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| 8/8/2008 12:07:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Red Hill Forest considers water pipeline
Mike Potter
Staff Writer
A board member of the Red Hill Forest subdivision six miles southeast of Fairplay announced on July 26 at the annual property owners meeting that efforts are under way to buy water from the town of Fairplay and pipe it in for use by subdivision landowners.
Wes Hoagland, Red Hill Forest Property Owners Mutual Water and Cattle Association board member in charge of Red Hill's water plant, made the announcement at the meeting. He told The Flume there have only been conversations with Fairplay, and no deal has been reached.
"We are in the process of talking to Fairplay about selling us water. If we get an agreement, then the next step would be us getting it from Fairplay to Red Hill," he said.
No timetable has been set for when the decision might be made. But, even if a deal was already in place, it could still be years before Fairplay water could be supplied to the property owners, Hoagland said.
A water pipeline could possibly be built to transport the water from Fairplay to Red Hill, he said, but the logistics of that haven't been considered yet.
"We don't even know where the water line would run," he said.
Fairplay Contract Water Superintendent Jeff Goble confirmed that the town had been in discussions with the subdivision about supplying water, but he didn't know a lot of the details.
Dave Stanford, the plant operator and owner of Woodland Park-based H2O Consultants, could not be reached for comment.
Fairplay Mayor Fred Boyce said the process is in the very early stages, and he didn't have many details either.
Boyce said the subdivision sent the town a letter asking about the availability of water.
Before a deal could be reached, he said, there are many questions that need answers.
The reason the subdivision is looking to get water from an outside source is because of the great cost of cleaning the water of radon.
"They have [radon] in their water, and they need water," Boyce said, but it is unclear how much water the subdivision would need.
"It's way too early to go into that," he said.
A $10,000 check was written by the property owners association to the Town of Fairplay to cover the cost to investigate the feasibility of the proposal.
Hoagland said the subdivision would be willing to pay the costs up front to inquire about the water and that the entire $10,000 amount might not be used.
The plan would only come to fruition if the cost of piping the water would be comparable to the cost of treating their own water, Hoagland said.
Currently, the subdivision has a water treatment plant that pumps water to 150 lots.
The subdivision's water must be treated for levels of radon before it is piped to properties.
"Our water is very expensive to treat," he said. "If it's cheaper to do what we've been doing, we'll continue."
Red Hill Forest property owner Fred Wisely said Hoagland guessed at the meeting that the cost of building the pipeline from Fairplay to Red Hill Forest would be around $700,000, but Wisely said he figured it would cost closer to $1 million to $2 million.
Wisely said his estimate included the cost of building pumping stations and supplying them with power.
Hoagland couldn't be reached to specifically address the $700,000 figure cited by Wisely.
There are approximately 580 lots in the subdivision with 150 of them getting water. There are 80 homes built in the subdivision, half of which are occupied full-time.
John Newell, vice president of the property owners association, said the current water plant has the capacity to supply 533 homes with water.
Currently the plant supplies around 80 homes with water.
Newell said he was hoping a deal could be reached that benefited both the town and the subdivision.
"We're hoping that it's a symbiotic relationship that benefits them and benefits us and proves to be a lifelong solution to the ever-demanding requirements the state is not only putting on us, but also the other districts like us," Newell said.
Hoagland said he is studying water consumption rates of the subdivision and how they might increase in the future, but, he said, it remains unclear what the total cost might be in terms of increases in membership dues paid by property owners.
Not every property owner is convinced that buying water from Fairplay is the best solution.
Judith Burk, a property owner in Red Hill Forest, said the announcement that Fairplay would be open to selling water caught her by surprise.
"I... thought that Fairplay could not provide water unless it was contiguous to Fairplay," she said.
Wisely said he was concerned with the ability of Fairplay to be able to provide water to the subdivision in drought years, but didn't deny that treating the current water was expensive.
"I think all the members concur that at some point we need to look for a water source that does not contain radon," he said.
Both Wisely and Burk suggested that drilling be done within the subdivision to find a well without high levels of radon.
"Where they are, I am not apprised of," Burk said. "I think those efforts should be explored, as well as the one in Fairplay."
Wisey said there was the possibility that 581 homes could be built in the subdivision in the future, all needing water coming from Fairplay.
"What will the cost be comparable to what we are paying now for water, or will it be substantially more and how will those rates be in the future," he said.
He also has concerns if Fairplay would be able to supply enough water to the subdivision if in the future demand increased dramatically, either in the town or in the subdivision.
"My understanding is that much of the water from Fairplay is surface water, and so given Fairplay's needs in the future and the possibility of more drought years, it seems a major problem to guarantee the water supply to a major subdivision," he said.
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