Tag Archives: water

Independence $237/mo Water & Sewer

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Elbert County IndependenceTaking a peek at only one single Special District Service Plan, the Independence Water And Sanitation Service Plan (there’s 6 total), I broke out what I considered a typical Colorado Spring/Summer/Fall month for water and sewer costs.  Mind you this is only water and sewer costs per month.  It does NOT include infrastructure, streets, roads, HOA, parks, storm sewers, or anything else. ONLY water and sewer.

I gathered the info direct from their Independence Water and Sanitation Service Plan.

The numbers broke down like this:

District Base Fee = $21/mo
Water Use Base Fee = $45/mo
Water Usage Fee @ 12,001 Gal/mo = $60/mo
Irrigation Use Base Fee (Apr-Oct) = $25/mo
Irrigation Usage Fee @  7,200 g/mo = $26/mo
Sanitary Sewer = $60/mo

Total = $237/month for water and sewer. Almost 3 grand a year.

Oh, and a Tap Fee of $27,500 per home that’s built into the price of your home at purchase.

Think I’ll stick with my rural county well and septic, eh?

Buyer Beware.

Elbert County Water Theft

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So who remembers when Tim Craft said he was waiving his rights to move water outside the Independence Special District boundaries? A bunch of us remember, and so did Elbert County notes from the public hearings… (click to enlarge)

Tim Craft Indepencence Hearing Waiving Water Export Rights

Elbert County’s Independence Hearing Notes

Of course one week before Christmas when nobody is looking, Tim Craft has petitioned the Colorado Water Court to do the opposite – he now wants to amend his decreed rights and export water off-site. (click to enlarge)

Independence Water Court Notice

From their public notice December 19, 2019;  “The decreed uses are in-house and irrigation on the subject property.  By this application, Applicant requests that the decreed uses be amended to include in-house, irrigation, domestic, municipal, industrial, commercial, stock watering, fire protection and exchange and augmentation purposes both on and off the subject property.”

And per their plan Larry and Moe Elbert County Commissioners sit silent. I’m not sure whether they are just that stupid or corrupt?  No hearing, not a peep from the Stooges. Crooked is, as crooked does, Fredo.

Do these clowns really believe that if Craft is granted his petition to amend his decreed water rights and move water outside his Independence boundaries – these county fools really believe they will somehow supersede Colorado Water Rights decreed by Colorado Water Court?  Better get with it and file your objections right now Douglas and Elbert County Folks – or as Tim Craft’s notice says in his first (and final) public notice, “or be forever barred“.

Concerned citizens are meeting at the Elizabeth library on January 7th (2020) at 7 PM to learn how to fill out the proper opposition forms, and also learn how to “piggyback” others oppositions.

It cost me $12,500 in March to lower a new pump 63′ after I ran dry just months after Independence started drilling their deep wells out back of my property. Coincidence? Nah… (click to enlarge)

Dawson Aquifer Well Filters

Independence Well Water

Who’s next? What’s your house worth without water? And for those with “adjudicated” water rights – what’s it going to cost you to tap the Denver or Arapahoe aquifers at roughly $20 a foot to find water because your well went dry? Maybe like Tim Craft personally told me, “we’ll provide you a tap!”  Of course you will Schmuck, at a monthly fee to sell me back the water you thieved from all of us in the first place.

Nothing we can do about the expected 9,922 vehicle in and outs A DAY off Hilltop Road\CR 158, but we can still try to save our wells!

Get with it folks. See you January 7th.

I’ll show off my Elbert County Commissioner replies to my emails in my next post. You won’t want to miss these!

Happy New Year!

Elbert County Water – Independence

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Elbert County WaterElbert County water. Answers on “how much” water we have below us depend on who you listen to, and who gives you the answer you want. Everybody ’round here is an expert. 100? 300? 600? 1,000 year supply? How ’bout 7-14 days? Just ask around a little bit, you’ll get whatever answer you wish.

Here’s what I do know:

Today, an old trusted friend at the Division of Water Resources turned me on to some docs for the Independence property.  And they may surprise you.

On that 1,011.93 acres now called “Independence”, the Colorado Water Board long ago granted 1,569 acre-feet of water a year.  A year.  Every year.

An acre-foot of water is 325,851 gallons.  Times 1,569 acre-feet is over a HALF a BILLION gallons of water a year.  Every year.

And as section 7 clearly states:  “7. Proposed Use: The water will be used, reused, and successively used for municipal, domestic, commercial, industrial, irrigation, livestock watering, fire protection, and exchange and augmentation purposes, both on and off the Subject Property.”

Here’s the grant from the Colorado Water Board:  Link To Doc

Notice the FIVE aquifers.  Upper Dawson, Lower Dawson, Denver, Arapahoe and Laramie-Fox Hill.  Over a half a billion gallons of water already approved, and like my friend at the State says, “it’s their right. There’s nothing we can do if they transport water off site”.

Which is EXACTLY opposite what we all heard Tim Craft, Dianne Miller and the 3 Stooges tell the good citizens of Elbert County last September at the public hearing – when they stated no water will be moved outside of the Independence service area borders without a public hearing and County Commissioner approval.

What are the County Commissioners going to do when Craft and his band of bus driven crayon munching cronies start moving water out? I’m no attorney but from what my contact at the State said, there’s nothing but lawsuits straight ahead, and none of those involve the Division of Water Resources. Attempt to stop the owner of water from exercising his property rights, he sues the county. Allow him to export water, the county sues him. And in the end when all the smoke clears,  it’s almost guaranteed us citizens of Elbert County will have to sue them both (sound familiar?) and we will have to pay the costs associated. Our Commissioners put us in the trick bag – again.

Maybe I’ll have to dust off my A CDL and get a job driving one of those 7,000 gallon/80,000 pound tankers while our wells run dry.

Oh, the possibilities…

Independence 920 Homes or 2,500? Part II

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The Walton GroupThis just keeps getting deeper and deeper.  Like unwinding a crime before it happens.  And that’s what it is – a crime.   Take our water.   Take our land.  Take our way of life.  For profit.

Walton Group bought a couple parcels of land less than two years ago right here in Colorado.  Lochbuie in Weld County as a matter of fact.  But what they did there was/is backwards to what they usually do – and it effects us.  They usually buy AG  land, use their strength to bully small town and county boards to flip the property zoning, then sell it off to developers for profit.  In these acquisitions, they bought out the developers and their special districts in the middle of the developers developing their developments (say that 3 times fast).  Here’s a few articles:

Walton Group Buys Altamira

Walton Group Buys Silver Peaks

It appears they bought both of the developments AFTER other developers went through zoning, planning, and county commissioners.  After OTHER developers flipped the county regulators.  Even bought it AFTER ground was broke and homes were being built.

And here’s their (consolidated name) project now:

Walton Group Silver Peaks Project Weld County

That’s quite a bit to take in, but it gets worse.  Do any of these names ring a bell around here?  Good God almighty, look at some of the Weld County Special Districts Board Members and their attorney!

Silver Peaks Weld County Special District Board Members

Dianne Miller Silver Peaks Special District Weld County

Colorado Water Developer “Looted” Development, Lawsuit Alleges

More importantly, look at the dates.  Those Silver Peaks & Altamira developments along with their special districts were all put together, started developing, then were sold off to the Walton Group.  And now Walton can put their new federally registered patent, “A Walton Community” logo to work:

Walton Group: A WALTON COMMUNITY

Is that what is happening here in Elbert County?  It is not a reach whatsoever to speculate this is exactly what is happening here.  Walk this through:

Attorney Dianne Miller puts together the Independence Special Districts with taxing and eminent domain powers, all 6 of them – check.

Developer Tim Craft brings the dead Bandera project back to life for Bluegreen Investments, and with a lot of money (who’s money?) and time, gets it approved by Elbert County Commissions.  Zoning, Planning and the 3 Member County Commissioners all in his pocket – check

Walton Group raises over 9 Million dollars from their Asian partners for special warranty deeds on land they own abutting Independence. $9,000,000.00 raised and counting (that doesn’t even include any of their money) for a lousy 320 acres of AG land? – check

Walton Confidential RequestWalton applies for a change in zoning (out of AG) to Elbert County for their 320 acre parcel abutting Independence, a change NOBODY at the county says they know anything about (I have the emails), but yet what is this “confidential” document?  Oh, let’s speculate, “Description:  Received correspondence from new owner re AG.  Uploaded docs and notified Bart Chambers.”

So who’s lying?

Walton Confidential Doc re: AG 02/2017

Somewhere down the line Walton annexes, buys or takes over (they’ve done all three previously) Independence and bam, we have 2,500+ homes with 7,500 or so new neighbors.  And where do you get the water, the resources, to satisfy the needs of 7,500 people?  The ingress/egress roads for 30,000 daily vehicle ins and outs that aren’t even in Elbert County.  You think our wells here in Elbert County can supply 100% of the water required for this monstrosity?  Not a chance, and they know it.  I say slay it before it grows.

We got lucky here.  I didn’t know about Bandera in 2009, didn’t care, didn’t live here yet.

I didn’t even know about Independence until just a few months ago, and I’ve been an Elbert County citizen and property owner for over 5 years.  Seems most people ’round here (me included) mind their own business and don’t get too involved with county matters, just the way country life should be, right?  Pretty much easy prey to be taken advantage of by greedy developers and crooked government officials.  Hell, half the county doesn’t have reliable cell phone service.  Rural.

But now I know.

And I’ll post everywhere, anywhere I can so you’ll know too.  I’ll call the old posse and park a hundred Harley’s in front of the County Commissioners to get their attention.  I’ll knock on your door, wake you up at 8 AM to get the facts of the matter out.  I’ll write posts like these, give you the facts, quote articles, public resources, assessors info, etc. so you can determine what it is they’re doing to our “rural and western” way of life.

Is this what Elbert county residents want?  Construction dust and noise for decades?  Impossible access along Hilltop and Delbert Roads?  Stinky sewer plants for 10,000 folks?  To have developers come in here with high density cluster homes and take what’s ours?

Are we going to let this sneak by again, or are we gonna’ take a stand?  Reasonable growth is Elbert County is expected, but OVERDEVELOPMENT and taking our water, our resources isn’t.

Listen, I know this is a lot to read.  Maybe too much so.  But sooner or later you have to make a choice.  Stand or fall.  Let your commissioners, planning commission members and zoning department know your thoughts.  Don’t sit there on your ass and let this freight train run you over – again.

Leave that 320 acres zoned AG, AG.  There’s no law that says it must change.  There’s no law that says big money wins.  There’s no law that says you cannot deny their request.  There’s no law that says it’s OK to steal our water, clog our roads (that we don’t fix now) or get bent over a barrel by a few greedy clowns in new cowboy boots.  This is rural Elbert County.  Growth is coming, but there’s no law that says it can’t be smart growth.  There’s no law that says our County Commissioners are not supposed to protect the citizens of Elbert County either.

Here’s your Elbert County Commissioners email addresses:

Chris.Richardson@elbertcounty-co.gov
Danny.Willcox@elbertcounty-co.gov
Grant.Thayer@elbertcounty-co.gov

Coming soon, Part III – that sneaky little multi-million gallon drinking water storage tank that’s connected to Rueter-Hess Reservoir on Singing Hills Road that will feed the machine.  Remember pipelines run both ways.  Water in, water out.  Stay tuned, they broke ground and today there’s excavation and backhoe equipment there.  Check back when you can.

Wayne Ordakowski, a concerned RURAL Elbert County Citizen