Louviers water, wastewater to get $30M upgrade

BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

E orts to bring clean water to Louviers and to create a new wastewater treatment system along the U.S. Highway 85 corridor south of Highlands Ranch won the support of Douglas County’s elected leaders.

Commissioners who approved more than $30 million in federal funding for the projects.

Louviers, a small rural community, had received what’s called an “enforcement order” from the state health department due to elevated levels of radium in its drinking water.

“As part of (the) solution, this new water pipeline provides a renewable and safe drinking water supply to the community,” a planning document for the Louviers project says.

A separate project to build a new wastewater system along the highway corridor could also boost water quality in parts of Douglas County. e project is expected to improve water quality in Plum Creek and Chat eld Reservoir, both of which serve as drinking-water sources for Douglas County and Castle Rock. at new system will “make a modern, centralized wastewater system available to landowners currently reliant on septic systems,” Dan Avery, a Douglas County sta member, said at the April 25 county commissioners meeting. e system “will allow us to ensure all the water used in the region can be reused,” Mark Marlowe, director of Castle Rock Water Department, said at the meeting. e project will have a “huge impact” on the sustainability of the area’s Denver Basin aquifer, an underground source of water that’s important for Douglas County, according Marlowe.

What’s more, the area’s economy could see bene ts. One reason why the industrial corridor along Highway 85 hasn’t developed further is because the area lacks needed wastewater infrastructure, according to county sta .

Here’s a look at what both water projects would do in the coming years.

Clearing the drinking water

Residents in Louviers, an area along Highway 85, get their water generally from a community well, according to Avery.

Years of high levels of radium, a contaminant linked to the risk of cancer, in Louviers had pushed the county commissioners to approve an agreement with the Louviers Water and Sanitation District on April 11 for construction associated with a radium treatment system. e newer agreement between Douglas County and Dominion Water and Sanitation, another utility district in the region, that the county approved April 25 will provide funding to construct a renewable water line that extends from the nearby Sterling Ranch area to a water tank belonging to the Louviers water district. e water could be available in as soon as one to two years, based on the process to add the pipeline, according to the meeting discussion. e county will invest $4.5 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds for the project, Avery said. e act, often called ARPA, is a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill signed into law in March 2021 with a goal to support the economic and public health recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

“Douglas County and Dominion believe the system will reduce the reliance on non-renewable groundwater supplies,” the agreement says.

Dominion will work with Louviers to negotiate a water service agreement to provide an “initial emergency connection to renewable water supplies and (a) future permanent connection to renewable water supplies,” the document says.

“Douglas County believes that the system will stimulate economic development and growth within the corridor,” the document also says.

Taking care of wastewater e project to create a central- ized wastewater system along the Highway 85 corridor may come as a relief to areas that rely on septic systems to handle their waste. e “lack of wastewater treatment availability has limited the future development along the corridor and the need therefore exists to provide wastewater availability for sustainable and economic development,” a document in the project agreement says.

Under the plan, the wastewater collection and treatment system would extend from roughly the Louviers area as far south as available funding will allow. at could involve the nearby rural community of Sedalia, which doesn’t have central wastewater service.

“Much of the corridor, with the exception of Louviers, does not have central wastewater service,” Avery told Colorado Community Media.

Douglas County’s commissioners approved the agreement April 25 with the Town of Castle Rock to construct the wastewater system.

Douglas County and Castle Rock believe the system will improve water quality in Plum Creek and Chat eld Reservoir by “eliminating failing wastewater lagoon systems and, eventually, septic systems,” the agreement says.

(Lagoons are pond-like bodies of water or basins designed to receive and treat wastewater, according to an article on Purdue University’s website.)

Douglas County will invest $26.8 million in ARPA funds for the project, Avery said.