Community News
Meeting on Willow Springs Ponds is Apr. 19 & 26

By Linda Hobbs
El Paso County Environmental Services and Parks Departments, will host two public meetings on the county’s Willow Springs Ponds. The meetings will be on April 19 and 26, from 6:30 - 8 p.m. in the Fountain Middle School auditorium, 515 North Santa Fe Avenue.

The county will give a brief presentation on the ponds and address questions from the public. There will be county, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW) representatives available to answer questions.

Willow Springs Ponds, located within Fountain Creek Regional Park, near the intersection of Interstate 25 and Highway 16, were created in the 1970s as gravel pits. In the late 1980s, the county acquired them, and with the Fishing is Fun grant in 1988, both warm and cold water species of fish were stocked by the CDOW. The ponds soon became one of the most popular fishing spots in southeast Colorado.

In July 1997, Perchloroethylene (PCE) was detected in the Willow Spring Ponds and the county closed the ponds to public fishing that September. Since July 1998, pursuant to compliance orders from the CDPHE, the county allowed Schlage Lock to operate aerators in Willow Springs Pond No. 1 and the aerators have achieved the CDPHE fish+water consumption surface water quality standard for PCE.

The county will re-open the ponds to limited fishing under a Fish Consumption Advisory prepared by the CDPHE on April 28, with a grand re-opening event on June 2.
CONTACT THE WRITER • Linda.Hobbs@ftnvalleynews.com