Semper Water Treatment Facility treats 75% of Westminster’s water and has been in operation since 1969. While it continues to provide clean and safe drinking water, its aging facility needs to be modernized or replaced in the coming years. 

Westminster, CO - Westminster City Council will consider four alternative options to a proposed water treatment facility project at their January 23, 2023 meeting. City Council directed staff to stop work on the Water2025 project in November 2021, which at the time had a projected cost of $250 million. City staff has since identified additional options that better balance the need to modernize the city’s water infrastructure while ensuring safe and clean drinking water at affordable rates for residents. 

City Council will have the opportunity to provide definitive direction on the status of the original Water2025 proposal, acquiring private land needed for a water treatment facility, and potentially adopting one of the proposed alternatives.

Since 2001, Westminster residents have reduced their water consumption by an average of 39 million gallons per year, and the four water treatment options have been right-sized for the city’s current and future needs after incorporating up-to-date water consumption data. The City conducted a top-to-bottom review of the original Water2025 proposal, engaged outside experts, and worked up four new, refined options that could potentially reduce the overall cost by approximately $100 million.  

The four options include rehabilitating the Semper Water Treatment Facility, expanding Semper into the adjacent Municipal Service Center, identifying a new site, or building a new treatment facility on private land adjacent to the northeast corner of Westminster Boulevard and 98th Avenue.  

The four options were evaluated based on criteria set by City Council including: 

• Leveraging existing infrastructure and limiting the construction of new infrastructure such as major pipelines 

• Ability to treat wildfire and meet future regulations 

• Flexibility for future replacement; and  

• Building robust infrastructure 

The public city council meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. on Monday, January 23, and will be live-streamed on the City’s Facebook and YouTube pages. The meeting agenda and memo on this topic are available at www.cityofwestminster.us/agendas and the final presentation will be available for the public’s review next week.