AURORA — The $9.5 million that Aurora for its used water is set to go toward paying off the debt accrued for the city’s newly established water purification and recycling system.
Members of the city council said by using the money as a prepayment for the debt — which will put a small dent in the for the expansive Prairie Waters Project — rates for water customers will be reduced.
“Projections for water users were going to be higher,” said Councilman Bob LeGare , who is a member of the Finance Policy Committee which gave initial approval to the five-year leasing deal with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. “But because of this deal, there will be slightly lower rates now projected.”
LeGare could not give a precise percentage of how much lower rates would be, but noted it’s likely to be a small reduction.
Council members Monday night will discuss two resolutions in regard to the funds from the leasing agreement.
One of the resolutions proposes that the entire $9.5 million from this lease would go toward prepayment of debt. By contrast, the second resolution, crafted by Councilwoman Molly Markert , goes a step further and establishes that money from all future leasing deals would also go toward prepayments of debt.
However, Markert said Monday she is likely pull her resolution from the table.
Anadarko plans to use Aurora’s water — that would otherwise flow down the South Platte River and into Nebraska — for the oil and gas drilling practice known a “fracking” in northern Colorado.
The council voted 8-3 in favor of the leasing agreement, with some members in staunch opposition of giving city water to a company involved in the controversial practice.
Because water is its own enterprise, the $9.5 million had to stay in the city’s water department and could not have been allocated to other city sectors that deal with areas such as libraries and roads.
Located north of the Aurora reservoir, the Prairie Waters facility treats , and produces about 3.3 billion gallons annually.
In March, the council approved waivers and rebates of city taxes up to $500,000 to Niagara Bottling , which hopes to construct a plant in Aurora that would use 300,000 gallons of the city’s water each day.
“If there are other water leases there’s the potential for this to be repeated,” said LeGare in regard to the lower rates. “Since the city has an abundant supply of water that doesn’t get used, we might as well get some value for it for our rate payers.”
Kurtis Lee: 303-954-1655, klee@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kurtisalee
