Population Growth May Force New Water Partnerships Across Industry

As population growth strains the water supply in parts of Colorado, officials are considering creative new partnerships that could help ensure the availability of water.

“Growth in Fort Collins and Northern Colorado has always been contingent on the availability of water. And that will be the case for decades as the city fills its growth management area, or GMA, with houses, businesses, schools and parks. Less certain is where the additional water needed to serve that growth will come from and how it will be managed,” the Fort Collins Coloradoan recently reported.

Mike DiTullio, general manager of the Fort Collins-Loveland Water District, is advocating for area water providers to combine forces in some way.

“A single entity could conceivably provide water rather than the five entities now serving Fort Collins proper and portions of its GMA. It might be an authority composed of representatives of the area’s major providers,” the news report said.

Any model for such a partnership would require sorting out differences between providers.

“We’ve got to figure out a method in which we can get water where it’s needed without jeopardizing the ownership of it,” DiTullio said, per the report. “We need to wield it around like you do electricity.”

“The political will comes only when there is a crisis,” he said. “We don’t have a crisis yet.”

The major water servicers in the area include Fort Collins Utilities, the Fort Collins-Loveland Water District, and East Larimer County Water District. Still, the possibility of combining forces may be a ways off.

“So far, Fort Collins Utilities staff has not been directed by a majority of council to explore an ‘authority’ [model], said Carol Webb, water resources and treatment operations manager. Instead, staff has been directed to collaborate with the districts where possible,” the report said.

As the local population grows, strains on the water supply may be felt by all residents, since water costs in the region play a pivotal role in determining housing prices. A previous Coloradan article reported:

Escalating water prices in parts of Fort Collins may soon wash away the city’s last and best hope of containing soaring home prices. The cost to deliver water to the northeast part of the city’s growth management area — where much of the remaining buildable land in Fort Collins is concentrated — is rising to levels developers say they can’t recoup. That’s led several home builders to scale back, put projects on hold or develop in neighboring communities.

Cost challenges are significant. “One developer says buying water rights and paying the East Larimer County Water District's $7,600 plant investment fee would cost his business about $16,800 per lot, about $10,000 more than if they got water from Fort Collins Utilities,” the Associated Press explained, citing the Coloradoan.

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