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This was written by Kent Brady, district Project Manager and former board member in response to concerns about the 2018 water district rate increases….

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It doesn’t always help but most customers acknowledge we must do what we are required to do as well as all we can, to provide safe, reliable water and maximum fire flows in emergencies.

We have a small residential-only rural water system in the mountains. Hence our distribution system serves far fewer customers per mile, and customers consume only a 1/4-1/3 as much water as large, urban systems. So our costs are far greater per household.

Unfortunately, we are almost completely built-out, hence we do not have the benefit of income from water tap fees to help with the cost of maintenance and improvements.

The City of Woodland Park’s water system is better than 10 times larger than ours. Moreover, they have a significant number of commercial customers and they benefit significantly from water tap fees for new construction.

Your board proposed a merger with the City during 2003. The City gave the matter very careful consideration over a 2-year period. Then they replied that no merger could be considered until we made significant improvements in our infrastructure. To assist us, they agreed to provide us with emergency water going forward, whereas, we and they had previously agreed to terminate their provision of water for emergencies. This relieved us of a huge cost for more storage to meet fire flow requirements. That allowed us to concentrate on those infrastructure issues that were in the way of any merger discussion. Keep in mind, a merger does not mean that we would enjoy “in-City” water rates or that we would not be impacted more seriously by a long drought than those who live in the City. If a prolonged drought were to occur, with significant rationing, the value of our homes could plummet. Given that we have the senior water rates, there certainly is no reason to believe that our community would vote for a merger. Nevertheless, board after board has done whatever it could to remove and minimize impediments to a merger as these steps are consistent with the improvement we are obliged to make by circumstances and to remain in compliance with State and Federal regulations.

So, it is in our interest to press ahead with all we can do to improve our system. On this score, we have come a very long way from the year 2000. At that time, any water main break almost certainly put almost everyone out of water. Now we have the opposite condition: water main breaks put very few out of water. The breaks we have had have been almost exclusively in Sunnywood and they have occurred about once every two years. Regrettably, the beautiful ductal iron pipes in the Sunnywood system were very poorly bedded in the trenches. Hence, over time these pipes have been placed under enormous stress that have cracked the pipes. Otherwise, given our decomposed granite soils and excellent deep well water, these 1970’s pipes look new inside and out. It costs about $4,000 to repair a broken water main in a dirt road and each break may well be the last stress-crack break. On the other hand, to replace the 4500 feet of pipe in Sunnywood would cost about a half million dollars or about $2,000/household.

If the District’s boards, have been at any fault for our current rates, it was because they were so reluctant in the past to increase rates on their neighbors. And, perhaps they didn’t fully appreciate the fall off in tap fees after the 1990’s. Hence, they were inadequately prepared for increasing regulatory costs and slow in their response to failing infrastructure.

If we can get our financial house in order so we don’t have to borrow to make repairs and improvements, we will see diminishing costs going forward and we won’t be having to pay the substantial interest on loans.

Regards,
Kent Brady (Project Manager & former board member)