Rueter Hess Reservoir
The purpose of Rueter Hess is not to be full but rather to capture water when available for use when it isn’t.
Rueter Hess is a 75,000 acre foot drinking water reservoir located on top of a hill requiring all water in it to be pumped up 400 feet from Cherry Creek. If full it would be 180 feet deep at the tower. Considering that evaporation at this altitude is 30 inches a year from both a mud puddle or a deep reservoir, a reservoir such as Rueter Hess is very efficient.
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The reservoir permits Parker Water to reclaim, store and reuse owned water rights literally doubling the life of such water. Today we have enough stored water (23,000 acre feet) to meet all water needs for 3 years. Of the 75,000 acre feet capacity, 10,700 are reserved for other partners and about 18,000 acre feet is not today needed even at full buildout. Growth of the district by inclusions of other districts could utilize this storage. Or, it could be leased to other providers such as Denver to fund other capital projects such as PVWP.
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As with the 2004 Platte Valley water rights purchase the vision and perseverance of Frank Jaeger to build Rueter Hess is key to the financial, water resources and storage strength making PWSD one the strongest water providers in the state.
With respect to Douglas County water, there are dry years and there are wet years but one must only look to El nino, wind currents aloft patterns to understand our moisture / drought years. In 2014 Rueter Hess had 10,000 acre feet of water and with El nino similar to today in 2013, 2014 and 2015 Rueter Hess had increased to nearly 30,000 acre feet. As El nino shifted dry years were had from 2016 to fall of 2022 and the reservoir dropped to about 16,000 acre feet. As El nino shifted back the Reservoir is now at 23,000 acre feet and gaining.
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Recreation is allowed on the Army Corp of Engineers permit but not required. Recreation costs so today, Douglas county manages recreation activities at the reservoir so that cost is not on your water bill.
