FOUNTAIN, Colo. (KOAA) — Fountain City leaders are evaluating a potential water agreement that could increase the city's water supply for the first time in years, though questions remain about how the additional water would be allocated.
The proposed agreement would give Fountain a 50-year water lease that city leaders say could support about 2,000 new connections. However, City Council has not yet approved the deal as officials grapple with the bigger question of who would benefit from the increased water supply.
The Security Water and Sanitation District is the source of this potential growth opportunity. Roy Heald, the general manager of the district, explained that they're not leasing water rights or raw water, but rather the mechanisms for delivering the water.
"It's not really that we have extra water, it's water that's planned for the future," said Heald.
"What we're doing is providing some financial relief to our customers because instead of us paying to lease those wells, Fountain will pay to lease those wells," said Heald.
Security is offering to lease the water to Fountain for 50 years through the Venetucci Wellfield near Highway 85. City leaders say all water taken by utility partners from the Venetucci Project is granted on what's called a ‘take or pay’ basis.
"For each year that we're taking water, we pay up front to the owners of the farm for the full amount of water that were allowed on paper. Regardless of whether or not we use all that water," said Taylor Murphy, Fountain's water resources manager.
The current annual water supply for Fountain costs $3.3 million. Right now, Fountain uses about 3,000 acre-feet of water a year, and officials say the system is nearly maxed out during peak summer demand.
If the agreement passes, in 2026, the upfront cost would be an estimated $40,000 increase in annual water costs. By 2030, that would be about a $190,000 annual impact to the water fund.
The deal would eventually provide Fountain with more than 300 additional acre-feet of water each year, enough to support roughly 2,000 new connections by 2030.
"That does allow us to do more residences it does allow us to provide water to commercial businesses that come in industrial etc.," said City Manager Scott Trainor.
While the city owns additional water rights, officials say using them would require a $90 to $100 million infrastructure upgrade years away from completion. This lease would be the fastest way to add usable water.
"It would extend from 2026 to 2076 in the first four years, we will take slowly escalating amounts of water because we do not need all the water immediately on day one," said Murphy.
Tuesday night, Fountain City Council voted seven to to table this resolution "to a date no longer than 90 days."
Council has up to 90 days to bring the lease back for a vote, leaving one key question still unanswered, if the deal is approved, who benefits from Fountain's next drop of water?
Send me your thoughts at michelle.reyes@koaa.com.
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