With Douglas County’s population expected to keep growing — and many homes relying on a limited supply of water from underground aquifers — the question of how to shore up water supply in the county hangs over the area’s water providers.

Now, the county government wants to get more involved in addressing that question. But one of the county’s three elected leaders doesn’t support going down that path.

However, with two voices outweighing the dissenter, the county has put out a call for Douglas County residents to apply to serve on a new entity called the county Water Commission. That body is expected to create a plan regarding water supply and conservation, among other aspects of water in the county.

When Commissioner Abe Laydon voiced support for creating a water commission, his colleague, George Teal, agreed.

“The people of Douglas County do care about water resources, and they want their county commissioners involved,” Teal told Colorado Community Media.

Commissioner Lora Thomas opposes forming a water commission, calling it “totally unnecessary, a waste of time and effort and money.”

“You don’t do a water commission that’s going to be no cost,” Thomas said.

The forming of the new body comes against the backdrop of a controversial proposal to pump about 22,000 acre-feet of water per year to Douglas County from the San Luis Valley, a region of Southern Colorado. (An acre-foot is the equivalent of a one-foot-deep pool about the size of a football field.) Renewable Water Resources is the private company that proposed the project.

Last year, Laydon joined Thomas in deciding not to move forward with that project while Teal continues to support it.

“Everything’s on the table as far as I’m concerned,” Teal said in early August. “We get another five or six years of rainy summers, OK, maybe then we can start to be picky and choosy.”

Still opposing the Renewable Water Resources project, Thomas expressed concern that the county’s formation of a water commission is “another swing at that ball.”

Asked whether any representatives of RWR have spoken with county officials about the water commission, Teal said: “I think I did see that Sean Tonner, he’s one of the principals of RWR … has put in an application to be on the water commission.”

Teal said he has been friends with Tonner for 20 years.

“We are very likely to drink beer together and have a social visit. He may bring it up,” Teal said. “But otherwise, that hasn’t happened yet.”

Teal said he hasn’t seen the application itself.

Thomas said her understanding is that county staff are treating information about who has applied as a non-public matter and will not release information until finalists are chosen.

Makeup of commission

Those who join the water commission may include local elected officials, those with experience on water district or metro district boards; others with management oversight or with a professional background in water; and a representative who can serve as the “voice of rural Douglas County,” the county said in a news release.

Metro districts are a type of government entity that carries out some government functions, such as the Highlands Ranch Metro District that oversees some services in that community.

The county’s water commission will commence in the third quarter of this year and meet six to eight times during the first 12 months with the focus of developing a Douglas County Water Plan.

Applicants must be Douglas County residents, and the county asked for applications by close of business Aug. 11.

The county envisions that the water commission will integrate existing water provider plans into the Douglas County Water Plan.

Different proposals

Teal favored the idea of assembling a commission of residents that could determine the appropriate steps to take for the future of the county’s water supply.

The water commission would digest information and make recommendations to the overall board of county commissioners, Teal said.

The county commissioners are Douglas County's elected leaders, above the county’s other “commissions” that deal with certain topics of policy.

It’s better to have input from others “rather than (have it be) something that just Abe and I would do,” Teal said.

Asked whether the county’s formation of a water commission is a way to eventually gain more momentum and support behind the RWR plan, Teal said: “I don’t need a water commission to do that.”

“I am very aware of the criticisms of that proposal. But with where we are — I mean, great, we’ve got (water) falling every day from the sky,” Teal said. “But we’re coming off (many) years of hard drought, and water has become a very serious aspect of our business.”

The criticisms he hears include the projected cost and how much time it would take to deliver, he said.

“Concerns that a water program that brings water into the county would cost too much and take too long? They all cost too much and they all take too long,” Teal said.

He also has heard the concerns about taking water from the San Luis Valley.

“Far as I know … there is no taking water there. All water will be bought from willing sellers. And if there are no willing sellers, that’s where the deal starts to fall apart,” Teal said.

Teal pointed to another water transmission plan, involving the South Platte River and the Parker area’s water provider.

“It was kind of pitched as an alternative to the RWR plan,” Teal said.

The Parker Water and Sanitation District has worked on a project that would partner with a water conservancy district in Sterling, a town in Eastern Colorado, to capture unused water during high runoff years from the South Platte River there and store it to pipe back to the town. The project won’t impact existing water rights and won’t allow buy-and-dry of nearby agriculture, Ron Redd, the district manager of Parker Water, has said.

Teal said he wants to know more about the cost structure.

“No one has ever shown me that. If it does cost less, I’d like to see that — and hey, they go to No. 1 priority super quick. No problem,” Teal said.

One of Teal’s ideas for the water commission is that it could land the county new plans.

“This is just an idea — this is not a laid-in-stone plan — but maybe it will attract water proposals” that are more viable than the South Platte plan or the San Luis Valley plan, Teal said.

Money in Parker

Real estate developers interested in exporting water they own from the San Luis Valley to Douglas County have contributed thousands of dollars to candidates for the Parker Water and Sanitation District Board, one of the largest water providers in the county, according to reporting from Fresh Water News.

Recently, Robert Kennah won a seat on the Parker water board and had received two donations from partners in RWR, a real estate development group whose principals include former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens. The contributions were made by RWR principals John Kim and Hugh Bernardi, according to filings at the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, Fresh Water News reported.

A second RWR-backed candidate, Kory Nelson, also received $10,000 in donations from RWR, but did not win a seat on the Parker water board. Nelson has contested the results of the election.

If Nelson had won, RWR would have ties to three members of the five-member board, according to Redd, Fresh Water News reported.

Parker board member Brooke Booth is related by marriage to RWR principal Tonner, Redd said, according to the reporting.