About Pikes Peak Regional Water Authority

The Pikes Peak Regional Water Authority was organized on January 10, 2007 through the adoption of an Intergovernmental Agreement executed by the members. Prior to its organization, the entity was known as the Palmer Divide Water Group. The Palmer Divide Water Group was dissolved upon the organization of the Pikes Peak Regional Water Authority. Like its predecessor, the PPRWA is a consortium of water providers serving the communities in northern El Paso County.

Our members are: Cherokee Metropolitan District, Donala Water and Sanitation District, The Town of Monument, the Town of Palmer Lake, the City of Fountain, Woodmen Hills Metropolitan District and Woodmoor Water and Sanitation District. Each of the members owns and operates water systems. For contact information for our members or for our manager, please go to the Contact Us page by using the menu link above. Each of the members recognized that while each had unique challenges to providing a continuing, cost effective and reliable water supply to its service area, there was also much in common and that each could benefit from sharing information with the larger group.

Purposes of the Authority

The recent drought that Colorado experienced for several years brought the members a reminder that Colorado is a semi-arid state that is prone to drought. This was not a new revelation, but the sustained drought brought a realization that ample moisture for several years had created a false sense of security about the sustainability of adequate water supplies for the region. Each of the members began the process of reviewing and revising long term strategic plans to insure that an adequate supply of water to meet current and future needs was stable and reliable under worst case scenarios.

While the water supplies managed by the members are adequate for many years to come, responsible managers must be planning many years into the future. The development of additional water resources and the adoption of new technology have long lead times, and future planning must be undertaken as a continual process.

The members recognized that there are three critical elements to securing an adequate and reliable water supply:

1. Efficiency of use: the members realized that each drop of water must be directed to its intended use. To that end, the members have been reviewing their own systems of collection, treatment, storage and distribution to determine whether their system suffers from water loss because of leaks, inefficient valves and metering or other mechanical reason that can be corrected in order to stabilize the water system. The members have also been studying the feasibility of interconnecting their water systems to provide for the efficient movement of water and to increase the stability and reliability of the region’s water supply system. For a more comprehensive discussion of the members' commitment to system efficiency, please refer to our System Efficiency page.

2. Conservation: the members realized that the term “water conservation” is a term without a precise definition or conventional understanding or use. It is a term that, while widely used, means different things to different people. For the members, “water conservation” is one of several wise use strategies employed to make certain that water resources are applied to the highest and best uses. “Water conservation” is not an end in itself, but is a system of applied strategies among multiple uses intended to support the highest priority and valuable uses of the water supply. Of particular importance to the water conservation strategies used by each of the members, is the knowledge that, as important as water conservation is, it alone cannot provide the additional new water supplies that will be necessary to assure an adequate and stable water supply for the members and their constituents.

Recent studies and information concerning climate change and its potential effects on precipitation, snowpack and run-off have been incorporated into the strategic plans of the members. It should be noted that there is a growing consensus that the Earth's climate is changing, and while the data and studies are suggestive of how that change may be manifest, there remains great uncertainty about the future climate that will govern life in Colorado and the western United States. The members have each adopted a "prudent stewardship" approach to their strategic plans and are taking steps to balance the future needs with the best available research concerning water supply. An example of this approach has been the strong support given by the members to the development of legal policies to allow for the harvesting of precipitation.

Most recently, the members have expanded their view of proper resource stewardship beyond the immediately available aquifers and surface water supplies to include policies and programs designed to identifyf the needs for properly managing the watersheds. Some of this interest was the result of the numerous forest fires and wildfires that have plagued the state in recent years. Debris left after a forest fire is readily moved by rains into the streams, lakes and reservoirs and can have devastating effects on water quality. Additionally, denuded slopes are prone to massive erosion which further destabilizes the watershed and adds to the silting of surface water supplies. Massive tree loss resulting from Pine Beetle infestations has created conditions that are ripe for further fires and erosion. The members' interest in watershed sustainability led to strong support of legislation to create a special management district focused on Fountain Creek from its source waters to its confluence with the Arkansas River in Pueblo County.

The treatment of water supplies to public health drinking water standards is expensive, and the members realize that steps to mitigate deterioration of the quality of the water supply can be highly economical in the long run. The quality of the water supply can be detrimentally affected by activities other than those set loose by nature through fire and insect kill. Water quality can be affected by human introduced products such as unused medications and pharmaceuticals that return to the system through the wastewater systems. The members sponsored a symposium to learn more about medications and personal care products in the water supply system. The symposium was open to the public and nearly 100 people attended. One of the results from that symposium was the publication of a "white paper" in conjunction with Colorado Recycles that is available elsewhere on this web site. The PPRWA intends to develop a pharmaceutical take back program in 2010 in order to reduce the amount of unused medication that has been finding its way into the wastewater system.

To further the efforts toward establishing and maintaining the quality of the watersheds, the PPRWA has assumed the sponsorship of the statewide Colorado Recycling Guide. That Guide was developed by Colorado Recycles and has been the premiere source of information about recycling since 1999. The board of directors of Colorado Recycles voted to discontinue the organization and to dissolve it as a nonprofit corporation at the end of 2009. Prior to the dissolution of Colorado Recycles, the board of directors donated the Colorado Recycling Guide to the PPRWA. That Guide is Internet based and PPRWA will revise the information to be more focused on watersheds and will sponsor the Guide through this web site.

For a more comprehensive discussion of the members' commitment to resource conservation and watershed protections, please refer to our Conservation page.

3. Renewable water supplies: the members realized that populations grow and that today’s water resources cannot meet the needs of the future. Even with the wisest and most comprehensive water supply management, the best system design and engineering and the best educated consumer it will be necessary to develop future water supplies to sustain normal growth. To that extent, the members have begun planning for the acquisition of new supplies of water that will be renewable. Much as a farmer applies modern agricultural science to maximizing his crop yield year after year, water managers apply modern techniques to optimizing the yield from each water supply source while ensuring that the source is rejuvenated and renewed. For a more comprehensive discussion of the members' commitment to the acquisition of renewable resources, please refer to our Renewable Resources page.