The Challenge
Dominion Water & Sanitation District (DWSD) provides wholesale water and sanitation services in northwest Douglas County, including the major planned community of Sterling Ranch. As the community grows, the District must balance projected water demands with available supplies while planning infrastructure and managing the financial and operational risks associated with a complex water system.
DWSD needed a flexible planning tool that could evaluate changing demand scenarios, water conservation strategies, supply availability, infrastructure requirements, and costs to support a reliable long-term water supply portfolio under varying economic and environmental conditions.
Our Solution
Spheros Environmental paired water supply planning with customized modeling to help DWSD evaluate water supply options, system operations, costs, and risk.
The team developed the Water Operations Model (WOM), a demand-based water allocation model designed to evaluate monthly and annual projected water demands at multiple demand levels. The model allows users to assess scenarios with and without outdoor water conservation, modify monthly delivery and demand schedules, and compare multiple model runs using both tabular and graphical outputs.
The WOM incorporates Dominion’s primary renewable water supply through the Water Infrastructure and Supply Efficiency (WISE) Partnership and represents wet, average, and dry 10-year delivery periods established in the WISE Water Delivery Agreement. By modeling how available water is allocated to meet projected demands, the tool helps characterize system operations, identify infrastructure requirements, and support management of a conjunctive-use water supply system.
Water Supply Planning and Modeling Consultant
Results +What makes this unique
The Water Operations Model provides DWSD with a flexible decision-support tool for evaluating how water supply, demand, conservation, and infrastructure needs interact as the community grows.
The model has successfully supported Douglas County submittals, management of WISE water supplies, infrastructure and funding decisions, and coordination with regional projects and partners. Its ability to compare multiple operating scenarios helps the District better understand potential risks and plan for reliable water supplies under a range of future conditions.
By combining water resources expertise with customized digital modeling, the project demonstrates how integrated planning tools can translate complex water supply agreements, demand projections, and operating conditions into actionable information for long-term utility decision-making.