Design work is now underway for the Loop water project to help address decreasing groundwater in El Paso County

The engineering design phase has started for a major water project in El Paso County known as the Loop, which aims to take treated and recycled water from the south end of the county and move it north via ditches and pipelines.

The project was initially proposed several years ago as a way of filling increasing demand from the region's population growth, made worse by depleting community and municipal wells in the Denver Basin. That's the main groundwater aquifer that serves the northern part of El Paso County.

The idea is for water managers to use the system, which also includes treatment facilities and reservoirs along with pipelines and ditches, to recapture groundwater that originated in their wells. This is water used by their customers, that currently gets treated and ends up flowing downstream in Monument and Fountain creeks and eventually into the Arkansas River.

The Loop would also allow water managers to move other surface water north into their systems that they already own the rights to, but can’t yet access.

Jessie Shaffer manages the Woodmoor Water and Sanitation District. It’s one of three agencies participating in the Loop Authority and collaborating on the estimated $200 million project, a price tag that could look a lot different when construction begins. He said there may be some grant money available to help pay for it.

“But primarily, the funding sources are going to be classical government funding sources, the municipal bond market. There's also a federal low-interest loan program,” he said.

Contractors have recently begun the engineering plans for the system. Shaffer says they hope to start construction in a couple of years and aim for completion as soon as 2030.

Woodmoor, the Town of Monument and Donala Water and Sanitation District are currently the key players in the Loop. Donala serves the Gleneagle development and several others east of the U.S. Air Force Academy.

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Shaffer said it is possible that other water utilities might join the project at some point in time, especially as the Denver Basin wells become less productive.

“Knowing where we’re headed, we're going to make sure that we have the pipeline amply sized,” he said. “So that the people that we're talking to today, as well as some number of future customers, could also be included.”

Cherokee Metropolitan District was originally involved in the Loop project, too, but recently pulled out of participating. Kevin Brown is the general manager at the district located near the eastern side of Colorado Springs. He said they’d been interested in the Loop because of the improved access to renewable water.

However, they’ve also been working on a separate plan to use water from a different source for nearly two decades. That involved a legal work that was recently finalized.

“Now we don't need the renewable water as much as we used to,” he said. “Leaving the Loop and leaving that renewable water on the table was still a very difficult decision. But with where we stand now versus where we stood a few years ago, it made sense.”

Additionally, Brown said Cherokee Metropolitan District has other capital improvement projects it needs to invest in, and that was also part of the decision to withdraw.

Some of Cherokee’s pipeline infrastructure could still be used as part of the Loop, though. Shaffer said they are in talks with Cherokee about how to make that happen, and Brown confirmed that.

“It's a great opportunity for a regional water system to deliver renewable water to folks that may not have access to it,” Brown said. “We definitely want to continue to work with them in the places where it makes sense, even though we're not a full member and wouldn't be receiving water from the Loop. They’re a regional water system made up of peer utilities and there's lots of opportunities for us to continue to work together, even as a non-member.”

Part of the plans underway include designs for an advanced water treatment facility located near the Callahan Reservoir south of Colorado Springs, along with pipelines and pump stations, according to Shaffer. They'll also need to work up plans for expanding the reservoir.

When asked what the costs to individual customers might eventually be, Shaffer said it's difficult to say at this time. “Every entity member agency is running those analyses for themselves. So it's not really an estimate of, hey, here's what the cost is going to be to everybody."

The engineering design is a phased process, Shaffer said, with stopping points at 30, 60 and 90 percent completion to ensure it is proceeding appropriately and addresses any necessary modifications or changes. He expects the first of these check-ins to happen this fall.