming for the test for the past year.
And, of course, the whole exercise raised more questions than it answered.
The Fountain Creek Vision Task Force met Monday at the Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center to review its work for the past year. The crowd was small - about 50 - compared with earlier meetings, partly because the meeting itself was split.
The task force will have a similar meeting 6 to 9 p.m. today at Gold Hill Police Station Conference Room, 955 W. Moreno, in Colorado Springs (Exit 141 off Interstate 25).
Voting by electronic signals, the group first tested itself on questions of erosion, sedimentation, water quality, water use and wetlands, based on a list of top 10 concerns the group has identified at nearly 50 meetings since it formed in September 2006.
Then, it brainstormed about how to spread the word.
“This vision we have, we need to keep in our minds. It can happen if we have the will,” said Richard Skorman, aide to U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo. “It’s not going to be cheap and easy."
Salazar helped kick off the vision group’s quest by presenting a “Crown Jewel” vision of his own last year. Skorman summed up that vision in practical terms: cleaning the water, stabilizing the banks, controlling the floods, removing dangers to humans; and more loftily: trails connecting Colorado Springs and Pueblo, vistas of farmland, wildlife, camping areas, lakes and wetlands.
“I think we’re all looking at making Fountain Creek an amenity that we’ll all be proud of,” said Pueblo County Commissioner Jeff Chostner. “The growth will make it happen, but we have to work at managing it so it doesn’t overrun what we all remember Fountain Creek can be.”
The focus of the meeting was on the top 10 lessons the task force has learned during its first year. The same questions were posed at the Colorado State Fair in August and the group compared its answers and ranking of the relative importance to the Fairgoers’ answers.
These are:
Erosion, sedimentation and flooding are natural.
Development has accelerated instability.
Some flood control structures or policies are in place.
Agriculture accounts for 87 percent of water use in the Arkansas River basin.
Native water makes up 80 percent of flows in the Fountain.
The “brown” in Fountain Creek is caused by sediment transport.
Wading or swimming in the Fountain is risky, because of bacteria and possible flash flooding.
Contaminants in Fountain Creek don’t threaten municipal water supplies downstream from Manitou Springs.
Wetlands can improve water quality and other conditions.
Regional commitment is needed to improve the waterway.
Those truths weren’t self-evident to all.
“I’ve got some problems with your questions,” said Bill Alt, whose farm north of Pueblo was severely damaged in 1999 floods. “The question should have been: Do you think it’s worse than before 1950, or 1960, or 1970 . . . when things started booming.”
Alt questioned Pat Edelmann of the U.S. Geological Survey about the blanket statement that 80 percent of the flows in Fountain Creek are native water.
“That 80 percent includes all the flood events, so it’s a misleading question,” Alt said.
Flows for the past month were only about 30-40 percent, and on average would be closer to 50-50 without stormwater, Edelmann said.
Return flows from water imported, chiefly by Colorado Springs, have increased since the 1980s, when accounting of return flows prevented irrigators from diverting some of the water. Typically, Fountain Creek would dry up in late summer, but now it runs year-round, Edelmann said.
“I think it’s important to look at how development has increased instability,” said Margaret Mora, of the Colorado Progressive Coalition, speaking for residents on the East Side.
Dennis Maroney, Pueblo stormwater utility director, explained how impervious surfaces add to the runoff, saying it’s important to develop policies that will mitigate those flows.
“The aim was to deliver the water to Fountain Creek as fast as you can,” Maroney said, describing most of the development in Colorado Springs up until now. “That high volume has led to more flood events. We need to learn how to change the process so we don’t continue to do things as we have in the past.”
