In November 2013, the Woodmen Hills Metropolitan District received notice of a complaint filed against them by El Paso County, claiming the district was not properly maintaining one of its retention ponds, according to the April 2014 issue of The New Falcon Herald. In late June 2014, the county dropped the lawsuit, and the district notified residents of the decision in early September.ìThe county had filed a suit that we were not maintaining pond 4; and, of course, we said that we are,î said Gene Cozzolino, WHMD water/wastewater director.ìThrough the discovery process, the district provided evidence that, although we might not be thrilled with the level of maintenance, there was maintenance being done,î said Dave Rose, EPC public information officer. Since the lawsuit hinged on an absence of maintenance, the county dropped the suit, Rose said.Cozzolino said the problem was not about pond maintenance; it focused on the design flaw in the pond that prevented it from working as well as it should. ìAs far as the maintenance part of it, we were doing our part,î he said. ìAccording to their (the countyís) own study that they paid for, it was really more on the design side than anything; and not just with the pond but with the drainage infrastructure south of Highway 24. We said that we designed it according to the countyís criteria.îRose said the pond is functioning as well as it can and some other structure or approach needs to be deployed, but it would be up to the district to handle. ìThe pond does need to be dealt with, and downstream the county is working south of Highway 24 with private property owners to see if we can mitigate some of the erosion out there,î Rose said. ìItís a problem throughout the region; we just donít have adequate stormwater infrastructure.îCozzolino said he is hopeful that if the proposed countywide Pikes Peak Regional Drainage Authority is approved by voters in the November election, issues like this will be dealt with.
