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Town of Firestone Agenda Item 14a November 16-17, 2016 Board Meeting (Updated November 17, 2016) Page 3 of 5 Water Rights The only water rights owned by the Town are 5,103 shares of C-BT water. The Town has a current irrigation demand of approximately 442 acre-feet, which is expected to increase to nearly 988 acre- feet based on the Town's Non-Potable Water Rights Master Plan. The Towns potable water demand is presently 2,000 to 2,100 acre-feet annually. Project Description The purpose of this Project is to construct a water storage project to help meet the Town's current and future water needs. The seniority of water rights factors largely into the amount of non-potable storage needed to meet this demand. For junior water rights, three to five times the demand may be the storage volume needed to provide reliability for irrigation. Senior water rights may only need 1.5 to two times the demand. For long-range planning purposes, the Town will pursue 2,000 acre-feet of storage. The Town analyzed multiple alternatives to obtain water storage and associated water rights. This loan will provide funds to acquire 1,092 acre-feet of storage. Storage Alternative 1 - No-Action: The no-action alternate was not selected as the Town would remain solely dependent upon its ownership of 5,103 units of C-BT for its irrigation supply. While this would be the least expensive alternate, the Town would still need to address its outstanding supply issues in the future at greater cost and more limited availability, as other entities near the Town actively pursue their own storage facilities and supplies. Storage Alternative 2 - Central Park Storage: This alternate proposes on-site storage in the Town's future Central Park. Advantages to this location include its central location in a critical area for non- potable storage, proximity to a large irrigation demand, and use of the storage as a park amenity. Disadvantages include a fluctuating water surface in a public lake amenity, distance to river for augmentation purposes, and distance from the St. Vrain Sanitation Wastewater Treatment Plant, which in the future will be generating fully consumable wastewater. Project cost for this alternate was estimated to be $10,300 per acre-foot. This alternate is high compared to the others because it would need to be excavated from scratch, and there would be no gravel sales to offset the cost of the facility. Storage Alternative 3 - Hokestra Pit Storage - Cells 2 and 4: This alternate proposes storage in the Hokestra Pit, which is currently owned and operated by Weld County for gravel mining operations, and consists of twelve cells. Among the advantages of this location are that Cell 2 is completed and lined, Cell 4 is unmined but lined, proximity to the St. Vrain River, possible future use for water rights storage drawn from the river, and good storage volumes. Disadvantages include the fact that the site fails to fully meet the Town's storage needs by approximately 1,400 acre-feet, it is not an ideal location to take advantage of future effluent reuse, and the cost was higher than the other alternatives. Project cost for this alternate was estimated to be $4,200 per acre-foot. Selected Storage Alternative 4 - Carbon Valley Resource Pit: This alternate provides a single storage reservoir at the Carbon Valley Pit, currently owned and operated by LG Everist, Inc. for gravel mining operations. Upon completion of mining operations, the resulting volume of the proposed Carbon Valley Pit is estimated to be approximately 1,092 acre-feet. Advantages of this location include proximity to the St. Vrain River, strategic location for future augmentation obligations, good storage volume, future expansion possibility as LG Everist, Inc. will be mining the property adjacent to the west, storage on the river opens up more water rights that can be purchased and used, infrastructure for this location is right next to the St. Vrain Sanitation Waste Water Treatment Plant for access to