Tour educates residents about Fountain Creek watershed
By Norma Engelberg, Pikes Peak Courier View staff writer
This story appeared in the Pikes Peak Courier View on Oct. 4, 2007. It is reprinted with permission from the newspaper. |
| Fountain Creek, in front, meets Monument Creek at this point near America the Beautiful Park in Colorado Springs. Because of increasing development along Monument Creek it supplies more water and sediment to Fountain Creek than is supplied by upper Fountain Creek. Photo by Norma Engelberg nengelberg@ccnewspapers.com |
The message is clear: Everyone who lives in the Fountain Creek watershed, which includes Monument Creek and all its tributaries, is connected. The point was emphasized on a Sept. 20 all-day tour of the watershed sponsored by the Fountain Creek Vision Task Force, Colorado Springs Utilities, Pueblo Stormwater Enterprise and the Colorado Springs Stormwater Enterprise.
Starting in Fountain, the bus tour followed the creek from its headwaters at the Catamount Institute in Teller County to its confluence with the Arkansas River in Pueblo. Short lectures and DVDs were presented by local experts on the creek and its issues between stops in Woodland Park, America the Beautiful Park in Colorado Springs where the creek is joined by Monument Creek, the Fountain Creek Recovery Project just off south Academy Boulevard in Colorado Springs and the Fountain Creek Trail in Pueblo at the Arkansas River confluence.
The creek flows over Pikes Peak granite in its upper reaches and loose soils over shale in lower areas, both of which are highly erosive. Because of this, the major issues facing the creek are erosion, sedimentation and flooding, said Graham Thompson, director of water resources at Matrix Design Group.
"These issues are interconnected," he said. "Most people know that creeks and streams bring water but they seldom think about the sediments they carry."
They also bring runoff from streets and other impervious surfaces and farms laced with e-coli, agricultural chemicals and animal waste and automotive waste. Water that doesn't enter the stream by way of runoff percolates through the ground, bringing with it naturally occurring selenium and any chemicals that have seeped into the ground water.
At Catamount, executive director Eric Cefus talked about the headwaters of Fountain Creek.
"Crystal Creek is the true headwaters of Fountain Creek," he said. "We get to use the water first - by the time this water gets to New Orleans it will be used 200 times."
He said that's why the institute doesn't allow people to bring horses or dogs to the property.
"The Ute Tabegauche tribe called themselves the people of the sun," Cefus said. "To them Pikes Peak and the water were both sacred. Native Americans believe there is a sacred tie between the earth and creation. These are ever present and interconnected. They knew that our bodies are made of water."
He talked about how the Institute's Stream of Conscience program in conjunction with Future Self, an art program from Manitou Springs, is taking young people to the headwaters and then to various places downstream to see first hand how people have impacted the creek.
"We're trying to reconnect kids with nature," Cefus said. "Because of TV and the Internet, kids today know more about the Amazon than they do about their own backyards."
The next stop was in Woodland Park where public works director William Alspach took the group on a tour of the city's Fountain Creek drainage projects. While Catamount may be the "true headwaters," the intersection of U.S. 24 and Colo. 67 is considered the official headwaters. Monument Creek's headwaters are on Mount Herman.
At America the Beautiful Park in Colorado Springs, Monument Creek becomes part of Fountain Creek. Thompson said because much of the new development in the region is taking place near Monument Creek, it is an even larger contributor of water and sediment to the lower part of Fountain Creek than upper Fountain Creek itself.
"The storm-water runoff from all those rooftops and parking lots ends up in Monument Creek," he said.
Ken Sampley of the Colorado Springs Stormwater Enterprise led a hike to the confluence showing creek improvements and what the city is doing to keep people out of dangerous areas of the creek.
At the Fountain Creek Recovery Project, Richard Bartels discussed Colorado Springs' spill diversion project. Water contaminated by a spill is held in a spill tank from which it is sent to a wastewater plant while clean water flows back into the creek from an exchange tank to keep the water flow at a constant level. He said the system can catch spills about 300 days a year but won't work if a spill happens during a storm because flows are too high for the system.
The bus stopped between Colorado Springs and Pueblo at an area where one of the creek's meanders is moving south. A railroad bridge has impinged on the creek forcing it to change directions.
"Creeks meander the same way skiers go downhill," Thompson said. "People don't ski straight downhill they zigzag across the slope to keep from going downhill too fast. But if they zigzag too sharply they expend too much energy and tire out. Meandering is a way to balance doing the least amount of work with dissipating the maximum amount of energy."
The creek's meander pattern is changing because there is more water in it. "Fountain Creek formed under natural conditions and then we came along with development," Thompson said. "The creek has been forced to adjust to new conditions."
By the time Fountain Creek gets to Pueblo it has a high energy flow that is often greater than the Arkansas River. Dennis Maroney of the Pueblo Stormwater Enterprise explained the issues involved in protecting Pueblo residents from flooding using levies and other containment efforts. Without levies most of downtown Pueblo would be subject to floods similar to those that destroyed parts of the city in the 1920s, '30s and 1965.
Erin Jones, 16, a Palmer High School junior involved in Stream of Conscience, summed up the tour earlier in the day when she said, "We all need to understand our impact on [Fountain] Creek."
Fountain Creek Vision Task Force
People have been studying Fountain Creek for several decades but the Fountain Creek Vision Task Force wasn't formed until July 2006.
The task force involves more than 300 people, including officials and residents from Pueblo, Teller and El Paso counties, members of the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments and officials of several municipalities in the watershed, including Woodland Park, Colorado Springs, Fountain, Green Mountain Falls and Pueblo. A number of state and federal agencies along with Colorado senators Ken Salazar and Wayne Allard and now retired Congressman Joel Hefley were instrumental in forming the task force.
Its mission is to make Fountain Creek a regional asset, create a healthy and safe waterway and engage the public. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is almost finished with a comprehensive inventory of the watershed. According to Graham Thompson, director of water resources for Matrix Design Works, this inventory/study has four parts:
Hydrology - a study of how much water comes into the creek, especially during storms.
Hydraulics - a study to the creek's characteristics, the velocity and depth of the water, how wide it spreads, sheer strength and flood profile.
Geomorphology - literally the shape of the earth. This study looks at the creek's cross section, slope, meander pattern and historic and current wetlands.
Environmental studies - threatened and endangered species living in the watershed, migratory bird patterns, hazardous waste profiles and soils in the region.
The Corps has already submitted a preliminary list of possible creek improvement projects for review. Information about the study, preliminary findings and the task force, is available at www.ppacg.org.Do you have a
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