Water Source Primer
My name is Marco Fiorito, and I am a member of the Board of Directors of the Triview Metro District. Along with staff, other Directors, and the district’s consultants, I assembled this primer on water after repeatedly observing inaccurate, misleading and erroneous information during various public forums and on social media.
How Triview pays for purchasing renewable water
Bonds $30+ million
(issued bonds for water rights, existing storage and infrastructure)
$7 million
Cash purchase for land and associated infrastructure
Triview purchases water from 3 regions
Upper Arkansas
Bale – Bale Ditch No. 1 and No. 2 (92-acre feet)
AVIC – Arkansas Valley Irrigation Co. (550-acre feet)
Lower Arkansas
Excelsior – Excelsior Irrigation Co. – Triview owns approximately 40% share of the Excelsior Irrigating Company, representing approximately 568-acre feet
Stonewall – this includes East, Central and South Reservoirs (19,537-acre foot storage complex of which 2,050-acre foot reservoir has been completed.)
Fountain Creek
Triview owns 1,057 shares in the Fountain Mutual Irrigation Company, which generates 748-acre feet of water per year, entitling Triview to 1,000 acre feet of storage in the Big Johnson Reservoir.
Triview stores the water in 3 reservoirs
Big Johnson Reservoir
Approximately 1,000-acre feet of storage
Stonewall Springs Reservoir
1,850-acre feet of storage
Triview Renewable Water Plan
Water Projects
Proposed Northern Water Delivery System
The proposed Northern Delivery System would construct a booster pump station, 10-mile pipeline and tank which would move potable water from a tank at the northern edge of the Colorado Springs Utilities service area to northern water systems.
North Monument Creek Interceptor Project
Regional cooperation, especially with a resource as precious as water, is critical to the ongoing growth and success of the Triview Metro District. The district has joined other local communities in a regional wastewater project known as the North Monument Creek Interceptor (NMCI). The NMCI project will construct a 10-mile pipeline to collect wastewater flows from six districts and northern Colorado Springs and transport it for treatment at the J.D. Phillips Water Resource Recovery Facility in Colorado Springs. The entire project will be completed by March 2024.
Click here for more information or to see a map of possible pipeline routes.
Stonewall Springs Reservoir Company
The district continues to secure reliable water sources as it transitions from non-renewable Denver Basin groundwater to renewable surface water. In doing so, the district has made a series of recent water purchases with the Stonewall Springs Reservoir Co. The district now controls 1,850-acre feet of storage out of a total of 2,050 acres in the South Reservoir at Stonewall Springs. The water to fill the South Reservoir comes from the Arkansas River, just east of Pueblo, Fountain Creek, Denver Basin return flows, and the district’s Upper Arkansas Basin water assets. Stonewall includes two other reservoirs, the East and Central, which will be constructed in the future.