The Falcon/Peyton small area master plan advisory committee met Oct. 24 to discuss water issues within the planning area.Sandy Martin, committee member and president of Protect Our Wells, a nonprofit organization advocating for the interests of private well owners, made the following recommendations:
- The county should implement the well monitoring provisions of their land development code.
- All large ground water users should monitor and report water level and usage to the county.
- The county should forward water level and usage data to the state water engineer.
- Water districts should provide an accounting of their commitments and resources prior to making new commitments.
With regard to subdivision planning, Martin recommended the following:
- Developers should re-evaluate their initial water supply estimate when on-site aquifer data becomes available through the drilling of wells.
- The exporting of water from residential well users should be prohibited.
- The use of private wells and individual septic systems on lots less than 2.5 acres should be limited.
- Hazardous entities, such as gas stations, should not be permitted at locations near sensitive water sources.
A representative of the Sage Water Users Association, which provides water to 350 households near Ellicott, agreed that more monitoring is required.Aaron Briggs, an HB&A consultant to the committee, also provided information on the current population of the planning area, which is estimated at 22,000.”Assuming 2.75 people per household and given the number of houses that have been approved or are in the approval process for the planning area, that’s a total of 92,163 people,” Briggs said. “That’s seven times the number of people in the planning area at the time of the 1993 plan, and five times the current number of residents.”Materials provided to the committee indicate that households use from 6,500 gallons to 16,250 gallons of water per year. The representative from the Sage Water Users Association said their data indicates an average household usage of 8,450 gallons per year, with some water restrictions already in place.Martin recently learned that in Steamboat Springs individual wells are no longer permitted on parcels less than 35 acres. She said it may be time to stop allowing new wells to be drilled in the Dawson aquifer.Carl Schueler, manager of El Paso County’s long range planning division, said, “This is a land use plan, and water feeds into the plan. The 1993 plan made active recommendations on the availability and practicality of providing water. This [new] plan may include ideas that will ultimately be reflected in legislation.”Schueler also suggested the plan include a recommendation for a pipe system that will interconnect water provider systems.The committee posts planning information at www.hbaa.com/Falcon-Peyton-MP. The committee is on track to hold its second public information meeting in mid December.The next advisory committee meeting is scheduled Nov. 14 at the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department in Colorado Springs at 3 p.m.
