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<br />Executive Summary <br /> <br />The purpose of this study is to better understand the unfilled need for funding to rural private <br />nonprofit water systems (PNPWSs) in Colorado. PNPWSs often include homeowners <br />associations, water-user associations, or private nonprofit water companies. The Colorado Water <br />Conservation Board (CWCB) contracted Stratus Consulting and Malcolm Pirnie to identify the <br />gap between the available funding for PNPWSs in Colorado and the funding need for PNPWSs <br />into the future. Numerous loan and grant programs are available to help drinking water systems <br />by funding their infrastructure needs. Some funding sources administered by the state, however, <br />require the water system to be a governmental entity to be eligible for funding. They cannot <br />serve PNPWSs, which are common in rural areas. This study determines the number and location <br />ofPNPWSs in Colorado, estimates the short-term funding need for PNPWSs, ranks long-term <br />funding need by water business function (supply, treatment, storage, or distribution), and <br />discusses the current sources of funding for which PNPWSs are eligible. <br /> <br />Private nonprofit water system inventory <br /> <br />As of2007, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's (CDPHE's) version of <br />the Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) database listed 2,131 water systems in <br />Colorado. This number includes all water system types: community water systems, <br />noncommunity, nontransient noncommunity, and nonpublic. It also includes all types of <br />ownership: local government, state government, federal government, private, Native American, <br />and mixed public/private. <br /> <br />SCl1l99 <br /> <br /> <br />In this study we focused on "community" water systems, defined as those serving at least <br />25 persons or 15 connections for at least 60 days in the year. SDWIS lists a total of <br />841 community water systems in Colorado. As is shown in Table S.I, private community water <br />systems are 45% of that number. PNPWSs were not specifically identified in SDWIS - it records <br />only whether a system is private or not. So we marked PNPWSs in the database using several <br />rules and methods to provide our best estimate. Of the private community water systems, we <br />identified 174 community PNPWSs as the focus of this assessment. These not-for-profit entities <br />reflect 46% of the total private community water systems in this state. Mapping of community <br />PNPWSs in Colorado reveals clusters ofPNPWSs in locations such as Otero County, La Plata <br />County, and Garfield County into neighboring Pitkin County. <br />