Water report for 04 Aug 2020 meeting

Note that our acquisition of CBT water this year cost $100 per share vs. the $75 approved in Feb.  This increase was approved by both boards prior to the acquisition.

Last spring there were several complaints regarding leakage of the South Side Ditch.  This was brought to the attention of the ditch rider who said that he would ask to the ditch board to approve repairs during the off season when the ditch is dry.  He said that lining the ditch along the area that leaks with bentonite would minimize the leakage.

Terry has expressed concern as to whether water will be available through Labor Day.  Our raw water situation this season has been very good so far, and the ditch continues to run pretty high.  There is no way to predict how long raw water will be available, as it is dependent on a wide variety of circumstances way beyond both our and the ditch company's control.  Our ditch water comes out of the Big Thompson River, and demands on that water are prioritized by seniority of claims.  SSDC does own shares dating back to the 1860's, but not all their shares have that high a priority.  When the SSDC shares fall out of priority, they must take less (or no) water out of the river.  Last year we had water until the end of Sep, with only a couple of short spans where water was unavailable to us.  In 2018 the ditch dried up on Sep 6th, and then reopened again from the 27th to Oct 4th.  I've spoken to the ditch rider about it in the past, and he says that he does not get any advance warning and is told daily how much he can pull from the river.  Although we've never been cut off while the ditch is running, that possibility also does exist.  We are relative newcomers as owners, and if owners with more seniority have calls for the total allotment we would have to abstain. 

Also, some unknown person closed the head gate recently.  The ditch rider is technically the only person who can legally operate the head gate.  He has (as had the ditch rider before him) given us permission to do it, but if unauthorized or random people do it he could revoke that permission.  In addition, I keep a log of our water usage, and when unauthorized people open or close the head gate those times are not reported to me and our data becomes unreliable.  We keep that data to be able to substantiate our water usage in case there is a discrepancy with the ditch company, or if the ditch gets audited.

Over the last few days there has been in issue with the Overlook’s sprinkler controller that initiates the siphon pump necessary to draw water out of the ditch.  It has not been automatically starting at 5:00P as programmed, so filling operations have been interrupted.  In order to manually start it, the program that is running has to be terminated and no further watering would take place on that cycle.  Dave Essay has investigated the cause and found that their lawn maintenance company had changed the controller to start a series of drip zones that push out our start time until it has completed.  He has asked them to adjust the watering times so that our siphon reliably runs at 5:00P, but until then the siphon will have to be manually started when no scheduled watering is taking place, and greater fluctuations in pond depth should be anticipated.

Scott K