FAQs

The plan is super detailed (see for yourself - it is linked below!), but is basically says we have the water rights and infrastructure to serve about 2511 'Single Family Equivalents', or SFEs, in a drought year. BV currently has about 1860 SFEs dedicated/paid for. This means, without growing our supply and infrastructure, we have about 650 SFEs left to be able to build out. 

Water bills are on a schedule to increase each year so the Town can operate the water plant and adjust with any cost increases. The new (February 2022) draft water rate study details the costs of maintaining our current infrastructure and recommends a tiered billing rate that would help pay for these costs. The Trustees will discuss these recommendations and whether or not to change fees and, if so, how that would be structured.

This plan analyzes the Town’s current water production, the water rights portfolio, use trends, growth trends, and infrastructure needs to provide direction for decision-making rooted in data and best management opportunities. It helps guide what to do and allows trustees knowledge so they know why they are doing it.  

Each master plans serves the time and understanding of the conditions that informed its preparation. As time progresses, the community changes, the use trends change, infrastructure needs shift. In addition, new state health regulations and new technologies offer both new obligations and new opportunities for treating our municipal water.

Finally, climate change is changing our weather and precipitation patterns. Droughts are becoming more severe and this puts more stress on our water supply. We needed a fresh and deeper look at our water, which is what the 2021 plan was for.

The new (February 2022) draft water rate study details the costs associated with maintaining our existing water infrastructure. This infrastructure needs updating, maintenance, and replacement even without population growth. The water rate study identifies and recommends changes to the water rates currently collected that would help pay for these costs.

Water law in Colorado is complicated. Presently, the Town has no authority to store any of its water rights in a lake, either the Town Pond or Cottonwood Lake. We have the rights to some water in Cottonwood Creek and that must be diverted at a specific location and in specific ways. We would need a larger pond above the water treatment facility (west of the Harmon Wildlife Area) and a new water right or some carefully negotiated agreements with few other owners of water rights on a creek that has significant demand.

The Colorado state statute states that a municipality is not required to provide water to development if the municipality does not have adequate water supply or infrastructure.