Colorado Springs has “fudged” on its promise to deal with stormwater.

So said the Pueblo Chieftain in an editorial Sunday.

“We are urging the Bureau of Reclamation to open a supplemental environmental impact statement to determine if there is any scientific basis to the Springs’ claims that its stormwater problems are under control,” the editorial stated.

“So far, Reclamation has relied on political promises to address stormwater, rather than seek scientific information in granting approval for the Southern Delivery System. The strongest response Reclamation has given to critics of these promises is that an “adaptive management program” will evaluate impacts from SDS and fix problems as they occur.

“This is smoke and mirrors.”

The editorial — titled “Control? What control?” — notes that City Attorney Chris Melcher raised concerns in March about the need to fund stormwater.

The city should be spending between $13 million and $15 million annually on stormwater needs, city officials have said.

“That amount is but a pittance of the $500 million Colorado Springs admits it needs to address all of the capital and maintenance needs of its existing stormwater system,” the editorial states.

It’s going to take a partnership between the municipal government and Colorado Springs Utilities to address the city’s stormwater needs, Mayor Steve Bach said during a press conference Thursday.

“Why should Colorado Springs Utilities is be involved in this?” the mayor said.

“In my view, because Utilities will be bringing Southern Delivery System water here from down at the Pueblo Dam and the Arkansas River,” he said.

SDS is a 62-mile underground pipeline that Utilities is between from Pueblo to Colorado Springs. The pipeline is expected to be in operation by 2016.

“Utilities will thereby be, frankly, exacerbating our stormwater challenges because after that water is used locally — whether it’s domestic consumption or irrigation or other purposes – it will be returned. It’s called return flow and that water will be additive to Fountain Creek flow going back down south. At least that’s a pragmatic reason that I see that Utilities should partner with us.”

Listen the mayor’s comments here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Colorado Springs Utilities now says that only two more water rates increases – not three – may be needed to pay for the Southern Delivery System water pipeline.

The city-owned utility had initially planned six 12 percent water rate increases, two of which have already been approved.

In April, Utilities said the next two planned 12 percent water rate increases would be closer to 10 percent each and the fifth would “likely” be less than 10 percent. At the time, Utilities also said the sixth and final water rate hike may not even be necessary.

But Wednesday, Utilities CEO Jerry Forte said that both the fifth and sixth planned water rate increases – not just the sixth – may not be needed.

“It’s a little too early to guarantee that it won’t be needed at all, but that’s what we’re going to continue to push for if we can,” SDS spokeswoman Janet Rummel said.

Utilities plans to ask for two 10 percent water rate increases effective January 2013 and January 2014, but if things go according to plan, that may be it.

If the City Council approves the next two years of water rate increases, Utilities estimates that the average residential monthly water bill will be $57.28 in 2014.

UPDATE: Stormwater is a municipal government obligation. While Mayor Steve Bach has said that city staff is looking for efficiencies within the existing budget to help pay for stormwater improvements, the mayor has not laid out a specific plan on how to pay for them.

The City Council is under pressure to come up with a funding mechanism to pay for Colorado Springs’ massive stormwater needs, which the city has largely put off since voters demanded an end to the Stormwater Enterprise more than two years ago.

While the contentious issue resurfaces from time to time, City Attorney Chris Melcher warned city officials in March that stormwater required immediate attention, especially since a permit to build the Southern Delivery System water pipeline was at stake.

Melcher presented Mayor Steve Bach and council members five options, including making stormwater a responsibility of Colorado Springs Utilities, which is building the 62-mile pipeline between Pueblo and Colorado Springs, and asking voters to pass a tax.

The mayor and council agreed in March to continue the discussion in 90 days.

Since then, the Board of Pueblo County Commissioners, which issued the so-called 1041 permit to build SDS, wrote a letter asking that Colorado Springs take immediate action.

During his monthly press conference on Tuesday, the mayor stressed the importance of addressing the city’s unfunded stormwater capital needs, which are estimated at a half-billion dollars.

Here’s the video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

A recent story about the Southern Delivery System water pipeline prompted a local man to call The Gazette and question whether Colorado Springs Utilities is employing “illegal aliens” to work on the project.

The man left the following message on voicemail:

“I can’t help but wonder how many illegal aliens might be working on that pipeline. I would think to assume that Colorado Springs might not be interested in hiring illegal aliens to work on the SDS would be kind of unrealistic because they’re trying to get it done as cheap as they can and the illegal aliens will work for about one-third the price. I think as a good investigative reporter that that might be an avenue you might want to look at. I realize you’re probably limited on time yourself, but you certainly have more resources available to you than the average citizen does. I’ve been concerned about this for some time. I’ve discussed by email this with Mayor Bach before he was elected as mayor and he said he would support any legislation or any other means to prevent illegal aliens working for the city or any kind of city-funded projects,” the man said.

SDS spokesman Janet Rummel sent via email the “standard compliance language in all Colorado Springs Utilities contracts” that prohibits contractors from hiring “illegal aliens.”

“We have measures in place to prevent that kind of issue from occurring, and it’s addressed in all the contracts that we enter into,” she said in a telephone interview. “Not only do our contractors have to comply with that, but they have to make sure that anybody they subcontract with complies with that.”

How does Utilities ensure that its contractors aren’t hiring “illegal aliens.”

“Colorado Springs Utilities and MWH project managers (overseeing the SDS project) are on our construction sites daily managing and inspecting the work of our contractors and crews,” Rummel said in an email.

“If someone has a specific concern that he or she has observed at a Colorado Springs Utilities worksite, we encourage them to bring that to our attention so that we can address the issue with the contractor immediately.”

Photo by Daniel J. Chacon

Colorado Springs Utilities said it expects a series of planned 12 percent water rate increases to pay for SDS to be less than projected in coming years.

“The best word I can think of is thrilled,” Council President Pro Tem Jan Martin said.

The City Council has already approved two of the six 12 percent water rate increases to pay for SDS.

Utilities CEO Jerry Forte said the next two planned 12 percent water rate increases will be closer to 10 percent each and the fifth less than 10 percent.

The sixth and final planned 12 percent water rate increase may not even be necessary, Forte said.

Under the new schedule, the average residential water bill is now expected to be about $60 when SDS is complete instead of the $80-a-month originally anticipated.

“Water rates increases were originally anticipated to double monthly residential water bills to fund the SDS project,” SDS spokeswoman Janet Rummel said in an email.

“Lower financing and construction costs for SDS are now expected to cut the original projected rate increases by 50 percent,” she said.

Exactly who organized the Monday night dinner between the city councils of Colorado Springs and Pueblo?

It depends on who you ask.

Colorado Springs City Council Liaison Aimee Cox said Margaret Radford “coordinated that event.”

Radford is a former Colorado Springs councilwoman who landed a job paying more than $80,000 a year with a company that received a $10 million contract from Colorado Springs Utilities to work on the Southern Delivery System water pipeline.

Radford, who championed SDS as a council member, would neither confirm nor deny that she coordinated the dinner.

Radford referred inquiries to Janet Rummel, a Utilities spokeswoman who works primarily on SDS.

When pressed for an answer, Radford quickly ended the call.

“Let’s not do this, really,” Radford said. “If you want to talk about that, you need to talk to Janet. You know that. But I’m going to let you go now. Take care.”

Rummel said Pueblo initiated the dinner.

“They suggested that we get together and so they’re hosting a dinner with us, and it’s here in Colorado Springs,” Rummel said.

So what was Radford doing calling City Hall?

“She was just helping work on. (pause) I think that she was just calling to see. (pause) I don’t remember what all we had her doing on this event. I think she may have just called over there and checked on something for me. I can’t remember exactly what it was,” Rummel said.

Jenny Eickelman, interim deputy city manager for the city of Pueblo, said she thinks Pueblo initiated the dinner.

“We may have called them,” Eickelman said. “I’m not exactly sure who called who this time.”

Walter's Bistro

The city councils of Colorado Springs and Pueblo are breaking bread Monday night at Walter’s Bistro on East Cheyenne Mountain Boulevard.

The dinner is part of an ongoing effort to build relationships between the two cities, said Janet Rummel, a Colorado Springs Utilities spokeswoman who works primarily on the Southern Delivery System water pipeline.

“Over the years, we’ve met with their City Council just to improve on the ongoing relationships that we have with our neighbors,” she said.

“It’s been very valuable to us to kind of keep that dialogue open between our City Council and their City Council, particularly as we construct a project like Southern Delivery System, for example,” she said.

Pueblo is picking up the cost of the dinner, Rummel said.

Because three or more council members are meeting at the same time, the dinner is open to the public.

But it’s safe to say that the city of Pueblo is not buying the general public a $36 Pan Roasted Chilean Sea Bass or a $48 Colorado Rack of Lamb. Those are just two of the items on the bistro’s menu.

“It’s at a restaurant here in Colorado Springs so if a public member wanted to come, they can come. It’s just a dinner and discussion. No agenda or anything, just getting to know one another,” Rummel said.

Jenny Eickelman, interim deputy city manager for Pueblo, said the two councils had dinner in Pueblo last year and agreed to try to get together at least once a year.

“We’re neighbors, and we all have some of the issues, so we just like to keep each other informed,” she said.

“It’s just one of those things in government that we like to share our ideas. We learn a lot from them, and they learn some things from us,” Eickelman added. “It’s just been a good relationship that we’ve begun to develop with them.”

Six of nine Colorado Springs City Council members joined the council last year, and Rummel said the seven-member Pueblo City Council has three new members.

“It was agreed upon that it was a good idea to continue to have those relationships and maintain those relationships so getting together on a periodic basis seems to make sense as a way to do that,” she said.

Bill Thiebaut

The Southern Delivery System, a $2.3 billion pipeline designed to pump water from the Pueblo Reservoir to Colorado Springs, has become a campaign issue in the race for district attorney in Pueblo.

“In my opinion, he should be tougher on making sure that the SDS conditions are being met instead of being too cozy with Colorado Springs. Because I am a thorn in their side, I only hope that they have not talked him into running and slinging mud at me.”

— Pueblo County District Attorney Bill Thiebaut told The Pueblo Chieftain, referring to challenger Jeff Chostner, a county commissioner who Thiebaut says “hasn’t been as aggressive as he has been in holding Colorado Springs accountable for polluting Fountain Creek,” according to the story.

“I’m not getting these kinds of questions from, like, the AP.”

– Southern Delivery System spokeswoman Janet Rummel said today, referring to The Associated Press, when asked how much Friday’s celebration at Pueblo Dam was going to cost.

Rummel’s comment made me chuckle, which Rummel didn’t appreciate.

“You’re laughing during this whole interview, and it just seems pretty unprofessional,” she said. “It seems as if you got your bias. You’ve got your bent.”

When I first called Rummel, I asked her about the headline in a blog post in the Indy about Friday’s celebration, which, in all honesty, did crack me up.

The headline was: Celebration for skyrocketing water rates.