Sterling Ranch lands water-pilot program

This high-tech climate station has been installed in Sterling Ranch in Douglas County.

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Sterling Ranch, a proposed community south of Chatfield Reservoir, with designs to be one of the most water-efficient communities in the country, has the opportunity to take a “giant step” in saving even more water, as the first development in a state pilot program.

The Colorado Water Conservation Board voted unanimously on Wednesday to name the 3,400-acre Sterling Ranch as the state’s first rainwater harvesting pilot project.

Sterling Ranch’s innovative water conservation plan currently calls for using just one-third the water traditionally required in Douglas County—without relying on rainwater collection. With the rainwater pilot designation, Sterling Ranch will develop a new water source to be used for outside irrigation that could result in even more water supply savings.

“We are very excited about this pilot project,” said Geoff Blakeslee, chairman of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, at the board meeting held in Salida.

Rainwater can meet half of demand

Sterling Ranch estimates that at least half of the community’s outdoor irrigation demand can be met by capturing rainwater from storm drainage systems and rooftops in underground storage tanks or retention ponds. After being collected, it can be recycled to water the community’s lawns, gardens and open space.

“This is a giant leap forward for water conservation,” said Harold Smethills, Sterling Ranch managing director. “It combines forward-thinking rainwater harvesting with Sterling Ranch’s vision for innovative water conservation. This has been done effectively in many other states and it’s time to put this water supply to use in Colorado as well.”

Smethills and his family made water conservation a top priority for Sterling Ranch from the start. During a decade of planning, the family grew passionate about the possibility of incorporating rainwater harvesting into their planned water conservation practices. Sterling Ranch was a key supporter of HB 1129, signed by Gov. Ritter in June, 2009, that permits 10 pilot residential developments to use rainwater collection systems.

Smethills said the water board was impressed this was part of Sterling Ranch’s overall water conservation program. “Rain-water harvesting makes a lot of sense as a supplement to an overall water conservation program,” he said. “It does not make economic sense unless you do it without an overall plan. There are a lot less expensive ways to conserve water than rainwater harvesting. But once you go through all the other things like drip irrigation, reducing bluegrass – that is, thinking of bluegrass as a throw carpet instead of a rug – and other things, rain water harvesting makes a lot of sense.”

Still, the impact of harvesting rain water is great, he said.

Rainwater harvesting means fewer dams

“You get three benefits,” Smethills said. “First, it is a very predictable, very reliant water supply. No. 2, it saves you the cost of buying water, building dams, building treatment plans, building miles of pipe and plumbing and all of other things needed. Imagine the impact of not having to build another dam or giant water storage facilities? And the third thing is that it increases the way you protect your rivers and your streams. The very things we do not want in our drinking water are phosphates and nitrates. But these are things that plants absolutely love.”

Under the program, he said they will collect 10 years of data. Long before the next decade, however, expects other proposed communities to be on board, also collecting data. “After the state has all of the data, it can decide where it wants to go from there,” he said.

Water laws complicated

Smethills said Colorado water law does not currently allow developed properties to harvest rain water, although he said that is common in many cities in other Western and Southwestern states. “Our water belongs to someone else,” he said. “You know, Colorado did very well for thousands of years by harvesting rainwater. But then we had some very bad cases that made for some very bad laws.’

And he said that while creating the program involved “some bare-knuckle brawls,’ behind-the-scenes, once legislators reached consensus on it, it was smooth-sailing for the law and getting Sterling Ranch into the pilot program.

“It was unanimous,” he said. “When have we ever seen a unanimous vote, without any dissent, from Republicans, Democrats, rural and urban lawmakers?’

“Water precious resource”

“Sterling Ranch is an ideal pilot site,” said state Sen. Ted Harvey, one of the bill’s sponsors. “It’s the largest undeveloped parcel in water-challenged Douglas County, and its founders are committed to cutting-edge conservation methods to save Colorado’s most precious resource.”

A 2007 study commissioned by the water conservation board showed that on average in northwest Douglas County just 3 percent of annual rainwater actually reaches a stream. Ninety-seven percent either evaporates or is used by vegetation.

As part of the pilot project, Sterling Ranch’s data collection will measure the potential of rainwater harvesting as a supplemental water supply and will explore how the water supply could be developed without affecting senior water rights.

Sterling Ranch model for future developments

“We hope Sterling Ranch will be a model for future developments in Colorado by pairing rainwater harvesting with outdoor demand management to save more water than traditional conservation methods,” said Smethills. “Rainwater collection is a natural opportunity that fits with our vision and the community’s way of life.”

Sterling Ranch is a proposed community in northwestern Douglas County that will create more than 4,000 permanent jobs at build-out, 1,000 construction jobs annually for 20 years, and a $411 million economic impact at completion. For more information, go to www.sterlingranchcolorado.com.

Littleton annexation washed up

One thing it will not do is re-think the move to annex Sterling Ranch to Littleton. Some Littleon council members feared that the annexation would mean that current Littleton residents to subsidize and strain water and other infrastructure costs, as Sterling Ranch grew.

“I don’t know how water ever became an issue,” he said. “We never asked to be annexed by Littleton. We were asked to present how we could be help Littleton economically. We were specifically told not to bring up water, and just focus on economic issues. We thought there were some things that economically would be mutually beneficial for us and the city of Littleton, such as sharing their sewer treatment plant, while bringing in much needed tax dollars to the city. I see no reason to re-visit annexation to Littleton. We are very happy in Douglas County.’

He said many home builders would like to have lots available by no later than 2012 when demand is expected to be much stronger than today for the type of sustainable housing planned at Sterling Ranch. Indeed, he said demand even exists today, despite the depressed housing market. “We don’t know if we can be ready by 2012, but that is our hope and goal.”