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WP plans for 20-year build out
By Norma Engelberg
Water and growth were the issues of a special joint work session Jan. 21 that included Woodland Park City Council, Planning Commission and Utilities Advisory Committee.
The first water-growth work session was on May. 29, 2008. Utilities director Jim Schultz said there will be other work sessions in the future.
“We don’t have a water shortage in Woodland Park,” he said. “We’re talking about ways to avoid one in the future when we reach grow out in about 20 or 30 years.”
He explained some of the figures he would be using that evening, including:
Acre foot (AF) — 325,851 gallons or the amount of water it would take to cover 1 acre 1-foot deep.
Per capita water demand ( AF/cap/yr)— .125 acre feet per capita per year or 112 gallons per day (gpd/cap). This figure not only includes residential water use (drinking, cooking, bathing and flushing) but also water used by commerce and institutions such as schools and hospitals; parks, city buildings and production; and a water cushion to offset evaporation, leaks in the system, drought and disproportional commercial growth.
Currently projected water supply — 1475 AF/yr. With that supply and a demand of .125 AF/cap/yr the city can supply water for a population of 11,800.
The city is actually using substantially less than .125 AF/cap/yr and Schultz and the utilities committee suggested that .114 AF/cap/yr is a sufficient amount of water to cover a population of almost 12,890 and provide an adequate cushion.
One question answered at the work session was — does the utility have a legal obligation to have enough water on hand to serve all the city’s vacant lots if they are all built out?
The quick answer is “no.” According to city attorney Erin Smith, the utility’s obligation is to make sure demand does not outreach supply. That doesn’t mean that any project that might put the city in the red when it comes to water supply has to be denied but it does mean the city would have to find alternatives. One alternative to denying a project is to approve it and work to find another supply of water.
Schultz gave a quick tutorial on water and the difference between locally available physical water from wells and augmentation water. The city has junior water rights and has to replace any water consumed from the wells.
“We can use the water from the wells, we just can’t consume it without replacing it,” he said, explaining that 95 percent of each gallon of water removed from the ground ends up back in the ground through septic systems, wastewater treatment and irrigation. “We only have to augment that last 5 percent, the water that was consumed.”
By definition, augmentation water has to come from a river basin other than the South Platte where the city wells are located.
It will be costly to find more water, he said. Water shares in the 1990s, when the city made a contract with Twin Lakes reservoir and Colorado Springs Utilities for augmentation water, cost $6,500 per share. Now a share would cost at least $30,000. It took about $8 million to develop the sources the city has now. Schultz estimated that the next expansion could cost between $20 and $30 million.
Another alternative to denying a project based on projected water usage is to say “yes” and let the developer take the chance that there will be water available but don’t work toward developing more water, an idea that wasn’t popular with anyone at the meeting.
“Our water tap management plan ensures we’ll have taps to sell for the next 20 to 30 years,” Schultz said, adding that city staff will advise the planning commission and city council when a project has the potential to exceed the city’s capacity to deliver water.
“You will have to be ready to make tough decisions,” he said.
Water main work
On Jan. 21, one of the first indications that there was a serious leak in Woodland Parks water system was a low pressure alarm at one of the city’s water tanks. That and several phone calls from water customers complaining about low or no pressure sent crews out into the field looking for a break.
The break was found and isolated from the rest of the water system, restoring water to most areas of the city by 8 a.m. A broken 12-inch, high-pressure main broke deep underground near the westbound lanes of U.S. 24 near the Walmart traffic signal. A large sinkhole, 20-30 feet in diameter and about 15 feet deep developed and before the flow could be turned off 1.6 million gallons of water welled up and washed across the highway.
“That’s about a three-day supply of water for the city,” said city manager David Buttery. “We felt that at no time during the day was the fire department without enough water to fight fires.”
Just in case, though, Northeast Teller County Fire Protection District worked with other fire departments to make sure everything was covered.
At the Jan. 22 city council meeting Woodland Park Police Chief Robert Larson gave a special thanks to the Green Mountain Falls Fire Department, Teller County Sheriff’s Department and the El Paso Teller E-911 Authority for their help.
Repairs were made throughout Jan. 21 and water was restored to the Trull Road area at 7:30 that evening. Earlier that day, the city, after consulting with the Colorado Department of Health and Environment, issued a boil water order. When pressure drops in water lines there is a possibility that a back-flow situation can develop and the city did not want to take the chance that disease-causing microbes might have been introduced into the system.
Tests for bacteria were performed Jan. 23 and results came back negative for bacteria on Jan. 24.
City utilities director Jim Schultz commended his crew saying they performed as they were trained and got the job done.
“There was tremendous cooperation across the community,” Buttery said.
Public works director William Alspach said the line was 16-20 years old and there could be several reasons why it failed. One reason is weather.
“Most water pipes and mains break in winter because of the thaw-freeze cycle,” he said. “Or there could have been a tiny flaw in the pipe that finally let loose.”
The first water-growth work session was on May. 29, 2008. Utilities director Jim Schultz said there will be other work sessions in the future.
“We don’t have a water shortage in Woodland Park,” he said. “We’re talking about ways to avoid one in the future when we reach grow out in about 20 or 30 years.”
He explained some of the figures he would be using that evening, including:
Acre foot (AF) — 325,851 gallons or the amount of water it would take to cover 1 acre 1-foot deep.
Per capita water demand ( AF/cap/yr)— .125 acre feet per capita per year or 112 gallons per day (gpd/cap). This figure not only includes residential water use (drinking, cooking, bathing and flushing) but also water used by commerce and institutions such as schools and hospitals; parks, city buildings and production; and a water cushion to offset evaporation, leaks in the system, drought and disproportional commercial growth.
Currently projected water supply — 1475 AF/yr. With that supply and a demand of .125 AF/cap/yr the city can supply water for a population of 11,800.
The city is actually using substantially less than .125 AF/cap/yr and Schultz and the utilities committee suggested that .114 AF/cap/yr is a sufficient amount of water to cover a population of almost 12,890 and provide an adequate cushion.
One question answered at the work session was — does the utility have a legal obligation to have enough water on hand to serve all the city’s vacant lots if they are all built out?
The quick answer is “no.” According to city attorney Erin Smith, the utility’s obligation is to make sure demand does not outreach supply. That doesn’t mean that any project that might put the city in the red when it comes to water supply has to be denied but it does mean the city would have to find alternatives. One alternative to denying a project is to approve it and work to find another supply of water.
Schultz gave a quick tutorial on water and the difference between locally available physical water from wells and augmentation water. The city has junior water rights and has to replace any water consumed from the wells.
“We can use the water from the wells, we just can’t consume it without replacing it,” he said, explaining that 95 percent of each gallon of water removed from the ground ends up back in the ground through septic systems, wastewater treatment and irrigation. “We only have to augment that last 5 percent, the water that was consumed.”
By definition, augmentation water has to come from a river basin other than the South Platte where the city wells are located.
It will be costly to find more water, he said. Water shares in the 1990s, when the city made a contract with Twin Lakes reservoir and Colorado Springs Utilities for augmentation water, cost $6,500 per share. Now a share would cost at least $30,000. It took about $8 million to develop the sources the city has now. Schultz estimated that the next expansion could cost between $20 and $30 million.
Another alternative to denying a project based on projected water usage is to say “yes” and let the developer take the chance that there will be water available but don’t work toward developing more water, an idea that wasn’t popular with anyone at the meeting.
“Our water tap management plan ensures we’ll have taps to sell for the next 20 to 30 years,” Schultz said, adding that city staff will advise the planning commission and city council when a project has the potential to exceed the city’s capacity to deliver water.
“You will have to be ready to make tough decisions,” he said.
Water main work
On Jan. 21, one of the first indications that there was a serious leak in Woodland Parks water system was a low pressure alarm at one of the city’s water tanks. That and several phone calls from water customers complaining about low or no pressure sent crews out into the field looking for a break.
The break was found and isolated from the rest of the water system, restoring water to most areas of the city by 8 a.m. A broken 12-inch, high-pressure main broke deep underground near the westbound lanes of U.S. 24 near the Walmart traffic signal. A large sinkhole, 20-30 feet in diameter and about 15 feet deep developed and before the flow could be turned off 1.6 million gallons of water welled up and washed across the highway.
“That’s about a three-day supply of water for the city,” said city manager David Buttery. “We felt that at no time during the day was the fire department without enough water to fight fires.”
Just in case, though, Northeast Teller County Fire Protection District worked with other fire departments to make sure everything was covered.
At the Jan. 22 city council meeting Woodland Park Police Chief Robert Larson gave a special thanks to the Green Mountain Falls Fire Department, Teller County Sheriff’s Department and the El Paso Teller E-911 Authority for their help.
Repairs were made throughout Jan. 21 and water was restored to the Trull Road area at 7:30 that evening. Earlier that day, the city, after consulting with the Colorado Department of Health and Environment, issued a boil water order. When pressure drops in water lines there is a possibility that a back-flow situation can develop and the city did not want to take the chance that disease-causing microbes might have been introduced into the system.
Tests for bacteria were performed Jan. 23 and results came back negative for bacteria on Jan. 24.
City utilities director Jim Schultz commended his crew saying they performed as they were trained and got the job done.
“There was tremendous cooperation across the community,” Buttery said.
Public works director William Alspach said the line was 16-20 years old and there could be several reasons why it failed. One reason is weather.
“Most water pipes and mains break in winter because of the thaw-freeze cycle,” he said. “Or there could have been a tiny flaw in the pipe that finally let loose.”
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