Bone Mesa Domestic Water District
North Fork Valley, Delta County Colorado
Bone Mesa Domestic Water District serves approximately 159 households and 480 residents.
The Bone Mesa Domestic Water District is a special district located in the North Fork Valley in Delta County, Colorado near the towns of Paonia and Hotchkiss. The District water supply consists of two springs fed by watersheds located on the flanks of Land’s End Peak within the Gunnison National Forest. The springs are classified as groundwater under the direct influence of surface water (GWUDI) by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE).
The District has water rights for 0.75 cubic feet per second (CFS) from the Mays Spring and 10.69 gallons per minute from the Gelwick Springs (2). Both sources are shared with the Town of Paonia, which has additional rights from each. The flow from both springs varies through the water year with minimum flows occurring during the month of March. The flow from the Mays Spring is split at the collection gallery with 60% delivered to the District. This flow is piped underground to a raw water storage tank with a volume of 160,000 gallons and subsequently through a treatment plant to a treated water tank with a volume of 100,000 gallons.
Of the flow from the Gelwick Springs, 10.69 gallons per minute is delivered via an underground pipe to a district treatment plant and subsequently to two treated water storage tanks with a volume of 35,000 gallons each. Treatment for the Mays and Gelwick Spring water is chlorination and filtration meeting CDPHE requirements for GWUDI. The entire system is gravity-fed, which means that no pumps are used in the delivery of water. The Mays and Gelwick line tank levels and flow rates are monitored by a telemetry system.
