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The FryingpanArkansas Project, or "Fry-Ark," is a water diversion, storage and delivery project serving southeastern Colorado. The multi-purpose project was authorized in 1962 by President Kennedy to serve municipal, industrial, and hydroelectric power generation, and to enhance recreation, fish and wildlife interests. Construction began in 1964 and was completed in 1981. The project includes five dams and reservoirs, one federal hydroelectric power plant (two private, FERC regulated plants), and 22 tunnels and conduits totaling 87 miles (140 km) in length. The Bureau of Reclamation, under the Department of the Interior built and manages the project.[1]

Like its sisterproject, the ColoradoBig Thompson Project, the Fry-Ark brings available water from Colorado's West Slope to the more arid, and more heavily populated, East Slope, providing supplemental water to over 720,000 people and 280,600 acres (113,600 ha) of irrigable land in Colorado Springs, Pueblo, La Junta, Lamar, and other southeastern Colorado municipalities each year.