Jean Van Pelt has been appointed as a Pueblo County director on the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District Board, where she will help oversee the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project and the ongoing construction of the Arkansas Valley Conduit serving communities across southeastern Colorado.

Van Pelt is one of five directors appointed by a panel of district court judges. She was sworn in on April 16, 2026, alongside four directors who were reappointed: Bill Long of Bent County, Curtis Mitchell of El Paso County, Ann Nichols of El Paso County and Tom Goodwin of Fremont County.

Van Pelt was born in Walsenburg and grew up in Pueblo, and has devoted her career to complex water issues in the Arkansas River Basin.

Image

"The work that the Southeastern District does is important, and I don’t think everyone outside the water community understands what we do with the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project," she said. "I think outreach and communication are important. You just don’t turn on the tap and water comes out; you have to think about what goes on in the background."

Van Pelt worked for the Southeastern District from 2002 to 2015, leading and implementing programs focused on water education, conservation planning, regional collaboration and project management. Key initiatives during those years included development of the District’s Water Conservation Plan, the Arkansas River Invasive Plants Plan and preliminary work on the Arkansas Valley Conduit.

From 2016 to 2019, she served as the Public Education, Participation, and Outreach Coordinator of the Arkansas Basin Roundtable, formed under the Colorado Water for the 21st Century Act. During that time she secured funding for the PBS documentary "The Arkansas River from Leadville to Lamar." She has served as Administrative Recorder for the Roundtable since 2024.

Van Pelt has also been Program Manager of the Arkansas River Basin Forum since 2016. The forum brings together participants from municipal, industrial, governmental, agricultural, recreational and environmental backgrounds to share information about water issues at an annual spring gathering.

In 2019, the forum honored Van Pelt with the "Bob Appel Friend of the Arkansas River" award, which recognizes exceptional contributions to the development, enjoyment and protection of water in the basin.

In her application letter to the court, Van Pelt wrote: "Water represents a defining resource concern in modern times. Stakeholders and decision-makers within the Arkansas River Basin are well acquainted with the persistent complexities posed by limited water availability. As the most over-allocated river in the state, its management and regulation demand sophisticated approaches."

The Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District covers parts of nine counties and is governed by a 15-member board. Its principal mission is administering the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project in partnership with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The District’s top project is construction of the Arkansas Valley Conduit, a long-planned pipeline that will deliver clean drinking water to communities along the lower Arkansas River.