Water grab? Springs, Pueblo vie for Arkansas River to slake different thirsts.

• Author: Luzadder, Dan

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AS DROUGHT-STRICKEN COLORADO communities continue to explore ways to slake their growing thirst, a simmering controversy between Colorado Springs and neighboring Pueblo over the future of the Arkansas River is being closely watched for clues to the future by metropolitan areas up and down the Front Range. The dust-up is over a proposal by Colorado Springs Utilities to take water from the Arkansas above Pueblo and pump it through a $900 million pipeline to Colorado Springs, where it will fuel growth in the city and two suburban communities. The plan is known as the Southern Delivery System, and though it has numerous local and federal hurdles to jump, most of those involved say construction of the pipeline is almost assured. Still, insiders describe the drama as a cautionary tale of water politics and power, played out against a backdrop of developer interests, economic recovery in Pueblo, environmental concerns and issues of quality of life--practically all the ingredients of any political firefight that starts in Colorado these days.

"We are at a crossroads for the future," says Tom Florczak, an assistant city attorney for Pueblo who has been focused on Pueblo's stake in the plan. "Unless the city protects the Arkansas River through this community, we won't have a river in the future. The concrete valleys running through the city will be all the river amounts to."

Water for Colorado's growing metropolitan areas on the Front Range has long been a topic capable of turning friends into enemies and pitting neighbor against neighbor. Amendment A, which will ask voters in November to commit some $2 billion for new water storage facilities, has been stirring up suspicion between Front Range and Western Slope residents since it was narrowly approved for the ballot by state lawmakers last spring. Many Western Slope communities see the proposal as a "water grab" that will divert mountain water resources to Denver, Aurora and other communities east of the Continental Divide. Gov. Bill Owens, who has announced his support for the amendment and is in effect campaigning for it, argues West Slope residents have nothing to fear from the measure, but the whole state has much to gain.

Florczak, along with many others in Pueblo, see inter-community parallels in the pipeline project as other communities along the Front Range also struggle over access to water. Their primary concern is that the SDS will put Pueblo at the mercy of Colorado...