Blue Mountain Water District System Improvements Loan

Blue Mountain Water District serves about 115 homes in the Blue Mountain Estates subdivision in Jefferson County. Issue 6A lets the district borrow up to $1,200,000 through a loan agreement or other multiple-fiscal-year obligation with a state authority, to pay all or part of the cost of water quality, regulatory compliance and related system improvements. The district's board unanimously accepted the election resolution for this measure on August 20, 2026. The district's notice announcing that vote described the loan as money for water treatment improvements "to enable long-term compliance with the State of Colorado regulatory requirements."

Board minutes tie the project to compliance work at the treatment plant's backwash pond. In March 2026 the board accepted a $160,222 proposal from NORM Services to remediate the pond and approved submitting a loan application for $1.5 million. The supporters' written comments in the county's TABOR notice list a new backwash processing system, a new building in place of a storage trailer to house that equipment, hardening of the treatment plant and pump stations as the Coal Creek Fire Department's wildfire protection plan recommends, and a backup generator for the pumps.

Repayment may total no more than $2,082,000, and the net effective interest rate may not exceed 4.0% a year. The board sets the timing, manner and terms within those limits. The TABOR notice puts the maximum annual repayment at $69,400. The district carries bonded debt of $678,598 in principal, with a maximum annual repayment of $50,739 and a maximum total repayment of $811,828. The notice estimates the district's fiscal year 2027 spending without the measure at $301,209.

The question grants no additional tax authorization. The district repays the debt from the fees and charges of its water system and from other legally available revenues. The district also levies a property tax: the state's 2025 property tax map lists a general levy of 31.405 mills, reduced by a temporary tax credit of 9.031 mills to a total of 22.374 mills. The supporters' comments state that the district needs no increase in its previously authorized mill levy, that projected income is enough to cover the loan payments and that the emergency reserve can stay intact.

The board sets water rates by a vote of its directors. After an August 2025 special meeting on increases to the base rate and water usage rates, it adopted new billing rates effective February 1, 2026, and moved customers from bills three times a year to monthly bills.