Your water allotment contract allows for a certain amount of usage each month from a single or multiple sources of supply. Sources of supply are typically a well, spring, or surface diversion. Your contact requires that you monitor diversions from each source of supply on a monthly basis and report the total monthly diversions to the Basalt Water Conservancy District (District) by November 15th of each year. 1) Totalizing flow meters are typically used to monitor flows from wells and flows from springs and surface diversions if the water is pressurized in a pipe. 2) The memorandum covers diversions from totalizing flow meters only. If you need additional information with regards to monitoring your spring or surface diversion, please contact the District’s Engineer at 970-945-6777.

Once you obtain your water allotment contract is associated with well diversions, you will need to repermit your well(s) with the Colorado Division of Water Resources. Once the new well permit is issued, it will confirm the amount water that can be diverted under your District contract. This usage is limited by your type of use and the amount of contact water you obtained from the District. Most uses include normal in-house use and a limited amount of outside irrigation. You may check with the District to determine or confirm irrigation limitations. Your water allotment contract is based upon a depletion amount or the amount consumed; that is the amount not returned to the system via your sewer system or not returned through the ground from irrigated landscape. This amount consumed is less than the total amount diverted or pumped. Meter readings measure the total amount diverted or pumped since the meter was installed. This is called a totalizing flow meter.

Totaling flow meters come in a variety of makes and models. Likewise, your meter may measure water in gallons, acre feet (AF) or in cubic feet (CF). Water meters may be located in a meter pit outside or in the mechanical room of your residence. For residences served by wells, this will typically be an unfinished room in the basement probably where the furnace is located. However, the pressure tank and water meter may also be found in the crawl space of the home when there is no basement. Check around the bottom floor of your house and look for a cylindrical tank connected to copper pipe. This tank keeps your water system pressurized when the well pump isn’t running. The water meter may be located on the copper pipe very close to the pressure tank. It might have a protective plastic or bronze cover over the dial that you will have to lift to see the meter face. The cover can be easily opened to expose the meter dial.

Most meters utilize gallons as the unit of measure; however, however your meter could be in Acre-feet (AF) or Cubic-feet (CF). For your information, below are conversions for AF and CF to gallons:

1 AF = 325,851 gallons 1 CF = 7.48 gallons