Privately Owned Lateral Systems and Owner Responsibilities

Over eighty percent of the District’s customers are served through privately owned, shared pipelines that are connected to the District’s main pipeline. We refer to these private shared lines as “laterals”. The laterals are owned and managed by an either an organization, as tenants in common, or an individual; usually the organization is a homeowners association, but it could also be a corporation or a partnership.

For a number of reasons,-- to facilitate arranging for emergency repairs, to provide for financing of repairs and improvements, to set policy for any proposed new taps on a lateral -- it is highly desirable for a lateral to be owned by a single ownership entity, formed by agreement of the District tap-owners served by the lateral. If you are served by a lateral without a formal ownership organization and desire information about how to form one, contact the District for further information.

The District’s 1988 Service Plan provided for the ownership and maintenance of the laterals to be a continuing responsibility of the individual users served by the respective laterals. The District undertakes no financial or other liability for maintaining or repairing any privately owned component of its public water system. According to the District’s Policies Rules and Regulations, lateral owners have these specific responsibilities:

• Protect the integrity of the public water system by maintaining the lines and their
  connection to the Main in good repair at all times
• Submit an annual registration report
• Before going out for bid, obtain District approval of plans to replace or refurbish lateral
  lines
• Comply with prescribed procedures for reporting and repair of leaks

We’d like to remind current Officers, Directors of lateral representatives to submit their annual registration report.

Below is a Question and Answer (Q&A) format to further assist customers and others in understanding this unique feature of the Lookout Mountain Water District.

Q: If I have no water at my house, who should I call and what will they do?

A: Call 303-526-2025 (District Office) or 303-688-7072 (24 Hour Answering Service).
The Office can help you identify whether this is specific to your house or is due to an outage from a break or repair. The Answering Service will take a message and report the problem to Operations. Staff will work together until the problem is identified and report back to the customer as to the problem and the proposed solution.

Q: If I discover a leak or water line break, who should I call?

A: If the leak or break is inside your house, on your property, or emerging from part of your private service line, call a plumber. The greater the water loss and the resulting damage, the sooner you should take action. Homeowners are responsible for service lines and plumbing.

If the break or leak is in or near the street or in a common area, if possible make an assessment—is a lot of water being lost, is it causing any damage or is it a hazard? If yes, call 303-688-7072 (24 Hour Answering Service) to report it as soon as possible. If it is not a serious problem, call 303-526-2025 (District Office). Staff will determine what action needs to be taken. In some cases the problem will be referred to the owners of the lateral.

Q: Is it true that water lines (other than private service lines) in a lateral must be maintained by the owners of the lateral, for example, the Homeowners Association? This seems unusual, why is this?

A: Yes, paragraphs above the Q&A section for further information. This arrangement came to be based on the historical context at the time the District formed. Jefferson County approved the formation of the District based on the Service Plan, which provides for this separation of ownership and responsibility.

Q: Why is my water sometimes off even though there is no break close to my house?

A: Repairs or breaks even far away can affect some houses, depending on the location of the house within the gravity fed system and how much water is being consumed by all customers from the pipelines during the outage. It also depends on whether the break is on the main line or another lateral, the layout of the lines, and whether a line can be fed from more than one direction. There are certain areas in the system that rarely experience outages and others that are affected more frequently. Also, water could be off due to a shut-off of your service for various reasons. See the first Q&A above for further information.

Q: Who owns the water treatment facility?

A: LMWD is a Special District as governed by Title 32 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. In terms of a system it is tap owners and property owners included in the District’s boundaries, the Board of Directors, and the contractors and consultants who provide operation and management. Its assets include the rights to stored water within the reservoirs of the Beaver Brook Watershed, the treatment facility, and components of the distribution system, such as the tank, main pipeline, and meters. The Board of Directors meets on a monthly basis and meetings are open to the public. Please see other parts of the website for more information: www.lookoutmountainwaterdistrict.org

Q: Where can I get billing questions answered?

A: Please see other parts of the website for more information about rates, fees, billing and collection policy, etc.: www.lookoutmountainwaterdistrict.org
If you have a specific question about your bill call 303-526-2025 (District Office).



Lookout Mountain Crest Homeowners Association Water Line Improvement Project Complete

The nearly 50 year old lateral distribution system previously serving 16 homeowners within the Lookout Mountain Crest Homeowners Association (LMC HOA) had incurred breaks, water loss and risk of contamination. Of particular concern was the risk of contamination from leachate from septic systems in the neighborhood. Other concerns included extreme pressure fluctuations, issues with a dead-end line, and lack of fire hydrants.

Pressure fluctuations can cause cross-contamination within the system. A dead end line can cause water quality problems associated with aging water, loss of chlorine residuals and the formation of disinfection by-products. Also, all households would have been without water during repairs for a leak or break.

The project has rerouted the line from the back of private lots into the commonly owned roads within the subdivision. The line was looped with the main water line so that it forms an interconnected system. The 1 ¼ inch galvanized steel pipe was replaced with 6 and 8 inch C-900 PVC pipe. Seven fire hydrants were installed for fire suppression.

To accomplish this project, the LMC HOA found a source of funding, for which the Lookout Mountain Water District was eligible to apply (Division of Local Affairs). The LMC HOA hired an attorney to work with the District to determine how to structure the debt such that the loan was an obligation of only the sixteen members of the LMC HOA and not of LMWD; the result was the creation of LMWD Subdistrict A. The members of Subdistrict A (16 households) voted to approve the project and associated debt on May 4, 2004 in a TABOR election.

Now that construction has been completed and approved, the line has been transferred to LMWD for management and ownership. Congratulations to LMC HOA for working so hard to accomplish this line installation. It will benefit these households and homes for many years to come.