Wissler Ranch Water Usage Policy
Approved on July 19, 2006 by the Wissler Ranch HOA Board of Directors
In recognition that we live in an area where long term drought has taxed natural water resources and that the Wissler Ranch Board of Directors feels compelled to encourage and support
conservation efforts of those natural resources, the following Water Policy for all homeowners of Wissler Ranch is approved:
- All water readings shall be from internal water meters and reported to the Water Committee in a timely fashion every November. The Water Committee encourages the reporting of these readings by e-mail but will also accept letters or phone calls as specified in the annual meeting notice. These readings will be combined and reported to the proper authorities in the county and state using approved forms as required in the Wissler Ranch Covenants.
- Internal water readings for each home owner in Wissler Ranch will depend on self readings, that is, the home owner is responsible to report the readings to the Water Committee. Upon the sale of a home, an internal water meter reading will be obtained by a member of the Water Committee or their agent and any discrepancies to prior reported values will be reconciled prior to the HOA approving and/or release closing statements.
- The home owner has the responsibility to periodically check water meters to make certain they are functional. Broken water meters are the responsibility of the home owner to repair and shall not eliminate the requirement for a home owner to report annual water usage values. A violation of this policy will be a matter for the Covenants Committee to review and make a recommendation to the HOA Board of Directors. When a water meter is replaced, it is required that the Water Committee be notified so that proper estimates can be made.
- Adherence to Water Deed. All home owners of Wissler Ranch have applied for and been granted a water deed for their property at the time of purchase. That deed gives us specific rights to use water from the aquifer and specifies an allotment of 122,194 gallons of water per household or lot per annum. Each home owner should strive to live within those limits and is encouraged to practice easily achievable water conservation efforts in order to stay within that annual usage rate. Examples include water restrictors on showers and faucets, toilets that use less than 1.6 gallons of water per flush, loading dishwashers and clothes washers fully, repairing leaks in a timely fashion, etc. There are excellent water conservations sites on the web. As an example, the Colorado Springs Utilities Company maintains such a site at www.csu.org and the homeowner is encouraged to visit these sites for ideas.
- Homeowners desiring to build and maintain a water feature on their property, such as a swimming pool, pond, or spa of similar capacity, shall use an outside source of water for this purpose, that is, not use water from the Wissler Ranch wells. Several local suppliers can deliver potable water for these purposes. Homeowners will be required to submit a copy of the receipt from the purchase of water from an outside source to the water committee during the Wissler Ranch annual water reading period in November.
- In the event that a home owner cannot achieve the annual water usage rate per house and goes over the annual allotment, a sliding scale penalty for the use of extra water shall be imposed on the homeowner. This payment shall be paid to the Wissler Ranch Home Owner Association and be placed in an account to be used for improvements to the Wissler Ranch general use property or special projects (entrance improvements, mail box area improvements, etc.) as the Board of Directors sees fit.
- The sliding scale penalty shall follow general guidelines as established in several other communities in proximity to Wissler Ranch and in Colorado Springs. The sliding scale shall take into account the total usage of all Wissler Ranch home sites as compared to the total allotment for all of Wissler Ranch (16,742,224 gallons per annum) and shall encourage the homeowner to apply more aggressive conservation efforts to reduce the total amount of water usage for the offender as the penalty will be higher the more water that is used above the allotment.
- In addition to the penalty outlined above, the homeowner shall be asked to explain the higher rate of water usage and present to the board a plan to reduce the water usage and achieve compliance to the allotment. Fines will not be levied until 1/2007.
- Details of the penalty. (Penalty rate is linked to Colorado Springs Utility as of 1/2006 and can be raised by board approval if CSU raises their rates) :
| Common Usage as % of Total |
Less than 74% |
75% to 94% |
95% or greater |
| Penalty per gallon over allotment |
$0.0033 |
$0.0132 |
$0.033 |
Example. If the entire Wissler Ranch water usage is 60% of the total allotment, a home owner going over an allocation by 10,000 gallons would face a penalty of $33. If the total usage for all of Wissler Ranch is at say 78% of the total, a homeowner going over the allotment by the same 10,000 gallons would face a penalty of $132 instead. As we build all available lots and Wissler Ranch water usage is at 96%, then the penalty for the same 10,000 gallons overuse would be $330.
- Non-payment of any penalties shall be handled like any other offense as specified in the Wissler Ranch covenants and appropriate board action shall be taken, including but not limited to, reconciliation at the time of a home sale as stated above or other legal action.
Note: As home owners in the Wissler Ranch community, our water usage is governed by the rules and regulations enacted by the Colorado Division of Water Resources. Failure of the association or owners to comply with these terms may result in an order from the Division Engineer's office to curtail or eliminate the pumping of the owners' well.
