WOODLAND PARK • Wearing his Director of Operations hat rather than his Deputy City Manager hat, Kip Wiley reviewed the city’s water tap management plan befpre the Woodland Park Planning Commission at a July 14 work session.

There are a lot of factors involved in managing the city’s water taps and making sure there is enough water for current and future customers, he said. Wiley repeated the phrase “It isn’t an exact science” several times throughout his presentation.

Wiley started out by defining the following terms:

AF — an acre foot equals 325,851 gallons, which is how much water it would take to cover 1-acre of land 1-foot deep.

Augmentation water — water used to replace consumed water. It is fully useable once without putting it back into the watershed it came from. Woodland Park’s augmentation water is trans-basin water from Colorado’s Western Slope.

Consumed water — water used in the city that isn’t returned to the stream. This water must be replaced with augmentation water.

Local water — water from local sources, including wells and surface water from Trout Creek and Loy Gulch.

Water rights — water that can be legally pumped from a source. Woodland Park has “very junior” water rights, which means it must replace water consumed for those downstream users with senior water rights.

Yield — production from shares in reservoirs. This augmentation water comes from snowmelt so the yield changes from year to year depending on snowpack levels and how quickly it melts.

Customers — dwelling units. According to the 2020 census, Woodland Park averages 2.22 people per dwelling unit.

Types of water — local ground water, surface water and augmentation water. Woodland Park sits on two watershed basins. Its well and surface water comes from the South Platte River Basin. Any water from the South Platte that is used in the Arkansas River Basin must be replaced with augmentation water.

Wiley said the city has about 4,070 water customers, and tracks customer usage as well as its own usage. Public institutions, such as schools, hospitals and post offices, are tracked as commercial entities.

“We account for all water usage, future needs and dry years,” Wiley said. “For future planning we use 0.117 AF per year per capita. Our current supply is 1,300 AF per year, and, at this point, we use about 813 AF per year, depending on the weather.”

At full build-out, with a population of 13,600, the city will need 1,591 AF, he added.

“Colorado water is highly regulated by law, unlike anywhere else in the country,” Planning Director Karen Schminke said. “The state is very proactive compared to surrounding states.”

Wiley added that Woodland Park water customers are good at being water wise and only use about 52 gallons per person per day. “That gives us a cushion,” he said.

Water tap availability is based on residential units. “A house is a house, and we can plan for them, but we don’t know how a commercial property will be developed,” Wiley said. “Rooftops support commerce. Without people there would be no businesses. Problems arise when developers want to build multifamily units in commercial zones.”

The city’s water tap management plan sets the maximum number of taps available each year and limits annual tap sales to 10% of the total. There is also a multifamily bank and a bank that is filled with unsold but allotted taps. Taps can also be returned to the bank if a developer doesn’t build as many units per acre as the zone allows.

“Taps are always sold on a first come, first served basis,” Wiley said. “We’re trying to make sure all lots have water availability — we may have to go out and find more water.”

Predicting how much water is available each year is difficult. “We won’t know how much water is produced (by our shares) until it stops being produced,” he said, adding that the new reservoir being negotiated will help the city get through a dry year. “The problem comes when there are several dry years in a row.”

“It’s helpful to know that we will have a finite amount of water at build-out,” Commissioner Carrol Harvey said.

“We need to make sure people know there is a limit,” Commissioner Larry Larsen said. “We can’t find new sources the way Denver and Aurora can.”

Wiley’s presentation was recorded for future use as a time-saving measure. He also presents each year’s tap allotment to city council for approval.

The City of Woodland Park’s logo.

city-woodlandpark.org