Where Our Water Comes From - Security Water and Sanitation District

For the first 30 years of operation, we primarily supplied water from groundwater wells that had been used to irrigate farms. As the need for more water in our community grew, we began purchasing surface water stored in Pueblo Reservoir in 1985. Surface water comes from streams, rivers and lakes. Currently, all the water we deliver to customers is surface water from Pueblo Reservoir, and it meets all federal and state regulatory standards.

Groundwater

Historically, we used a combination of water from 25 groundwater wells and surface water to serve our customers. We shut down our groundwater wells in 2016 due to water quality concerns (due to PFAS). Between 2016 and 2021, the district worked alongside the United States Air Force to design one of North America’s first full-scale PFAS mitigation facilities utilizing Ion Exchange Resin. This state-of-the-art media is scientifically formulated to strip PFAS from our groundwater sources, allowing Security Water District to deliver healthy drinking water that meets and exceeds State and EPA standards. We continuously monitor for these compounds at the SAMS facility and are happy to report they are all non-detect at the effluent of the water treatment plant prior to the distribution of water to homes and businesses in the district.

More About Water Quality

Surface Water

We transport surface water from Pueblo Reservoir through two infrastructure systems: the Fountain Valley Authority and the Southern Delivery System. The water is piped to treatment plants in Colorado Springs where it is purified before it travels through our distribution system to homes and businesses.

The following map of the Colorado Springs Utilities’ water system shows the two primary systems Security Water District uses to transport the surface water it owns the rights to: the Fountain Valley Authority and the Southern Delivery System.