Water, Water, Water!
- HOA President
- Mar 27, 2015
- 3 min read
One of the members of our Architectural Control Committee, Gery Noonan, made the effort and took the time to consult with an attorney friend who has worked on water issues for a long time. Gery provided the HOA board with information we thought was important to pass along to every community member through the website.
A big thanks to Gery for getting this information together regarding the all important issue of water and water rights for our community.
Information from Gery Noonan follows:
Crest View homeowners have long been concerned about water in our subdivision. With Parker Water drilling all around us and the levels in our wells dropping, we are all concerned about our wells and what rights we have to water under our property.
Per our last meeting, I’ve done some research on water rights and adjudication of water rights for our subdivision. In 2006 a group of homeowners in the subdivision adjudicated their water rights and set a precedent with the water board that really helps protect all our rights. If you read the attached letter* from their attorneys , Petrock and Fendel, you will see their recommendation that it is not necessary to adjudicate the older wells as it may well lessen the rights we have with those wells. This adjudication was done before the water court stopped letting groups get together and adjudicate. According to my attorney, it could cost $3,000-$5,000 per lot to adjudicate and the expense would be wasted as we would not gain any more rights and might possibly lose some rights. Because our wells were here before many of the newer Parker Water wells, our rights are stronger than Parker’s due to the way western water law is written. I also attached a list of subdivisions in Douglas County and their water use limitations per the Office of the State Engineer, Division of Water Resources. This just shows that we have access to both the Upper and Lower Dawson aquafers.
My attorney did suggest that each homeowner in our subdivision make sure that their well is in their name. I have enclosed a link to their form GWS-11, change of ownership form as well as a link to the well permit search site to see who is listed as the owner of the well on each lot. If you don’t have your well permit number, I will try to look them all up and bring that information to the annual HOA meeting in June
To locate your well if you don’t have a copy of your permit, go to http://water.state.co.us/Home/Pages/default.aspx . Click on Aqua Map. Enter the location of Section 31, Township 6S Range 65 W and hit the quick zoom button below the location. Add Roads and Well applications on the Data Display and when you put your pointer on your well, the name it is listed under and permit number shows under Details in the bottom right corner.
To see details on your permit, go to
Change of ownership form and instructions
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*Gery referenced a PDF document he created that this website's blog would not accept as an attachment. As an alternative, I broke the PDF document into separate pages and uploaded it to the TinyPic website. The following links are posted for each page of the 4 page PDF document Gery referenced and they will take you to a web address for each page. I have highlighted Crest View's information on page 4. ~ Roger Branch, HOA President
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