September 10, 2026

 

From shared pipelines to water rentals, LTWD is finding new ways to serve customers efficiently and reliably. 

Building and maintaining a water system is expensive, and it keeps getting more expensive. Nationally, the cost of labor and materials for construction projects has been climbing faster than general inflation for several years running, which means every capital project has to work harder to justify its price tag. Water-specific cost data is hard to come by, but other regional infrastructure benchmarks tell a similar story: Colorado's highway construction cost index has more than doubled since 2010, including a 26 percent single-year jump in 2022 alone.  

At Little Thompson Water District (LTWD), one of the ways we manage that reality is simple: when a project can benefit more than one community, we look for partners. Across several major initiatives underway right now, LTWD is teaming up with neighboring water providers, ditch companies and farming communities to share costs and deliver more value to you. None of these projects exist in a vacuum. Growth, aging infrastructure and tightening water supplies affect every water provider along the Front Range, and providers that plan ahead together tend to come out stronger than those that go it alone. 

Sharing the Load on Joint Infrastructure 

Not every pipe or facility LTWD relies on belongs to LTWD alone. For years, LTWD has partnered with Central Weld County Water District on shared infrastructure. That partnership dates back to 1967, when the two districts agreed to jointly operate a shared water treatment plant, an arrangement formalized in 1994 with the creation of the Carter Lake Filter Plant Authority. It has since grown to include the 24-inch and 42-inch transmission lines, built jointly beginning in 1998, and Dry Creek Reservoir, completed in 2008 with support from a 2005 Colorado Water Conservation Board loan, secured after the 2002 drought underscored the need for additional storage. Splitting the cost of building and maintaining this large-scale infrastructure means both districts get the capacity and redundancy they need without either one shouldering the full expense alone. 

That same partnership carries through to treatment. Carter Lake Filter Plant, which LTWD and Central Weld jointly own and operate, is in the middle of a major expansion that will grow its treatment capacity from 50 million gallons per day to 72 million gallons per day, while also giving the plant more flexibility in the raw water quality it can treat. A new pretreatment system is part of that upgrade: it will handle chemical treatment in a separate building before water reaches the plant's membranes and filters, reducing how often that equipment needs to be taken offline for cleaning and helping the plant deliver a more consistent flow of treated water. The project carries a total cost of roughly $73 million, split evenly between the two districts. LTWD has already bonded $15 million toward its share, with the remainder to be funded through capital reserves and additional bonding as needed. Construction is underway and expected to continue over the next three years. Central Weld is also sharing costs with LTWD on repainting the plant's 5-million-gallon steel tank and rehabilitating filter beds at the South Plant. On paper, these look like routine maintenance and upgrade projects. In practice, they are a good example of what a long-term partnership makes possible: two districts tackling bigger, more resilient infrastructure together than either could easily justify funding on its own. 

A New Kind of Partnership: Hicks Legacy Regional Water Authority 

 LTWD is also part of a growing group of regional water providers working toward the future Hicks Legacy Regional Water Authority, a partnership that would deliver a shared treatment plant tying into the existing 42-inch joint waterline. It is still early days: engineering and water quality work is underway now, laying the groundwork before the Authority is formally established, with the goal of narrowing treatment options to three finalists and an engineer's recommendation expected as soon as next spring. The group of interested water providers have retained an attorney to help establish the governing contract between member entities and an engineer to evaluate treatment options and make recommendations. What is already clear is the intent behind it: rather than each water provider building and operating its own standalone treatment facility, the authority is designed to let multiple communities share one plant, spreading construction and long-term operating costs across a broader customer base. 

Putting Available Water To Work for Our Agricultural Neighbors

Regional collaboration does not only happen through pipes and treatment plants. It also happens through water itself. Despite ongoing drought conditions across the region, careful management and strong conservation from our customers, combined with an 80 percent spring quota from Northern Water, allowed LTWD to end the 2024-2025 water year with additional raw water available for temporary use. Drawing on our long history of supporting the agricultural community, LTWD rented approximately 2,500 acre-feet to nearby farming operations and 400 acre-feet to the Town of Johnstown, helping support local agriculture and the broader community during a particularly dry stretch. LTWD continues to prioritize this year’s available water for future supply, given ongoing concerns about a multi-year drought and the potential for lower fall quotas ahead. Other Colorado water districts have similar rental programs for their agricultural neighbors, and LTWD is glad to be able to provide that same kind of support when conditions allow. It is a reminder that good water management is not only about what LTWD builds. It is also about thoughtfully managing the resources available to us, planning for the future and finding opportunities to support our community when the year allows. 

What This Means for You 

Every one of these partnerships comes back to the same goal: being efficient with your dollars while building a more resilient water supply. Sharing infrastructure costs with Central Weld keeps large projects more affordable than building alone. Working through the Hicks Legacy Regional Water Authority spreads the cost and risk of new treatment capacity across multiple communities instead of one. And renting surplus water to farming neighbors turns a resource LTWD is not currently using into support for the broader region, without costing our customers anything. 

LTWD is also looking for ways to make more of our water supply fully usable, so it goes further for the customers who depend on it. It all comes back to the same commitment: manage this resource wisely, plan ahead, and never assume LTWD has to solve every challenge alone. Regional partnerships help us do more with the dollars you already trust us with, today and for years to come.