Districts wise up to vanishing resource
Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jun 16, 2010 by BARRY NOREEN
On Monday, Woodmoor Water & Sanitation District approved its latest step toward a sustainable water supply and away from dependence on disappearing groundwater.
In May, voters in Donala Water and Sanitation District, which serves Gleneagle, approved a hefty property tax increase to do the same thing. This officially is a trend.
Woodmoor, Donala and several other water districts have relied on groundwater in the Denver Basin for decades. That water will be gone someday, and Woodmoor General Manager Jessie Shaffer acknowledged that the district’s 14 wells have suffered declines in yield in the past few years.
“We’re basically anticipating all the “what-ifs,”? Shaffer said. “We just can’t rely on other folks to come to our rescue.”
Woodmoor bought 800 acre-feet of water from Holbrook Canal in Crowley County for roughly $1.7 million. The canal originally was built to irrigate farmland, but as the agricultural economy has withered, some farmers have sold their water to the highest bidder.
Woodmoor’s purchase was its second in recent weeks
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