How Many DRWA Connections Are Actually Committed?

DRWA is telling Congress it will serve more than 4,000 connections. Its own documents show those numbers are based on proximity, not commitment. Every house within reach was counted.

The 2025 Feasibility Report explains:"The rural residential connections were determined by including every existing house that could be reached by adding 1.5 miles of a distribution branch to the main stem pipe alignment as a residential connection."

​The 2023 Predesign Report calls the model "100% saturated, meaning every existing house that met the 1 ½ miles criteria are added," and admits that for pasture taps, "the location is unknown at the feasibility level."

​DRWA has counted every house within 1.5 miles of its pipeline since at least the 2023 Predesign Report. Even with every one of those homes assumed to connect, the project still fell short. In January 2025, DRWA Coordinator Mandi Nay wrote to the board:

"Our biggest issue is we just do not have the population to make our NED 1:1 or better... DRWA would need an additional 360–1,500 connections to close the NED gap."

She added that Stantec was "working on finding justification to make adjustments to the estimated population growth over the 50-year project period."

In other words, after assuming 100% of nearby homes would sign on, DRWA still needed hundreds more connections to make the project pencil out, so the plan was to find justification for more.

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Why the number matters

The connection count drives nearly every benefit DRWA claims. The assumed costs of bottled water, reverse osmosis systems, brine disposal, and hard-water damage are multiplied across every projected connection. Each house counted simply because it sits near a pipeline adds to the project's claimed benefits, whether or not anyone living there has agreed to connect. Inflate the number of connections, and you inflate the benefits used to argue the project is feasible.

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A sign-up is not a commitment

DRWA's own regulations define a Good Intention Fee as simply "a fee expressing an individual's intention to become a DRWA user."

Many of these fees were paid 20 years ago. Our review of DRWA's 2012 participant list found 702 paid entries, including 114 pasture taps and about 119 duplicate names and addresses, along with cabins and recreational properties. Together, pasture taps and duplicates make up roughly one-third of the list. Some who signed up have since moved away, and others have told us they no longer want DRWA water.

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Would they have signed up if they'd known the cost?

"DRWA indicated that new connections are charged a $5,000 connection fee per equivalent dwelling unit (EDU)." (2025 Final Feasibility Study)

"Any Standard/Commercial User DRWA User Agreement will remain in effect, and service shall be paid, for a minimum of 20 years, even during periods when the service is not in use." (DRWA Regulations for Rural Users)

The same 20-year requirement applies to livestock, pasture, and seasonal users. DRWA also requires easements across private property and charges a monthly base rate on top of water use. Even a signed agreement doesn't guarantee a customer. DRWA's own April 2025 records note a user who "has signed a User Agreement" but "declined service when DRWA followed up."

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These Numbers Don't Reflect Reality

A house within 1.5 miles of a pipeline is not a customer. A $100 fee paid 20 years ago, before established hookup fees, base rates, usage charges, easements, or a decades-long service commitment, is not a guaranteed connection. And when ranchers learn that DRWA expects a $5,000 fee for each pasture tap, and that watering 200 head of cattle could cost an estimated $13,000 a year at DRWA's current rates (based on a local rancher's calculation), will they still want DRWA? A pasture tap, cabin, or duplicate entry is not a household in need of water. DRWA's documents do not show anywhere near 4,348 committed customers. They show a projection built on faulty assumptions, and that projection is what's being presented to Congress.