Fountain council tables 50-year Venetucci water lease, asks staff to define allocation

The Fountain City Council unanimously voted Dec. 16 to table Resolution 25‑061 — a proposed 50‑year lease that would give the city additional allocation from the Venetucci farm groundwater project — and directed staff to return within 90 days with recommendations on how to allocate the new water inventory.

Taylor Murphy, water resources and engineering manager for the Utilities Department, told the council the Venetucci project currently provides Fountain about 10% of the leased water (roughly 135 acre‑feet), which is less than 5% of the city’s approximately 3,000 acre‑feet annual usage. Murphy said the proposed lease would phase in deliveries over the first four years and run from 2026 through 2076. He described the arrangement as a “take‑or‑pay” structure: Fountain would pay for its full paper allocation each year whether it uses all of the water or not.

The lease would rely on wells…