Lake County water resources program manager Bryce Ehrlich briefed the Planning Commission on Oct. 1 on the county's Water Enterprise, describing the county's limited water supply, the new water-marketing policy (Resolution 24-39) and near-term steps to operationalize augmentation for domestic use.

The presentation matters because Lake County's portfolio is small and newly usable statewide only under a court decree; how the county allocates that water will determine whether owners can add accessory dwelling units (ADUs), drill residential wells or seek small commercial water approvals. "I am the county's staff member that handles water resources full time," Ehrlich said, noting the program is designed to be administratively self-sustaining.

Ehrlich summarized the county's supply and limits: the county holds a firm, trans-basin allocation from the City of Aurora of 40 acre-feet per year and an average yield of roughly 34 acre-feet per year from Dairy Ditch No. 3, for a near-term working total of about 74 acre-feet. He emphasized those volumes are small: "Hayden Pond is roughly 50 acre-feet of storage," he said, and the combined flow equals only about one and a half Hidden Ponds.

Under the Water Marketing Policy (Resolution 24-39) the county will make augmentation units (AUs) available to specified uses only. An augmentation unit equals 0.1 acre-foot and is intended to match an Equivalent Residential Quantity (EQR) defined in the county's decree (approximately a single-family residence up to a defined size). Allowed uses in the policy's initial phase are in-house domestic wells (including ADUs), livestock watering and limited commercial uses evaluated case-by-case. Ehrlich said agricultural or large irrigation demands are excluded at present because they would consume the portfolio.

To limit speculation and give staff and commissioners time to monitor outcomes, Lake County is phasing availability. Year 1 (effectively 2026) will be capped at 39 AUs, Year 2 at 46, Year 3 at 54, and the remainder would be available in Year 4. Ehrlich said the phased approach is intended to "catch it and to adjust the regulations before all the water is caught." He also described per-application caps: a maximum of six augmentation units on a single application, intended to preclude large subdivisions from consuming the portfolio at once.

Fees and finance: Ehrlich said the inclusion fee will be $9,000 per augmentation unit (market-derived, based on Parkville tap fees and Twin Lakes shares) and an operations-and-maintenance charge will align with Parkville's monthly service rate. He said inclusion fees are designed to cover startup staff costs and that O&M at buildout should fund most ongoing staffing, engineering and legal expenses. "This is meant to be a revenue positive development," Ehrlich said.

Infrastructure and legal items: staff described measurement infrastructure already installed (an augmentation/measurement station on Mount Albert and a staff gauge at Hayden) and recent as-built surveys. Ehrlich said the county's ability to operate depends on a finalized intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with Aurora; once the IGA is complete and recorded, he said, "the next day I can start accepting applications for augmentation." He also said the county is issuing an RFP to hire a full-time water attorney and expects to have counsel in place within weeks.

Aurora and storage: the presentation covered a proposed "parking agreement" for Hayden Reservoir under the Aurora IGA. Under the parking approach Aurora and Lake County would exchange accounting credits so reservoir elevations visible to the public remain stable while the parties track monthly ownership on a spreadsheet; the arrangement would also let Lake County bank unused Aurora deliveries in Hayden for later use and recover a share of evaporative loss where appropriate. Ehrlich noted a long-term asset in Lake County's portfolio: a 20% ownership stake in the proposed Box Creek Reservoir (a not-yet-built facility that, at prior design, equated to about 5,000 acre-feet of storage) but said its delivery timeline has slipped from an earlier estimate of 2025 toward 2050.

Pending court work and small-storage ideas: Ehrlich summarized current water-court matters where Lake County has signed on to preserve standing or to contest technical impacts, including the Barn Pond substitute water-supply application, the Erickson Wellfield matter (where Lake County signed on as an opposer to ensure standing) and Titan Gold's SWSP-to-decree process. He proposed relatively small, measured storage projects (for example converting fire-suppression ponds and beaver-impacted ponds into legally measured and adjudicated storage vessels) that would each yield small acre-foot increments but could be important given the county's constrained portfolio.

What commissioners asked and next steps: commissioners pressed staff on IGA timing, the phased release, and how commercial or subdivision requests would be treated. Ehrlich said staff would proceed on an RFP for water counsel, finalize the Aurora IGA as quickly as possible, and then begin accepting augmentation applications. He characterized day-one demand as substantial but estimated that near-term demand figures are preliminary and subject to verification.

Why this matters locally: with only a few dozen to a few hundred augmentation units available under current supply, the county's choices about allocation rules, fees and monitoring will affect whether property owners can add ADUs, establish domestic wells, or carry out small commercial projects without undertaking costly individual water-court adjudications. The policy is framed to prioritize efficient household-level uses while reserving commercial approvals for cases subject to closer review.