HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 1/25/2022 - Memorandum From Theresa Connor Re: Regional Water Efforts Through American Rescue Plan (Arpa) Funding
Utilities Executive Director
electric · stormwater · wastewater · water
222 Laporte Ave.
PO Box 580
Fort Collins, CO 80522-0580
970.221-6702
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utilities@fcgov.com
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M E M O R A N D U M
DATE: January 14, 2022
TO: Mayor Arndt and City Councilmembers
FROM: Theresa Connor, Interim Utilities Executive Director
THROUGH: Kelly DiMartino, Interim City Manager
RE: Regional Water Efforts through American Rescue Plan (ARPA) Funding
As a follow-up to discussion at the January 11, 2022, Work Session, staff would like to provide
clarification on the Regional Water initiative,
being used internally to frame a reorganizat (Water,
Wastewater, and Stormwater) areas together under a single leadership position in Utilities. The
In December of 2018 the Regional Leadership Initiative, a group convened by the Community
Foundation of Northern Colorado and Weld Community Foundation, initiated a strategic plan
around water security in Northern Colorado (Larimer and Weld Counties). These conversations
between water suppliers in Northern Colorado have begun to determine how organizations can
work together more effectively to deliver reliable, affordable water to the communities and the
region at large. Initial conversations were held with the City Managers and Utility Directors
from a subset of cities within Northern Colorado, as well as the General Managers of the Water
Districts. An initial briefing was provided to the Mayors, Mayor Pro Tems, and City Managers
at the Regional Leadership breakfast on October 7, 2021, to get initial feedback and
. Regional water conversations can generally be framed
of the doabl , referring to the notion that it can be difficult for collaboration across service
boundaries due to a number of legal, regulatory, financial and organizational factors.
Further, there is a shared concerned throughout the region that, as communities throughout the
Denver Metro region and Northern Colorado grow, the competition for water is becoming very
fierce in part because efforts to protect western slope water have grown in the past decades,
which has driven communities in the Denver Metro region to look to Northern Colorado for
water sources. This is evident with the Thornton water strategy that began in the 1980s to
acquire high quality water resources and continues today with Aurora purchasing the Whitney
Ditch in Windsor. Without a coordinated, consolidated approach to state and federal legislation
related to water supply policy, Northern Colorado communities will continue to face more
competition for water resources with the potential to drive further scarcity and greater impact to
natural systems within the region. The need for an inclusive, productive environment for these
discussions is critical to their success. The next step for the regional water discussion is to send
letters of commitment out to the various municipal water suppliers in the Northern Colorado
region to determine if there is interest in continuing these discussions. The Community
Foundation has been sponsoring this effort to date. The plan has always been to expand
stakeholder involvement at key points in time after a working agreement is established.
Strategies for effectively engaging other stakeholders including, but not limited to, irrigation
ditch companies, agricultural users and watershed coalitions are being formed.
These regional discussions are very preliminary and aimed at finding where there is ability to
work together to strengthen all of the systems. Within the discussions, there are also other ideas
being discussed such as emergency interconnects between the water transmission and
distribution systems of the various water suppliers to be able to address mutual aid needs such as
impacts to water systems from natural disasters or other service interruptions. Currently, these
are only ideas and there is no consensus on moving these discussions forward. Any such idea
would take substantial discussion and action by various elected bodies to implement. The
intention of the discussions is to add value to regional water initiatives, avoid redundancies, and
encourage existing autonomy through greater collaboration.
Regardless of the direction and character these regional discussions take, staff and Council alike
are obligated under our Code and Charter to ensure that any Utility expense or programming
exists to serve the collective benefit of Fort Collins Utility ratepayers, in this case the service
area of Fort Collins Water customers.
Modifications to the recovery plan have been made to clarify the regional water opportunities as
well as include language to promote use of ARPA funds to address utility assistance options for
customers of water districts as suggested.
When considering the need for transformational actions to ensure Fort Collin
recovery both today and in the future, the pandemic and natural disasters experienced in 2020
demonstrated the need for reliable utility services and especially that sustainable, reliable water
supplies are critical to the communities recovery and resilience for future challenges. There is
need to transform our approaches with our regional partners, engagement of our community and
our approach to workforce development to meet future challenges and ensure delivery of high-
quality services. The pandemic and wildfires further demonstrated that none of us can stand
alone or in isolation from these influences and therefore we must consider how we work together
for true resilience as we prepare to face further uncertainty in the future.
CC: Travis Storin, Chief Financial Officer
SeonAh Kendall, City Recovery Manager
Lindsay Ex, Environmental Services Director