Castle Rock – Douglas County communities will move a step closer to linking up their pipes during a water summit this week.
The result could allow a region slowly running out of water to store and trade any excess supplies in wet years, and work on regional solutions that come at a cheaper price than more local approaches, summit participants said.
“I think our solution has to be that we’re all looking at this as one big family,” said Douglas County Commissioner Melanie Worley.
New pipelines and reservoirs tack tens of millions of dollars onto customers’ bills for a community that goes it alone. Lessening that burden while finding and moving water will be the topic of Wednesday’s summit of Douglas County leaders.
The first step would be linking up the water systems so communities with excess water can exchange it with those in need.
“It’s definitely going to happen,” said Ron Redd, Castle Rock’s utility director and a speaker at the summit. “I think it has to.”
The autonomous, often-feuding water providers in the south metro area are forging the kinds of partnerships that could result in the ability to move water relatively cheaply, when one community needs water badly and another has extra to sell.
“The catalyst is that we’re all tied to groundwater, and we’re all running out of groundwater,” Frank Jaeger, manager of Parker Water and Sanitation, said of the dwindling aquifers beneath the region.
The aquifers that supply south metro are falling by an estimated 30 feet a year, forcing water providers to dig new or deeper wells every few years.
The region’s population is expected to more than double – from 179,000 in 2000 to 406,000 by 2040. The region used 42,323 acre-feet of water in 2000, but would consume more than 92,000 annually by 2040, according to the study.
An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons, or enough to supply two households for a year.
Last year Castle Rock estimated it would spend $250 million over the next 50 years to drill deeper wells to chase a dwindling underground supply.
Such realities are forcing former rivals for growth and water to work together.
Many south metro communities also have jumped on board a 31-mile regional pipeline that will eventually pump water as far south as Castle Rock.
“There are things happening that give some reason for optimism,” Jaeger said.
Another collaboration is Parker’s Rueter-Hess Reservoir.
The federal government approved it to hold 16,200 acre-feet in 2004. As early as February, it could get the government’s go-ahead to store more than 70,000 acre-feet, supplying Castle Rock and other communities.
The need for friends is beyond the region, however.
Most south metro communities could not afford to pump water from the Western Slope unless they used Denver Water’s existing pipes, regional leaders have said.
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper will address the summit Wednesday, said his spokeswoman, Lindy Eichenbaum Lent.
“Mayor Hickenlooper will emphasize the alignment of regional interests on water issues and the importance of regional partnerships,” she said, and emphasize conservation and his other environmental initiatives.
Staff writer Joey Bunch can be reached at 303-820-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com.
