[HollyMutual-Announce] Important changes to irrigation schedule

[Holly Mutual Water Company]

All,

I've been tied up and out of town over the weekend, so I wasn't able to check Whitehall's operation. However I received a report on Sunday that there was no water pressure. This morning I checked at 6:15 am and just after 8:00 am and confirmed there was no water. I've contacted Colorado Water Well and they are planning to look into this today. Once I hear back I'll let everyone know.

Cheers,
Mark

On 9/5/25 16:53, Holly Mutual Water Company wrote:
> All:
>
> As you are likely aware, Holly Mutual has not been able to fully meet our water distribution schedule this summer. For the past two months, both wells have been pumping water 24 hours per day into their storage tanks. Unfortunately their production rates are lower than in past years, and thus neither has been able to reliably fill its tank by the time the distribution pumps turn on at midnight. While both wells continue to replenish their tanks during distribution hours, the demand for water has simply been too high for them to keep up. Eventually each tank runs dry and that well terminates its operation for the night.
>
> There are several reasons for this. First, the aquifer level decreases each year. The lower we drop the pumps to compensate, the less water they are able to produce. Second, this has been an unusually hot and dry summer, and the neighborhood's water usage has unsurprisingly increased. Unfortunately we have also been given anecdotal evidence that some properties are irrigating from Holly Mutual outside of their two allocated days per week. I have begged everyone to check their timers to make sure they are properly programmed, and many/most of you have gone out of your way to do so, including those who personally confirmed this to me. Thank you. It also didn't help that the Whitehall Well repairs and its recommissioning took far too long, and this placed an extra burden on the Piedmont Well, which is now running at about 30% of its typical production rate.
>
> Colorado Water Well (CWW) has been monitoring our water usage and verifying that both wells are functional. A few days ago they concluded that the Piedmont Well needs to be turned off early for this season. After 2+ irrigation seasons of running 24 hours/day, during most of which it ran alone, CWW believes we need to give Piedmont a rest and time to recover before next year's season starts. They also have concerns that its significant drop in production may be a sign of a problem. In 6-7 months, they will make additional measurements to determine whether Piedmont has recovered or if it requires further troubleshooting. I have given the go-ahead to idle Piedmont down for the season, and this afternoon CWW has been making the changes.
>
> When we reactivated the Whitehall Well earlier this summer, CWW recommended that it be programmed to provide the majority of our water capacity, in order to relieve the load on Piedmont. Whitehall is doing fine, but its production has always been lower than Piedmont's for the 26 years I've been on the board. Recently it too began running dry during distribution hours. It has also reached its limit. In addition to shutting Piedmont down for the year, our best remaining option is to reduce the time for Whitehall's daily water distribution.
>
> Thus effectively immediately, Holly Mutual will only be distributing water from 6:00 to 10:00 am each day, instead of our normal late summer schedule. Please adjust your irrigation timers accordingly, but please, please only water during the two mornings allocated to you. Overuse will simply mean no one gets any water. CWW is tabulating our water usage, because we are limited to a fixed amount per year by the s. Our hope is we can provide water through the end of September, but at this time we simply don't know if that's possible. I will advise this email list of any further changes the moment I know.
>
> I also can't predict what next year will bring, in terms of wells, weather, aquifer, and demand. We may be reaching the point where we will have to reduce our schedule hours, because the aquifer continues to deplete. Next year I believe we will be in a better position to understand where we are at.
>
> Thanks,
> Mark Derbyshire
>
>