Construction continues on the Southern Delivery System, including the water treatment plant south of Highway 24, north of Highway 94 and east of Mark Sheffel Road. The SDS was developed in response to a long-term water planning process initiated in the 1980s.According to the SDS website, ìIn 1996, the Colorado Springs City Council passed a resolution formally adopting the resulting integrated plan, known as the Water Resource Plan . . . . For more than a decade, Colorado Springs Utilities has been implementing the four major components of this plan: conservation, non-potable water developments, existing system improvements and a major water delivery system.îThe largest component of that plan was the construction of a major water delivery system for bringing water from Pueblo Reservoir to Colorado Springs, Fountain, Security and Pueblo West.ìWe have more than 47 miles of the 50 total miles of pipeline already installed,î said Janet Rummel, the Colorado Springs Utilities SDS manager.The pipeline consists mainly of 66-inch diameter pipes that cross under Interstate 25, Fountain Creek and two railroad tracks, she said.Other features of the SDS project include three pump stations, Rummel said. The Juniper Pump Station is located in Pueblo West; the Williams Creek Pump Station is east of Fountain; and the Bradley Pump Station is off Bradley Road in Security. Rummel said all three stations are currently still under construction.The water treatment plant site is just over 100 acres in size, and the big, green tank on the site can hold up to 10 million gallons of raw, untreated water, she said.ìWe broke ground on this site in March 2013,î said Jay Hardison, CSU project manager for the water treatment plant site. ìWe have about 175 to 185 workers on the site now, with as many as 200-plus, depending on the activities we were working on.îRummel said the plan called for local businesses to complete 30 percent of the work on the water treatment plant site. Falcon resident Mike Blickenstaff, owner of Blicks Fencing, won the contract to construct the perimeter fence and the automatic gates at the site. ìIt was about 7,000 linear feet of fencing we installed,î Blickenstaff said.Hardison said the water treatment plant consists of the 10-million-gallon raw water tank; the main processing building; a pump station; a seven million gallon underground water storage tank; backwash lagoons; and sediment drying beds. The plant can treat up to 50 million gallons of water per day, he said.The system will undergo many tests to make sure it runs seamlessly, Rummel said. Tests will begin about this time next year and continue through the first quarter of 2016, she said.ìWe want to be confident that we are putting out really quality water,î Hardison said. ìAround March or April 2016, we will be putting out drinking water to our customers.îRummel said the water treatment plant site was designed to expand so the entire SDS could handle about 130 to 150 million gallons of water per day, if necessary. The expansion, called Phase 2, could be essential as early as 2020; and it includes the construction of two reservoirs and an increase in the capacity at the water treatment plant.
