Utilities faces task of sharing hard-fought water
Colorado Springs Utilities recently won approval for its new water pipeline, a difficult process that took more than a decade of planning.
Now, officials are embarking on a task that could be just as difficult: coming up with a way to share the water that will flow through the Southern Delivery System without jeopardizing their own hard-won supply. Another concern is that greater access to water in undeveloped areas will lead to more commercial development, draining the city's tax base.
The cash-strapped utility recently raised water rates 41 percent, and more hikes are projected in the coming years to pay for the $1.1 billion pipeline. Project partners Fountain, Security and Pueblo West will share the cost, but Utilities wants to bring in some of El Paso County's other water providers to further defray the expense and ease the impact on rate-payers.
Utilities has a sprawling mountain water system, the result of more than a century of water rights acquisition. But many small water districts outside the city were established by developers, using systems based on finite groundwater supplies. Several have shown interest in getting water from the pipeline.
"What we've got to do - and it's not an easy project at all - is to try to identify those other entities that are actually going to need the service and make sure they understand their present supply could be lost at any time if those aquifers dry up," said Tony Elia, chair of the Utilities Policy Advisory Committee, a citizens group that advises City Council on Utilities issues.
The council, acting as the Colorado Springs Utilities Board, has charged Elia's group with coming up with a plan for sharing. The committee holds its first discussion Wednesday.
There are many questions, the toughest of which may be how Utilities can offer water from SDS when its own projections say the city will need all of it some day. While the housing slowdown means all 78 million gallons a day won't be needed by 2046, the year originally projected, officials say the day will come when all of it is needed.
Said Elia, "You can't tell them you've got to commit to 5 million gallons a day but we can take it back any time we want. If you give it to them, it's permanent."
Colorado Springs has always guarded its water jealously, extending water service primarily to annexed developments. While Utilities' electric power grid serves several communities, 208,737 homes and businesses, it has 132,637 water customers.
Just a few hundred customers outside the city get its water, at 1.5 times the normal cost. Utilities has two temporary sharing agreements, one to transport water owned by Manitou Springs to that city and the other to sell up to 500 acre-feet a year to the Cherokee Metropolitan District on the east side of Colorado Springs.
Last month, Pueblo County approved a land-use permit for SDS, and one of the conditions allows Colorado Springs to provide project water to other agencies in El Paso and Teller counties.
The city code prohibits Utilities from providing water outside its electric service area, so the council may have to vote to change the code, said Bruce McCormick, chief water services officer.
But the legalities also depend on if the city is selling water or transporting water owned by other providers. Elia said both possibilities are on the table.
"We're so early in this assignment that I think it's too early to tell how this plays out, and whether codes or policies will need to change," McCormick said.
Some council members harbor deep concerns about selling water the city may one day need for residents.
"We have to be able to distinguish between Colorado Springs' water rights and the water rights owned by other entities outside the city. If you are providing your water rights to another entity, you're basically giving them up, and we're not going to do that," said Mayor Lionel Rivera. He said the focus should be on using SDS to carry water that other users own, not agreeing to sell Colorado Springs' water over a long period - though he is open to selling it on a short-term basis in wet years.
But even carrying water for others could spur more commercial development outside the city limits, which city officials worry could damage a sales tax base already suffering from the economic downturn.
"It's a loss of jobs. It's a loss of industry and all the common factors that go with getting urban densities outside the city limits," said Councilman Randy Purvis in April 22 Utilities Board meeting. "That's the voice in the back of my mind when we start talking about providing water. I am not interested in providing residential taps or any taps outside of the city limits."
The policy committee will spend several months on the issue and make a recommendation to City Council later this year. Smaller water providers in the county will be watching the process closely.
"I want to diversify my water portfolio, and the only way I can look west is if the city is amenable to allowing us to use some of their infrastructure capacity to get the water to us," said Kip Petersen, general manager of Cherokee Metropolitan District.
That district suffers chronic water shortages, and customers this spring face watering restrictions at a time when supplies are abundant elsewhere. Petersen said there is water available for purchase from Arkansas River Valley farmers, but no way to get it here - and the district would also be interested in buying from the city to augment its supply, if the price is right.
"There is definitely interest in participating in the Southern Delivery System. Now we've got to figure out how it's going to get done," he said.
WATER TALKS
The Utilities Policy Advisory Council, a committee of residents that advises City Council, will begin discussing regional water-sharing Wednesday. The board meets at 8 a.m. in the Blue River Board Room, Fifth Floor, Plaza of the Rockies South Tower, 121 S. Tejon St. The meeting is open to the public.
