Water appropriation has been a long-standing issue in Colorado. In 1969, state legislators established the Water Rights Determination and Administration Act, which clarified and formulated procedures for all water-rights applications. Even before then, dating back to the state’s earliest settlers in the 1800s, water rights had been disputed throughout the arid state.
In 2019, the city of Brighton took a permanent step to ensure its water supply. The city constructed a $5.4 million augmentation station to help secure and preserve the precious commodity for the city’s 41,000 residents.
The augmentation station includes two raw water pump stations near a city-owned reservoir adjacent to the South Platte River, which is the city’s primary water source. The augmentation station will pump water into the reservoir, while the other will pump water back into the river.Â
By state law, “junior” water users on over-appropriated streams must offset depletions to users with “senior” water rights. Priority to water rights is based upon when they were acquired, and holders of senior rights have the first claim to withdraw water. Ownership of land is insufficient to convey a right to use water.
Dave Nettles, a Division Engineer with the Colorado Division of Water Resources River Division, said the concept behind augmentation is basically a trade of water. “It’s using a different water supply to replace the water the landowner consumes,” Nettles said.
Brighton’s primary water supply comes from alluvial groundwater wells, which have junior water rights. Therefore, the town must augment water so as to not impact senior water rights holders who also live along the river.
Historically, Brighton had been using temporary pumps to meet its augmentation requirements. “They were costly and inefficient,” said Jake Hebert, a civil engineer who worked on the project. “Construction of permanent infrastructure to facilitate pumping operations was necessary and beneficial to the city.”
Teams installed nine submersible pumps in underground wet wells to move the water, along with a gravity line. The improvements also included new spillways to direct water flow and slope protections to protect the pond’s banks from erosion.Â
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The augmentation station includes wet wells that are accessed by 14 floor doors manufactured by The BILCO Company. Access to the wells is required to pull the pumps for maintenance or future replacement.
The wet wells are accessed by 14 floor doors manufactured by The BILCO Company. The doors are manufactured from aluminum and feature type 316 hardware for corrosion resistance and years of dependable service. They also include engineered lift assistance for easy, one-hand operation, and automatic hold-open arms.
“The BILCO hatches were preferred by the operations department and are used to access the wet wells,” Hebert said. “They were installed directly above all of the submersible pumps to provide a way to pull the pumps from the wet wells for maintenance and future replacement.”
The augmentation station is particularly critical in Brighton, where the population is nearly double the number of residents just 20 years ago. Resources are strained, and the augmentation station will go a long way towards helping solve anenduring problem for Brighton and create a template that other communities can follow.
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