On June 28, the Paint Brush Metropolitan District, in coordination with the Colorado Rural Water Association, hosted the fourth in a series of stakeholder meetings at the district office in Falcon, Colorado, to continue developing a source water protection plan.According to the April issue of ìThe New Falcon Herald,î the purpose of the SWPP (source water protection plan) is to determine what risks exist for the districtís source of water.Leon Gomes, district manager for PBHMD, said participants finalized the list of source water threats. ìWe identified things like something seeping into the well, terrorist acts, vandalism, hazardous waste spills and what kind of threats they pose to our source water,î he said. ìWe designated them with a one, two or three, with one as a high threat, two being somewhat of a threat and three being the lowest threat.îGomes said the participants used specific criteria to assign each threat to a specific level. With that done, the SWPP draft was circulated to the participants for comments, he said. Once all comments have been submitted and any changes have been made, the SWPP will go to the PBHMD board of directors for their approval, Gomes said. Once the document has been approved by the board, it will be a public document, he said.ìThe board and I will work together on what the items in the plan are that call for action, what the priority of each item is and what the board decides on for where to start,î Gomes said. ìWe may start in pieces to address specific threats individually or we may do the full thing at once.îActions to address identified threats include installing cameras at each well site, intrusion alarms at the pump houses, and electronic access to the pump house buildings so there is no chance for a key to end up in the wrong hands, Gomes said.PBHMD received a $5,000 grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency to begin work on the SWPP, but the need for additional funding is likely, he said.
