FAQs

ANSWER: Call (303) 526-2025 (District Office) or (720) 287-0605 (24-hour line for Operations Contractor, ORC; press "1" for emergency).
The office can help you identify whether this is specific to your house or is due to an outage from a break or repair. If a person doesn't answer the emergency line at ORC, leave a message reporting the problem. Operations staff will work together until the problem is identified and report back to the customer as to the problem and the proposed solution. If the outage is due to a line break, the solution may require that the lateral organization arranges for a repair on the private line or that the homeowner repairs the private line (see below). See the Outages, Disruptions, Pressure Variations, and Particulates section for additional information.

ANSWER:  If the leak or break is inside your house, on your property, or emerging from part of your private service line, call a plumber and/or use your inside shut-off valve.  The greater the water loss and the resulting damage, the sooner you should take action. Homeowners are responsible for service lines and indoor 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 (720) 287-0605 (24-hour line for Operations Contractor, ORC; press "1" for emergency) to report it as soon as possible. Try to identify the location with the closest street address and other description (for example, “in the ditch about 400 feet west of 205 Paradise Road driveway, on the south side of the road"). If it is not a serious problem, call (303) 526-2025 (District Office). Please provide your name and telephone number or email address so we can reach you. Staff will determine what action needs to be taken. In some cases, the problem will be referred to the owners of the lateral.

ANSWER:
What is normal usage?  Some estimate that a typical family of 4 in the U.S. uses between 50 and 100 gallons of water per day, and if you add outdoor irrigation, horse/livestock, other outdoor uses, humidifiers, or swamp coolers, it can be 200–400 gallons per day – or more.

What if my usage seems higher than normal?  If your usage increased when compared with the past, check with all people in your house and consider these factors:

• Did you have guests or increase the size of your household?
• Did you do any outside water, such as watering trees or grass?
• Could your irrigation system have a leak?
• Was a hose or other watering device left on?
• Did you receive a Leak Notice Letter from the District?
• Have you checked your toilets, water heater and other plumbing?
• Did you use water for unusual projects (pressure washing, extra cleaning, hot tub or pool filling, car washing, construction-related work etc.)?

What if my bill seems higher than normal?

• Do you have a previous unpaid balance?
• Was your payment made or sent after the due date?
• Did you use more water than you normally do during this billing cycle?
• Your bill shows usage in thousands of gallons—each 1,000-gallon tier has a different rate applied and each tier has a higher rate.

ANSWER:  Yes. 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. It is important for a tap owner on a lateral to be aware of his or her responsibilities and how they will be shared with the HOA or other organization. See Utility Notification for additional information.

ANSWER:  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.

ANSWER:  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 monthly, and meetings are open to the public. Please see other parts of the website for more information.

ANSWER:  Please see other parts of the website for more information about rates, fees, billing, and collection policies. If you have a specific question about your bill, email info@lookoutmountainwaterdistrict.org or call the District office at (303) 526-2025.

ANSWER:  Please see the leak allowance procedure in the Billing and Water Rates & Fees section.

ANSWER:  No. All the District’s authorized taps have been issued, so the District no longer has taps for sale. To protect the water supply for the authorized active and inactive taps already in existence, and due to the physical and legal water supply constraints, new taps have not been sold and are not planned to be sold to the public.

Several taps are presently authorized inactive/unconnected. These taps are suitable for connecting to property in need of a public water supply. From time to time, such tap owners offer their inactive taps for sale. The District does not act as a broker for such taps. Pursuant to Statute, the District’s tap owner and customer lists are not subject to public disclosure and, accordingly, the District does not divulge the names of inactive tap owners to inquiring parties. However, upon request of the tap owner, the District will make known to inquirers the availability of a tap for sale. Transfers of inactive tap are subject to fees, and inactive taps are also subject to monthly charges.

ANSWER:  For a list of interested buyers and sellers, see the Inactive Taps page. If you would like to add your email address as either a buyer or seller, please email your request to the LMWD Office Manager. 

ANSWER:  The District has 563 authorized taps. Approximately 500 are active and 58 are inactive. Of the 58 inactive taps, 42 are presently assigned to property and 16 are unassigned. 95% of all taps provide residential service. About 2.5% of taps are owned by government agencies (e.g., fire or ambulance districts, school districts, Jefferson County, or Denver Mountain Parks) and 2.5% by other non-residential (e.g., communications/tower facilities, churches, or retail/restaurants).

ANSWER:  Owners are responsible for the service line and the lateral, if applicable, up to the point where it connects to the District main. If your service line attaches to a lateral, then the homeowner would also be responsible for their relative share based on ownership in the Lateral. Service lines and laterals are both private. The District only maintains the main water line. It is good to know where your lines and laterals are located, because there have been instances where a contractor for other utilities such as telephone, internet, or cable have damaged these private lines and caused water loss and consequential damages. The District is not able to repair private water lines for individual owners or laterals. The District is not able to provide locates for private property, which can create a false sense about the location of buried water lines including laterals. If you need to locate your water line, you can contract with a locate service. You may wish to discuss concerns about these matters with your homeowner's insurance agent to identify which risks may or may not be covered.

ANSWER:  No. Except in a few locations of our service area, public sanitation and storm drainage do not exist. Most of the District’s customers have individual septic disposal systems (see the Septic section for details). Genesee Water and Sanitation District and El Rancho Metropolitan District overlap our District and provide such services in a few cases.

ANSWER:  The District does not regulate the issuance of well permits, which is done by the State of Colorado. However, our policy is to object to an application for a well permit if the property can be served or is already being served by the District. Please see Well Permits and Cross-Connection Control for further information.

ANSWER:  There are MANY options available to you; see the Payment Options page for details.