From hollymutual at hollymutual.com Mon Jun 8 08:48:04 2026 From: hollymutual at hollymutual.com (Holly Mutual Water Company) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2026 08:48:04 -0600 Subject: [HollyMutual-Announce] Unpredictable Well Problems In-Reply-To: References: <0c2d902b-3da2-41bc-aeb9-8470ba25fd2d@taom.com> <267613aa-2ee8-4d16-a857-bd25cfa13291@hollymutual.com> <1c759e0d-f8f5-4083-99d6-18498e9ea79e@hollymutual.com> <1f8b8692-85f5-40d6-abc2-84d29351ec85@hollymutual.com> <39791b79-6899-4707-bdb0-997de3d68ee6@hollymutual.com> <54bc0431-94e4-4e13-86e5-44c0e39206e7@hollymutual.com> <0fbda40c-953c-42b0-94e2-5a40f58de871@hollymutual.com> <938910e7-7fbd-40c2-bdc3-59f754d52ddf@hollymutual.com> <75e6a8fb-ffd7-4e80-8cb4-827dcb57da58@hollymutual.com> <606301ea-ded9-478c-aeca-3497c82b1fa1@hollymutual.com> Message-ID: <31fd9c86-afe9-48ab-a9e3-45f102fce3ad@hollymutual.com> All: This is simply a status update. Nothing has been fixed, yet, but we do have more data/information. Thanks to all of you sending in reports as to when we have water pressure and when we do not. All of these puzzle pieces help to troubleshoot what is going on. 1. The Whitehall Well is edging towards being operational, but isn't there yet. Colorado Water Well (CWW) hoped to have it activated last week, but now that hope is this week. 2. The Piedmont Well is working, sort of. From what I can tell, the well pump is working to fill the storage tank 24 hours per day. Based on numbers CWW gave me a week ago, it should nearly be full by 8:00 am, when our water distribution starts. Based on historical data from Dave Bomhoff, that should give us at least 3 hours of water distribution. However we're now running out of water between 9:00 - 9:30 am. I went to the well this morning at 7:45 am and measured the water level in the storage tank (what a lot of 'fun') - it was 35" above the bottom, while the top of the tank is roughly 100". To prevent damage to the distribution pump, we never completely empty the tank. From measurements I made last week, the safety shutdown happens around 10-15" of water. Regardless, we're not anywhere close to filling the tank, and thus we run out of water early. I have several suspicions as to why, and all has been reported to CWW. 3. After last year's middling distribution, Dave and I concluded that the Whitehall Well cannot supply all 48 properties at once, unlike Piedmont. There are several options to solve this problem, one of which might be trivial. With Dave gone, CWW and I are still sorting out whether the simple solution is even possible. Fundamentally the drought has placed unusual pressure on wells across the Front Range. Not surprisingly they are failing at a higher than normal rate. We're on CWW's list, but potable wells always take priority. This morning CWW's best estimate is they hope to break people free tomorrow to start sorting out our problems. I've advised them I will drop anything to participate when they're here, because I don't want minimal communication and multiple trips for them. As before, I will let everyone know through this list when there is actionable information. Thanks, Mark On 5/31/26 10:35, Holly Mutual Water Company wrote: > All: > > I've been sporadically monitoring the water pressure as distributed from the Holly Mutual wells. Yesterday (Saturday) I checked at 8:15 and 9:45 am, and the pressure on my property was fine. However I was subsequently alerted by another homeowner that they had no water pressure from 9:00 to 9:00 am yesterday. Today I started checking every 30 minutes, beginning at 8:00 am when the water distribution is set to start. The pressure was fine until I checked at 9:00 am, when there was no water pressure at all, and I didn't see any pressure at 9:30 and 10:00 am. > > At the moment we're still running with a single well, while the Whitehall Well is being repaired. On the surface that means we only have half of our total capacity. But I factored that in by setting a very short distribution period. What is particularly concerning is sometimes we're getting water and at other times not, and that appears entirely unpredictable. > > We have seen this type in the past. It could be that the well and distribution pump timers are no longer in sync. It also could be caused by a leak in someone's irrigation system or even the main pipeline. Please be on the lookout for standing or streaming water in your yard or into the drainage ditches. > > However the most common cause of this in the past has been overuse, that is homeowner(s) irrigating beyond the two days per week they are assigned. We realize we're likely in a drought, we're well behind on precipitation for this year, and Holly Mutual's distribution hours are currently very restricted. Regardless, our irrigation schedule is entirely dependent on the honor system and we have virtually no excess capacity beyond what we publish. If just one or two properties irrigate outside of their assigned days, our distribution system invariably collapses and no one gets any water. Please check your irrigation timers against the daily schedule at: > > http://www.hollymutual.com/WateringSchedule.pdf > > Until further notice you should assume we are not able to distribute water. Colorado Water Well has been contacted and I will advise this list when I know more. > > Thanks, > Mark > >