| Dear Cottonwood Customer,
The Cottonwood Water and Sanitation District
("Cottonwood") is proposing construction of a new water
treatment plant to treat the portion of our water supply that is diverted
each year from Cherry Creek. The Cottonwood Board of Directors will be
holding the first of several public meetings to discuss the proposed plan
on July 29th at Chaparral High School. We hope you will attend.
Part of Cottonwood’s water supply is currently drawn
from the sands underneath the Cherry Creek channel. These sands naturally
filter water that we use everyday and produce a drinking water that meets
Colorado drinking water standards. Cottonwood, however faces two serious
challenges for the future. First, we must insure that our drinking water
remains safe and healthful given the ongoing development upstream.
Increasing discharges into Cherry Creek including treated wastewater from
Parker, Stonegate, and the Pinery, and storm water runoff could degrade
the quality of our water source. Second, we must insure that we have a
sufficient supply of uninterruptible water for future use.
After conducting two thorough studies, the Board of
Directors believes that a new, state-of-the-art water treatment plant
along with a water recycling program would solve both concerns. With a
three-year time frame for designing, permitting and constructing such a
water treatment plant, we need to act now.
In order to meet our first challenge of providing a
safe, healthful water supply, we are proposing to build a treatment plant
that uses "reverse osmosis," the most advanced water treatment
method available and the same process used by many bottled water
companies. This will greatly improve the quality of our drinking supply!
This method of treatment is so effective it presents the District with the
opportunity to solve its second challenge by developing additional water
supply through recycling. In essence, water treated in our advanced
wastewater treatment plant would be returned into the sands underneath
Cherry Creek where it mixes with the natural flow of water. The water
would travel naturally through these sands for at least 6 months where
filtration and bio-degradation further clean it. Water then will be
withdrawn through wells and treated in our new reverse osmosis treatment
plant before being made available to customers. This system will create a
larger water supply and much higher quality drinking water for Cottonwood
customers than we have today.
To build the proposed treatment plant, Cottonwood
residents must vote to issue bonds to fund the project. Remember that last
year, good money management allowed us to pay off bonds from our 1994
bankruptcy and reduce our mill levy from 39.5 to 27 mills. While this
project will require an additional mill levy, because of continued growth
and available cash, the total mill levy will remain below the 2001 level.
Cottonwood plans to hold a bond election in November.
In the coming months, we will hold several public meetings to present the
plan to our customers and local governments and seek their comments.
Again, the first customer meeting will be held on the evening of Tuesday,
July 29th at Chaparral High School at 7:30 p.m., 15655
Brookstone Drive, off of Lincoln Avenue a short distance west of Jordan
Road.
Please join us for this important meeting as we seek to
insure a reliable, high quality water supply for the future. In the
meantime, please feel welcome to call our offices with questions or to
request further information.
Sincerely,
Cottonwood Water and Sanitation District
Patrick F. Mulhern, P.E.
District Manager |
