To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
Through: David L. Corliss, Town Manager
From: Mark Marlowe, P.E., director of Castle Rock Water
Matt Benak, P.E., Water Resources Manager
Adriana Alfaro, Water Resources Program Analyst
Title
Resolution Approving the 2025 Drought Management Plan [Entire Castle Rock Water Service Area]
Body
________________________________________________________________________________
Executive Summary
The purpose of this memorandum is to seek Town Council approval of a resolution (Attachment A) for the 2025 Drought Management Plan (“Plan”) (Exhibit 1). The original Plan was created in 2018, and it has been updated throughout 2024 into 2025.
One of Castle Rock Water’s strategic goals is to have a water supply that is 75% renewable by 2050 and 100% renewable (in an average water year) by 2065. While these changes provide a more diverse and reliable long-term water supply, it also subjects the Town to potentially larger impacts from drought as renewable supplies are significantly less available during drought conditions. This also supports the importance of our strategic plan goal to protect our nonrenewable groundwater supplies, which are generally not impacted directly by droughts. Protection of these supplies will strengthen the long-term water resources of the community.
This 2025 Plan focuses on long-term drought mitigation in addition to strategies that provide short-term responses to temporary drought-related water supply shortages. The largest change to the Plan from the 2018 Plan is the implementation of a reduction of residential water budget levels and an increase in the water surcharge rates during various drought stages. This change has to be reflected in changes to Town Code as well, which is addressed in the draft Ordinance approved by Town Council on first reading on January 21, 2025, see Attachment B. The revised 2025 Plan was developed with input from a wide-spectrum of the community, including: Castle Rock Water; representatives of the Water Commission; Douglas County; Castle Rock Fire Department; Parks and Recreation; homeowners associations and members of the development community.
Budget Impact
The updated Drought Management Plan was developed by Castle Rock Water Staff and therefore, there was no direct budget impact to developing the 2025 Plan. The implementation of a reduction of residential water budget levels and an increase in the water surcharge rates during various drought stages in the 2025 Plan will have an impact on budget during a drought. The exact extent of the impact is hard to measure and will depend on how much customers conserve at the various drought stages. Castle Rock Water had the potential impacts of the reduction of residential water budgets and water surcharge rates evaluated by Stantec, Castle Rock Water’s rates and fees consultant. The estimated budget impacts from this work indicate that up to $5 million dollars of additional revenue could be collected during the most severe drought stage.
A copy of Stantec’s report is provided as Attachment C.
Recommendations
Staff and Castle Rock Water Commission recommend that the 2025 Drought Management Plan be approved by Town Council.
Proposed Motion
“I move to approve the Resolution as introduced by title.”
Alternative Motions
“I move to approve the resolution as introduced by title, with the following conditions: (list conditions).”
“I move to continue this item to the Town Council meeting on _______ date to allow additional time to (list information needed).”
Attachments
Attachment A: Resolution
Exhibit 1: Drought Management Plan
Attachment B: Draft Ordinance
Attachment C: Stantec’s Report on Drought Stage Water Budgets and Water Surcharges