North Weld approves amendment to Severance water agreement

LUCERNE — The North Weld County Water District Monday approved an amendment to a water service agreement with the town of Severance, allowing the district to sell 100 additional plant-investment taps to the town.

The amendment will be considered by the Severance Town Board Tuesday evening.

North Weld first authorized the additional PIs in March, pending a formal agreement. Approval enables North Weld to increase the flow of water to the master meter that serves the town. 

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The approval came after months of disputes between the town and district over a tap moratorium that North Weld imposed in September due to concerns about treatment and delivery capacity. The amendment to the water service agreement was approved 3-1, with board members Gene Still, Brad Cook and Scott Cockroft voting in favor, and Ron Buxman voting against. Tad Stout, who also serves on the Severance Town Board, abstained.

North Weld partially lifted its moratorium in February, authorizing 120 taps in 2022, with 50 initially and 10 monthly thereafter. An additional 25 initial taps were authorized in March, while maintaining the 120-tap limit for the year.

Severance responded to the September tap moratorium by implementing a building-permit moratorium, which was partially lifted in February for parts of the town served directly by North Weld.

Severance’s town manager Nicholas Wharton is recommending that the board approve the amendment, which would allow the town to further lift its building-permit moratorium in areas served directly by the town.

“It will allow us to lift it for everything that’s current,” Wharton told BizWest. “We will have to have discussions about future projects, but it does allow [lifting of the moratorium] for all approved projects.”

Elimination of tap limits

North Weld Monday also voted to eliminate the monthly and annual limits on tap sales, while retaining its broader moratorium and more-restrictive Tap Criteria Policy. That policy, passed in February, requires that:

• Property must be subject to a water service agreement with the district.
• Requirements of the water service agreement have been met and accepted by the district.
• Water required to be dedicated to the district has been dedicated and accepted.
• The person or property owner seeking the water tap must own the deed to the property to be served.
• The person or property owner seeking a water tap must be seeking a building permit from the appropriate jurisdiction.

“That was implemented to help us control the sale of water taps and make sure that we’re not pre-selling water taps,” town attorney Zachary White told the board Monday. “That policy also included limitations on the number of taps that could be sold.”

The Tap Criteria Policy included the monthly limit of 10 taps and annual limit of 120. But Eric Reckentine, district manager, told the board that a pump test after improvements to the district’s Line 1 pipeline allowed for greater confidence that increased demand could be met for projects that meet the Tap Criteria Policy.

The district replaced a one-mile segment of the pipeline from a pump station on East Mulberry Street in Fort Collins eastward.

“Based on our flow calculations from that pump test, we think we can meet all the demand …,” Reckentine said. “There’s still a moratorium on anything new. We’re not taking any more water-tap requests.”

Reckentine later told BizWest that replacement of the Line 1 segment was necessary to handle additional capacity.

“That pipeline was so old that if we pressurized it, we would have failures in the line,” Reckentine said.

With added confidence in its ability to handle increased demand, Reckentine said, he was comfortable lifting the monthly and annual limits on taps for developments that meet the Tap Criteria Policy.

“We’re selling taps if it fits into the criteria associated with existing water service agreements that have been approved, or developments that will be entering into water service agreements,” he added. “But there’s still a moratorium on new development.”

In other action:

• North Weld approved new drought policies for commercial and residential users, including provisions to limit commercial users — including dairies — to their actual purchased water allocations in the event of a drought. Residential users would be subject to outdoor watering restrictions in the event of a drought.
• North Weld also retained Hilltop Securities to prepare a $25 million to $30 million bond issue to fund capital improvements, as well as for other consulting services.