Editors note: In July, ìThe New Falcon Heraldî wrapped up a two-part series on population growth and the effects on the infrastructure, including a focus on special districts that supply water and wastewater services in eastern El Paso County. At the time, the NFH could not reach the Meridian Service Metropolitan District to seek their input. In August, Lindsey Harrison was able to talk to David Pelser, general manager of the Meridian district.
When the Meridian Service Metropolitan District was formed in 2000, El Paso County required (and still does) that developers prove they have a 300-year supply of water at the buildout of each subdivision. David Pelser, general manager of MSMD, said the district has about eight to 15 years until the buildout is complete.ìAt ultimate buildout, the district will have 4,500 residential single-family units and retail space where the Shops at Meridian Ranch are now,î Pelser said.Each time a developer submits a plat map to the county to start building the next phase of units, the district sends a letter to the county documenting where the district stands on water supply and demonstrating there is sufficient water, he said.New infrastructure to connect those new units will be added as it becomes necessary in a phased-in basis, Pelser said. One example is the new well site, No. 6, that is actively being drilled south of Falcon High School, opposite the schoolís athletic fields, he said. That work is expected to last through October, when pump testing will begin to determine how much water each of the two wells on the site can produce, Pelser said.Those wells will pump from two different aquifers: the Laramie-Fox Hills aquifer and the Arapahoe aquifer in the Denver Basin aquifer system, Pelser said. The district has a total of 21 wells, including both off-site and on-site wells, that pump from a combination of those aquifers, plus the Dawson and Denver aquifers, he said. Two other off-site well locations, called the Guthrie site, are located about 10 miles east of the district offices in Falcon; and pump from the Upper Black Squirrel Alluvium aquifer, Pelser said.Everything at the Guthrie site, including the pipeline from it, the pump stations and the wells, is owned 50/50 between Woodmen Hills Metropolitan District and MSMD, so both districts share the cost to operate and maintain it, he said.Pelser said the district will continue to maintain the current infrastructure it has to serve its customers, which sometimes means taking a portion of the more than 22 miles of water-system pipes or one of the storage tanks offline for maintenance, but the goal is to always be able to produce the water MSMD customers need.The district is also looking ahead to how it can better meet increasing demands for water, he said. ìWe have recently engaged in conversations with Woodmen Hills staff about drilling another well and an extension on the main line coming from the Guthrie site to meet continuing demands, but nothing has been approved yet,î Pelser said.The bottom line is that, if a potential homebuyer was looking at a home in Meridian Ranch and was concerned about having an adequate water supply, adequacy was demonstrated when the entire master plan was created, which is the responsible way to build communities, he said.ìMeridian Service Metropolitan District is just not very controversial because the developer did things the right way from the beginning,î Pelser said. ìThey bought all the water rights from the very start.î
