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OCN > 2603 > El Paso County Regional Loop Water Authority, Feb. 18 – Board hears preliminary engineering designs

El Paso County Regional Loop Water Authority, Feb. 18 – Board hears preliminary engineering designs

Highlights

  • The Loop board heard preliminary engineering designs for expanding the Callahan Reservoir and upgrading the water treatment plant, with Phase 1 capacity planned at 2 million gallons per day, rising to 4 million in Phase 2.
  • The project aims to reduce reliance on Denver Basin groundwater by recovering reusable return flows from participating districts, expanding Callahan Reservoir from 640 to 740 acre-feet and then to 2,200 acre-feet.
  • For the water treatment plant, 14 quality factors were considered; total dissolved solids posed the biggest challenge, and Granular Activated Carbon was chosen to treat it, with a multi-stage process including sedimentation, ultrafiltration, GAC, RO, alkalinity adjustment, and chlorination.
  • Pump stations and pipelines were designed to move water 52 miles north, with a three-part alignment and five pump stations recommended to balance safety, reliability, and long-term cost, plus standardized stations and fiber optic communication.
  • Callahan Reservoir expansion favors rehabilitating the existing dam embankment and changing the diversion point from Fountain Creek to keep water cooler and improve quality, rather than building new embankments elsewhere.
  • On finances, the board approved January invoices totaling $168,000, received $375,000 in reimbursements for Q3 2025 expenses, and held an executive session to discuss legal matters related to property, financing, and Sundance Pipeline agreements; no actions were taken.

By James Howald

In February, the companies engineering the water treatment plant, the pumps and pipelines and the expansion of the Callahan Reservoir presented their preliminary engineering designs to the El Paso County Regional Loop Water Authority (EPCRLWA, or the Loop) board. For this meeting, the Loop board invited board members from the three participating districts to attend. The Donala Water and Sanitation District was represented by Board President Wayne Vanderschuere and Directors Kevin Deardorff, Ken Judd, and Scott McCullough. Mayor Mitch LaKind and Trustees Steve King, Laura Kronick and Chad Smith attended on behalf of the Town of Monument. Woodmoor Water and Sanitation District board President Brian Bush and Directors Dana Franzen, Roy Martinez, and Tom Roddham also attended. After the engineering presentations, the Loop board heard a financial report and the meeting ended with an executive session.

Loop water re-use project takes shape

In his opening remarks, Loop board President Jessie Shaffer said Merrick and Co., Burns & McDonnell, and CDM Smith “have been working tirelessly against tight deadlines.” The project began in 2021 and, in 2022, received $4 million in funding from the American Recovery Plan Act.

Rebecca Hutchinson, the Loop’s interim workflow manager, said the goal of the Loop is to remove reliance on Denver Basin groundwater by recovering reusable return flows from the participating districts. The project will expand the capacity of the Callahan Reservoir in two phases: first from 640 to 740 acre-feet, and then to 2,200 acre-feet.

The water treatment plant will also be developed in two phases: In phase one, it will treat 2 million gallons a day, increasing to 4 million gallons per day in the final phase.

Hutchinson commented on milestones to date, which include the departure of Cherokee Metropolitan District (CMD) from the project; the expansion of the Loop’s board to six members (two from each participating district); negotiations with CMD for the purchase of its Sundance Pipeline; the completion of a Letter of Intent with Tallgrass forming a public-private partnership to provide construction funding; and work on easement acquisition, the control network, and boundary surveys.

Water treatment plant design

Nikole Rachelson, department manager at Burns & McDonnell’s Municipal Water Treatment group, discussed the design for the water treatment plant. She said 14 water quality factors were considered in the design, including total dissolved solids (TDS), taste and odor, total organic carbon, and PFAS chemicals—sometimes called “forever chemicals” due to their resistance to decomposition. Baseline measurements for these factors were taken in the water diverted from Fountain Creek, and target amounts in treated water were established. Rachelson said water quality testing showed TDS to be the biggest challenge. Three alternatives to treat TDS were considered, and Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) was chosen as the best approach because it can meet future regulations and is easy to operate.

Rachelson laid out a treatment protocol with multiple stages:

  • Sedimentation.
  • Ultrafiltration using membranes.
  • GAC.
  • Reverse osmosis.
  • Alkalinity adjustment and chlorination.

Rachelson also presented a floor plan for the treatment plant and explained how its capacity could be doubled with no building expansion.

Pump stations and pipelines

Kyle LeBrasse, a Project Engineer with Burns & McDonnell, presented the design for the pump stations and pipelines needed to convey water 52 miles north to customers in the participating districts. He laid out a pipeline plan requiring three parts: first, a southern alignment that would connect the water treatment plant to the existing Sundance Pipeline, then a central alignment that would repurpose 20 miles of the pipeline, saving time and construction costs, and, finally, a northern alignment that would extend from the Sundance Pipeline to the member agencies.

Three designs were considered for the pump stations, LeBrasse said. The first alternative, which Burns & McDonnell recommended as the best balance of safety, reliability, and long-term cost, called for five pump stations, allowing the system to operate at lower, more manageable water pressures. The two other alternatives required four pump stations but required higher pressures, making leaks more likely. All three designs called for standardized pump stations to simplify maintenance and parts inventories and for chlorination boosting at all pump stations. The pump stations will communicate with each other via fiber optic cable. The system relies on existing storage capacity in the participating districts for resiliency in case of a pump station failure.

Callahan Reservoir expansion

Eli Gruber, a water resources engineer with CDM Smith, presented three alternatives for expanding the capacity of the Callahan Reservoir. He recommended rehabilitating the existing dam embankment to handle the increased storage capacity the Loop required rather than building a new embankment in the same location as the existing embankment or building a second, redundant embankment to the north of the existing embankment. Gruber recommended changing the point of diversion from Fountain Creek, which would keep the water in the reservoir cooler, improving its quality.

Financial report

Shaffer told the board that invoices totaling $168,000 had been received in January. The invoices were from accounting, legal, and engineering companies. The board approved payment of the invoices.

He noted that the Loop had received reimbursement of $375,000 from the El Paso Board of County Commissioners for the Loop’s expenses during the third quarter of 2025.

The bank reconciliation included in the board packet for the meeting said the Loop had $836,000 in the bank.

The board voted unanimously to accept the financial report.

Executive session

Following the presentations, the board held an executive session to receive legal advice regarding the acquisition or sale of real property and legal questions relating to financing, public-private partnerships, member and Loop Authority agreements, and agreements related to the Sundance Pipeline acquisition. No actions were taken following the executive session.

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The next regular meeting is scheduled for March 19 at 9 a.m. Regular meetings are held on the third Thursday of each month at 9 a.m. at the Monument Town Hall at 645 Beacon Lite Road. Please see loopwater.org or call 719-488-3603 to verify meeting times and locations.

James Howald can be reached at jameshowald@ocn.me.

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