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Almost a
Family Business: Water District Manager Bob deHaas
West of the 100th
meridian (that runs through western Kansas), annual precipitation falls to an
average of 20 inches or less, and human presence is determined as much by water,
or lack thereof, as anything else. The West is arid country interrupted by
mountain ranges wringing scarce moisture out of eastbound clouds. Last summer's
drought showed how dependent we are on those clouds shedding some moisture in
the right place - the drainage areas for our water supply. Water is important
here.
On a November
morning I am standing with Bob de Haas, Pine Brook Water District Manager, and
Shawn Beuprez looking down at Four Mile Creek. It is a modest creek, flowing at
a few hundred gallons per minute, and would be inconsequential in wetter lands.
Here, it is the primary source of our water. Last summer it dried up completely
and we were on water restrictions. Today, the flow is more than adequate to
satisfy the needs of the district's 380 homes and approximately 1300 residents
Keeping clean
water flowing reliably in our taps is Bob's job and one he takes very seriously.
After all, it is practically a family business!
Bob's parents are Dutch
and both grew up in Indonesia.
After World War II they moved to Holland, Canada,
upstate New York
and finally to
Pine Brook Hills
in 1966. Bob was in the 6th grade. There were less than forty homes
here. But there was a new water system. He got to know the system quite well
because his mother, Trudy Lay, became responsible for its operation and his
father served on the Board of Directors. In those days there were always
problems. When water mains broke all water was lost and it would take days or
weeks to recover. Today a break is fixed in 4-6 hours. He remembers his mother
having to drop everything and rush off; there were many emergencies. As a
teenager he had a jeep and would drive his mother to the emergency du jour.
Once there was a break at the top of a hill, out of reach of digging equipment.
He got some friends and they dug up the main line by hand. The water system
became as familiar as his own home.
But managing a water
district was not what he wanted to do. As a child he rode horses everywhere
among these hills. In high school he trained and broke horses. A veterinarian
is what he wanted to be. So after Boulder High School,
he enrolled in Animal Science at Colorado State University.
However, it took just one semester to be convinced that while horses were
wonderful, Animal Science was not for him.
Bob went west to Grand
Junction and, switching to something completely different, enrolled in Police
Science. At twenty one, he was offered and accepted a job with the Rifle, Colorado
police department. He took to police work, becoming a sergeant within two
years.
In 1976, Rifle was, what
Bob calls, in the police vernacular, an "active" town. The potential wealth
from oil shale had created a boom town. He broke up hundreds of bar fights, and
took part in many drug raids, kicking down doors just like on TV. His most
harrowing experience came while responding to a domestic disturbance. An irate
husband thought that police had no business interfering and waited in ambush.
Bob was hit by two rounds from a 12 gauge shotgun. He got hit everywhere - the
right leg had forty odd holes, there were shots in his face, hands and eyes. A
bullet proof vest prevented more serious damage. He still carries pieces of
lead in his body which activate security screens at airports.
Other incidents had
lesser consequences. During a high speed pursuit one night his partner wanted
to abandon the chase. Bob suggested that they continue for a little while
because he suspected that the car they were pursuing was low on gas. Sure
enough, about ten minutes later, that car rolled to a stop, out of gas. They
had the culprits, and were feeling quite satisfied. But looking around they
quickly realized that they did not have the slightest idea where they were.
Completely lost, they spent the remainder of the night there until morning light
allowed them to get their bearings.
The oil shale boom
fizzled and by 1987 the economy of Rifle had taken a severe downturn. So Bob
moved back to the East Slope, intending to work as a police officer, when a job
for water district manager at PBH opened up. Now that was a job he knew how to
do. Then in the fall of 1989 he became water district manager. He has been
responsible for our water ever since. It is more peaceful here, nobody in PBH
has ever shot a water district manager. Bob lives here with his wife, Kathy, a
hair stylist at Chaz Salon in Boulder, and three daughters, Jade, Kristy and
Leslie. He is teaching Jade to drive; on the same roads he rode horses many
years ago. Roads on which he cannot get lost! He has been active in the
community and was the volunteer fire chief for many years. He is still the
Captain for the PBH part of Boulder Mountain
Fire Authority. Fireman and Policeman; he has lived many a boy's dream.
Our water system has
grown from a system where the sources were deep wells to a combination of
surface water (70%) and wells (30%). It is almost two separate systems. Four
Mile Creek services the areas above the fire station and community center on Linden,
and the wells provide water below the fire station. The major difference in the
water is the hardness; the well water is about twice as hard.
Riding along during the
daily inspection and recording of storage and functional data, it is clear that
the system has been vastly upgraded and improved during the last thirteen
years. There is a membrane filtration plant, the second to go online in the
state, that produces water greatly exceeding state and federal standards and is
extremely reliable. The system monitoring is state of the art; problems are
pinpointed and fixed without the consumer being aware that anything was wrong.
As we drive back from
Four Mile Creek to the office on Linden,
the conversation keeps veering to the defining question about water in the West
- availability. Bob thinks like a dry land farmer, worrying about rain in
summer and snowpack in winter. He has become a weatherman, using internet data
from two weather stations at each end of our drainage area to predict stream
flows. He has to tackle legal issues, protecting our district's water rights
under arcane water laws. He has created a well managed modern system, but I
sense he would consider his greatest accomplishment would be acquiring enough
water sources to shield PBH from everything except a hundred year drought.
The office is bright and cheery, but it was
only recently completed. Where, I ask, were the water offices prior to
last March? Why, in Bob's basement, where else? They had been there
for the last thirteen years. I knew that Bob and Shawn are the two
full-time employees. But there is also a part time employee. It is
Bob's mother, Trudy. Definitely a family business! And a well run
one at that.
From The Pine Brook Press, Winter, 2001
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