NDS ribbon cutting, Aug. 14

By Natalie Barszcz

Triview Metropolitan District (TMD) Manager James McGrady welcomed about 40 invitees and said the Northern Delivery System (NDS) will forever change how TMD and Forest Lake Metropolitan District (FLMD) provide water to almost 3,000 single-family homes along with multifamily and commercial customers. TMD will no longer be dependent on nonrenewable ground water to supply the demands of its customers. The districts’ Denver Basin wells will be used as a supplemental supply on max use days and during periods of drought in the future.

About nine years ago, TMD set about acquiring and decreeing 1,950 acre-feet of renewable water rights for municipal use, and since then the district has constructed 1,630 acre-feet of storage in the South Reservoir, a part of the Stonewall Springs Facility. The district also has access to over 1,000 acre-feet of storage in Big Johnson Reservoir as a result of its majority ownership in the Fountain Mutual Irrigation Co., and leases 999 acre-feet of water storage from the Bureau of Reclamation. The NDS pump station is capable of delivering up to 4.0 million gallons per day of renewable water to Northern El Paso County, imparting about 550 feet of head and lifting the water to the districts “C Plant” tank located in the Sanctuary Pointe subdivision. The district’s water rights will be delivered to the Highway 83 Tank using Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) extensive conveyance, treatment, and distribution system.

The majority of the $24 million delivery system design and infrastructure project was funded with cash acquired from the sale of tap fees from development within the district. While the construction of the pipeline was completed in less than 16 months, it took the last seven years to build and permit the project. The NDS pipeline will deliver the district’s collection of water rights obtained for about $40 million and made possible by a $10 million 25-year agreement with CSU, for a total project cost of about $75 million, McGrady said.

McGrady thanked President of T-Bone Construction Mike Thibault, Kiewit Project Manager Max McClean, Operations Manager Kiewit Infrastructure Mike McDonald, RESPEC Engineering staff John McGinn, Gwen Dahl, and Mario Dipasquale, TMD staff Rob Lewis, Kevin Fackerell, Steve Sheffield, and Matt Rayno, and the many sub-contractors involved in the project and the TMD Board of Directors’ past and present for their leadership.

**Above:** The NDS pump station built by T-Bone Construction is pictured on Aug. 14. Photo by Natalie Barszcz.

**Above:** Ribbon cutting Aug. 14 at the NDS pump station built by T-Bone Construction. From left, Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce Ambassador Sandy Shook, President of T- Bone Construction Mike Thibault, Treasurer/Secretary James Barnhart, Triview Metropolitan District (TMD) Manager James McGrady and District Manager Forest Lakes Metropolitan District (FLMD) Ann Nichols cutting the ribbon, Vice Chair Anthony Sexton, Director Jason Gross, Monument Town Council member Marco Fiorito, Kiewit Project Manager Max McClean, Operations Manager Kiewit Infrastructure Mike McDonald, and President Mark Melville in front of the TMD Northern Delivery System (NDS) pump station at the ribbon cutting event on Aug 14. Director Amanda Carlton was unable to attend. Photo by Natalie Barszcz.

Natalie Barszcz can be contacted at nataliebarszcz@ocn.me.

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