In 2002, residents of an unincorporated area east of Colorado Springs, north of the airport and south of Falcon, learned they were in the way of the proposed Jimmy Camp Creek Reservoir.

It would submerge 700 acres and hold water pumped from the Arkansas River at the Pueblo Reservoir. In addition, the city intended to create a 2,000-acre regional park adjacent to the reservoir.

The reservoir was a key to Utilities’ proposed $1 billion Southern Delivery System, or SDS, water pipeline. Here is an overview of the project.

Folks were shocked to learn Oct. 6 that Colorado Springs Utilities no longer viewed Jimmy Camp Creek Reservior as the preferred option for storage of SDS even though Utilities already spent $6.4 million buying 400 acres from 14 landowners. Many are still living in their homes, waiting for orders to move out.

Utilities now intends to store SDS water at a proposed Upper Williams Creek Reservoir about six miles southeast of the original Jimmy Camp location. Folks at the old location are wondering what happens next. Many have a first right of refusal clause in their buyout contracts, meaning they get the first opportunity to buy their homes back before Utilities can put them on the market for resale. They would pay fair-market value, not necessarily the premium Utilities paid in 2003-04.

 Here is a look at that site.

Here is a more precise look at the Upper Williams Creek Reservoir location:

It will be months before the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation issues its final environmental impact report, possibly clearing the way for actual construction to begin.

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