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Taxpayers, Water Rates, and the Rogue Parker Water & Sanitation District
Transparency and accountability are the twin pillars of good government. This is especially true in high-stakes public bodies such as our local water providers, which are charged with ensuring safe, affordable, and reliable long-term water supplies.
That’s why the voter disenfranchisement by the “old guard” bureaucracy and management of Parker Water & Sanitation District – an entity with over $1 billion in assets which makes it larger in scope than Douglas County – has raised red flags in the community and in the local media.
Parker Water District failed to mail ballots to at least 96 voters in the June board of directors’ election (an amount more than 3.5 times the number of votes needed to change the outcome of the election).
The entrenched leadership of Parker Water would like us to believe it was merely a logistical oversight. In truth, the 96 uncounted votes could bring in fresh leadership who will prioritize accountability and strategic water planning that spends ratepayer dollars on increasing water supply and sanitation infrastructure.
Disenfranchised voters signed a petition to the Board asking for a new election. The fourth-place candidate, who is just 26 votes short of victory, asked the Board to consider a motion to decertify the election and conduct a new vote for the third board seat. (The top three candidates are elected to the Board.)
While this should be a no-brainer, a majority of the “pro-status-quo board members” refused to allow their own ratepayers to have a fair chance to vote.
Parker Water has developed a reputation for being out-of-touch with the fiscally responsible nature of its ratepayers – most notably they are currently constructing a $52 million luxury headquarters – including more than $1 million in new desks, tables, and sofas – while spending zero on acquiring new water supply.
This record, combined with the inability to even know the boundaries of its own District to conduct a fair election, bolsters the case for developing a long-range county-wide water plan, which includes an in-depth, verifiable, and transparent inventory of existing water resources.
That’s the way to bring real accountability to Parker Water & Sanitation District.
Recent Headlines
Parker Water board rejects motion to decertify election where 92 voters did not get ballots
During the June 8 Parker Water and Sanitation District board meeting, Kory Nelson encouraged board members to adopt a motion that would remedy the May 2 board of directors election results.
The motion failed in a 3-2 vote.
While addressing the room, Nelson said the board took an illegitimate oath of office last month.
“The residents of these 62 homes in Lincoln Creek Village who you disenfranchised are shocked, dismayed and quite frankly pissed off that you did this,” said Nelson.
According to Nelson, he went to many of the Lincoln Creek Village residents and collected signatures on a petition “demanding” they can vote in the election and that many would have voted for him.
“With the full board here tonight, I am asking anyone of these directors to adopt a formal written motion as their own and second it, to force a vote,” said Nelson.
…A judge has yet to officially rule on Nelson’s challenge to the election results.
Suncor’s “forever chemicals” pouring into metro Denver rivers spike again
Discharges of water tainted with PFAS “forever chemicals” from the Suncor refinery spiked again in May, an environmental watchdog group said, following high readings in November and January.
Suncor, which has used firefighting foam containing PFAS chemicals for years on the sprawling Commerce City property, reported May discharges into Sand Creek at 218 parts per trillion of variants of the chemicals known as PFOS, PFOA and PFNA, according to Earthjustice attorneys. The group monitors Suncor’s required reporting to state water quality regulators.
Immediately after leaving Suncor, the discharged water is carried by Sand Creek into the South Platte River as it flows through Adams County. The May discharge peaks were more than three times the PFAS limits proposed in a 2022 draft renewal permit written by state regulators to cover Suncor’s water discharges.
Aurora rolls back heightened restrictions on lawn watering
...Councilmember Alison Coombs responded to Jurinsky to say that the restrictions were introduced in response to the water shortage that the city was experiencing at the time and that one year of rainfall did not negate ongoing problems of water scarcity.
“I think it was the responsible and right decision to make at that time. And for the people who chose to turn on their irrigation systems … knowing that surcharges were coming forward, that was a choice they made,” Coombs said. “You’ve been living here just as long as I have. We’ve been in a drought for our entire lives.”
Mayor Mike Coffman also brought up how nearly half of the city’s water goes to outdoor irrigation, and the city doesn’t get that water back. He argued that man-made climate change was a reality and that the city needed to deal with the related problem of water scarcity by conserving.
The council voted unanimously to roll back the enhanced restrictions on lawn watering to allow watering as often as three times per week. Residents will still be limited to watering outside the hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. until Sept. 30.
