The minimum amount it would cost Wiggins to get Quality Water would be $8.2 million. The minimum for C-BT water would be $7.7 million, [Wiggins Town Administrator Bill Rogers] said, basing his numbers on what Quality Water and Fort Morgan told the Wiggins Town Council. Wiggins might not be able to even borrow $6 million, Rogers said. The only option that might be in the range the town can borrow is what he is calling the "Wiggins Project," which is a plan to buy 10 shares of Weldon Valley Ditch Co. water for augmentation and to pump that amount of water out of a well about eight miles from Wiggins, north of the Empire Reservoir and near the South Platte River, he said. The Wiggins Project cost is estimated at a little over $4 million. "I think the decision has already been made," Rogers said.
That did not mean the council has made a decision, but that the Wiggins Project is the only option the town can afford. The Wiggins council still has more than a month to decide on the 10 shares of water. A water attorney and water engineer Brent Nation are looking at whether or not the Wiggins Project would actually fill the needs of the town...
The Wiggins Project is not simple and it could mean searching for even more water than the 10 shares of Weldon Valley water, Rogers said. Buying 10 shares of water will not necessarily meet the need for Wiggins, because the town cannot expect to receive the entire amount of water. It can only access the amount of water the farm has historically used for crops, he said. That could be only 120 acre-feet, or about half of what the town needs, Rogers said. Former Wiggins Mayor Ron Uhrick said that number was based on 60 percent of the total water, but earlier quotes said only 40 percent...
Given the amount of water, the town would require some kind of mix of using current water and the Weldon Valley water or buy more. The price of buying more water is included in the estimate for the Wiggins Project, he said. Grants are not given for buying water, so the town cannot receive any help for that part of the cost, Rogers said. Some grants do help with building infrastructure, he said. One thing that is good about the Weldon Valley water, Rogers said, is that it has high senior water rights, which means it is unlikely to be cut off if there is a call on the river. "There would be other towns without water before we would," he said. A limit on the amount of water that can be pumped was mentioned, but Nation said the only limit on how much water can be pumped is the augmentation plan. The difficulties having augmentation plans approved, which were encountered by the Orphan Wells of Wiggins and the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, were also mentioned. It has taken years for approval. "How long is it going to be to get Wiggins approved?" Uhrick asked. The situations with the agricultural use and municipal use are not the same, Nation said. The ag districts sometimes delay the court date in order to pay all the fees involved, but Wiggins would be able to get on the court calendar quickly, he said. "Court dates are opening up all the time," Nation said. Time becomes available when there are delays or changes in other cases. Nation did say that it might cost more than the $100,000 estimated for the project's legal costs, depending on any objectors who might be fighting the change from ag water to municipal water...
Part of the cost is building an eight-mile, 12-inch to 14-inch pipeline, estimated at $1.69 million, although that is a high projection, Rogers said. That may not seem high for long, though, because the cost of pipeline becomes more expensive every week, he said. There was some question about how much it would cost to buy right of way for the pipeline between the well and the town. Public right of way can be had for free along Highway 144 and Highway 34 from the Colorado Department of Transportation, and the town can probably buy what it needs from private owners for $10,000, Rogers said. Uhrick said he's talked to officials of the Bijou-Kiowa Water District, who've told him that any water the town buys from any source will have to be treated, so it might be better to start with treating the water the town owns already. They also said the town should stay away from augmentation in the current atmosphere of water law. "We're better off to stay within the district," he said.