Mission & Company History

In 1926, four of these small companies merged to form The Consolidated Mutual Water Company.  They were Oaks Mutual Water Company, Glen Creighton Mutual Water Company, Wadsworth Mutual Water Company, and North Wadsworth Mutual Water Company.  The new Company issued bonds to finance drilling more wells and connecting the systems.  It appeared the suburban areas had successfully formed a single system large enough to administer and service its customer base.

After five years of growth the Dust Bowl drought, and the Great Depression brought a double whammy that hit the Company hard.  Many of its users were unemployed and couldn’t pay their bills.  And the Company couldn’t provide additional water supplies and defaulted on its bonds, leaving most users without water in the summer of 1931.

Following the reorganization, the next year, the Company’s Board of Directors (Board) negotiated an emergency connection with the Denver Water Board.  Compared to drilling new wells or bringing water from the mountains, the Board thought this was the best alternative.  A special assessment was levied against the stockholders, some of whom worked it off by digging trenches and laying pipe for the new Denver line. The assessment provided the basis for extending the Company’s credit with its bondholders, and the additional water supply gave the Company the ability and opportunity to expand. The Company survived the rest of the Great Depression, refinanced in the late 1930s, and began to prosper.

In 1951 growth plus drought brought problems for the Company for the second time in its history.  Facing a water shortage, the Denver Water Board implemented what’s known historically as the “Blue Line” policy: west of Sheridan Boulevard, Denver Water would not supply water. Most of the rapid growth was occurring in the western suburbs, so developing additional water supplies for this area became of paramount importance.

For two decades, the Company had become increasingly reliant on water from Denver.  Also, deep wells were no longer a reliable long-term source of water.  But water rationing and increasing demands for water for the burgeoning suburbs west of the “Blue Line” forced the Company to seek new water sources.  The Company began acquiring surface water rights and built the Maple Grove Reservoir and associated Treatment Facility.  The reservoir and treatment facility, completed in 1957, eventually displaced the old deep wells the Company had originally relied upon with a more reliable, less costly source of water.

Expanded in 1961, 1975, and again in 1988, the Maple Grove Treatment Facility now meets at least 30 – 40% of the Company’s annual water requirements, with the remaining 60 – 70% purchased from Denver Water.