It’s time to take a second look at that monthly water bill: For some Coloradans, the cost of turning on the tap has been rising for decades, and experts say it is primed to keep climbing.
Water utility providers in Colorado are adding new services, adapting to increasingly stringent environmental regulations and facing looming repairs for aging pipelines and pumps. These providers don’t make a profit from their services, but they have had to hand down more costs to customers.
“Utilities know that some of their customers are making choices every month on which bills to pay,” said Melissa Elliott, executive vice president at Raftelis, a consulting firm focused on governments and utilities. “The service provided is really valuable. You can’t live without this. But for many families, it’s also expensive. That’s the conundrum that utilities are in.”
So what does this mean to you?
For some communities, water bills have actually fallen when adjusted for inflation. In others, the steady upward creep of water bills has outpaced growth in Colorado’s typical household income. Even at current prices, thousands of Coloradans reach out for help from water bill assistance programs each year.
High Cost of Colorado
Our ongoing series put reporters with all kinds of Coloradans to talk about their challenges, their fears and their solutions to the rising costs of living here. READ MORE
Water bills may not be the most burdensome item on a family’s budget compared to mortgages, rent, property taxes or car insurance. But combined with startling jumps in energy bills, property taxes, health insurance and other daily living costs, Coloradans are experiencing an overall price fatigue that we’ve been exploring for the past year in our High Cost of Colorado series.
And for some, overdue water bills could mean having their water turned off, or even being evicted.
Are you using too much water?
We looked at five water providers – Castle Rock Water, Colorado Springs Utilities, Denver Water, the city of Durango and Ute Water Conservancy District – to see what efficient (low), average and high water use looks like around Colorado. How does your water use compare?
Numbers are in gallons per month.
| Season | Efficient | Average | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winter | < 2,000 | 3,000-4,000 | > 5,000-6,000 |
| Summer | 3,000-8,000 | 6,000-14,000 | > 15,000 |
What’s up with water bills in Colorado?
Each of Colorado’s 2,000 utility providers is different and their service areas, rates structures, water sources and more vary greatly. We sampled bills from five water utilities going back to 1980 to see how the cost of water services has changed over time in some Colorado communities.
Denver Water, Denver
Colorado’s largest utility, Denver Water serves 1.5 million people in Denver and surrounding communities. On average, residents in the city of Denver use about 3,000 gallons of water in January. In 1980, their monthly bill would have been $4.15, or $16.75 in today’s dollars, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator. In 2024, the bill would be $26.74, a 60% increase.
Colorado Springs Utilities, Colorado Springs
The utility provider serves more than 500,000 people across 206 square miles. There, a household’s average water use in January is 4,040 gallons. In 1980, their monthly bill would have been $11.36, or $45.86 when adjusted for inflation. In 2024, the bill would be $50.95, which is an 11% increase.
Ute Water Conservancy District, Grand Junction
The district supplies domestic water to over 80,000 consumers across 260 square miles in Mesa County. On average, its residential customers use about 3,677 gallons of water in January. In 1980, their monthly bill would have been $8.35, or $33.65 in today’s dollars. In 2024, the bill would be $28.88, a 14% decrease.
Castle Rock Water, Douglas County
The city water utility serves about 26,900 people in a 35-square-mile area south of Denver. If a Castle Rock household used 4,310 gallons in the winter, its monthly bill would have been $3.34 in 1980, or $13.48 in today’s dollars. In 2024, the bill would be $94.68. That’s a 603% increase, primarily due to new services added over time, like stormwater and wastewater, and the utility’s search for new water supplies.
City of Durango, Durango
Durango’s utility department serves about 19,000 people and about 11 square miles. The average household within city limits uses about 3,100 gallons in January. In 1981, the bill would have been $3.94, or $14.20 adjusted for inflation. In 2024, the bill would be $23.46, a 65% increase.
Interested in learning more about your water bill? The best way to gauge how it has changed over time is to talk to your local water provider.
How can you save water at home?
- How old is your toilet?
Toilets made before 1993 use 3.5 to 8 gallons per flush (gpf). High-efficiency toilets manufactured after 1993 use 1.6 gpf or less. The date of manufacture of most toilets is on the underside of the tank lid. - Take a closer look at your showerhead.
Showerheads currently manufactured in the U.S. have a flow-rate of 2.5 gallons per minute (gpm) or less. Install a low-flow showerhead if you do not already have one and keep your showers brief! - Think about a washer upgrade.
Conventional washing machines use between 35 to 50 gallons per load (gpl). The newer front-loading machines are more efficient and use between 18 to 20 gpl. - Wait until that dishwasher is full!
Running the dishwasher only when it’s full can save 1,000 gallons of water per month. If you can, think about installing a high-efficiency dishwasher. - Check those sprinklers!
Make sure your sprinkler system isn’t accidentally watering sidewalks and keep an eye on the weather to avoid watering after it rains. For a catchy way to remember the tips, check out Denver Water’s Splashstreet Boys hit, “I water that way.”
What are the main culprits of water use in a typical home? In 2016, the Environmental Protection Agency said in-home water use breaks down like this:
Toilets
24%
Showers
20%
Faucets
19%
Washing machines
17%
Leaks
12%
Other
8%
5 reasons water bills are slowly rising
Water bills have risen faster than the cost of living and inflation, at least until inflation surged after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Why? New pipes, regulations, environmental concerns — and the service was underpriced in the first place.
1. In Colorado, water utilities are provided by public systems governed by elected and appointed leaders who are typically hesitant to pass price increases onto water users.
“They want to be very cautious about passing on price increases for these services because they are going to hear about it and because they are aware of people struggling in their communities,” said Elliott at the consulting firm, Raftelis.
2. Drinking water regulations have also strengthened over time, and meeting those regulations comes with new costs.
Denver Water is embarking on an expensivelead service line replacement program to make sure old pipes are not leaching lead into people’s drinking water. Other water managers may need to buy new treatment equipment to filter out PFAS “forever chemicals” found in town water supplies in Colorado.
3. The state saw an influx of new reservoirs, big pipes and massive water projects about 50 years ago. We’ve been coasting off that investment, Elliott said.
“Those boards and those councils are realizing that we must invest in infrastructure or it’s going to fail on us,” she said. “We’re realizing we can’t ignore it.”
In 2022, Colorado identified $19 billion in unfunded projects solely for wastewater systems. A 2012 national report showed that Western states may need to spend more than $409 billion through 2050 replacing pipes, gauges, canals and other parts of a water system. The national price tag could be more than $1.7 trillion.
4. Then there are costs related to natural hazards, climate change and population growth to consider.
After a wildfire, water can flow into a reservoir carrying heavy loads of sediment, debris and chemicals. Communities are upgrading their treatment systems to handle these impacts and even building new infrastructure in case one part of their system fails.
Some growing communities are spending money on new water sources, like buying agricultural water rights and using that water for new homes and businesses, or building huge canals and pipelines to siphon water from other parts of the state.
These projects can cost tens of millions of dollars — or even more as the cost of construction materials and labor increases, Elliott said.
5. Water utilities have altered their rate structures to encourage people to save water.
More water providers decided to adjust their rate structures when a drought hit in the early 2000s, and then stayed for most of the past two decades. Bills were split into a fixed base rate and tiered rate based on water usage. It worked to cut use, but water utilities started seeing their revenues fluctuate on a monthly or quarterly basis.
“It created problems,” Elliott said. “We’re seeing a trend toward making that fixed charge a larger part of the bill.”
How does one utility’s bill break down?
In 2024, a Castle Rock family used 5,000 gallons of water in January, and in the July, they used an additional 10,000 gallons to water the lawn. How did the family’s summer bill break down?
Source: Castle Rock Water
Thousands already need assistance — what’s next?
Thousands of Coloradans already need help paying their water bills, and those costs are expected to rise.
One temporary program, the Low Income Household Water Assistance Program, distributed $16.8 million to more than 23,000 households in Colorado in 2022 and 2023. Each household received more than $700 on average.
So what do you do if you’re falling behind?
Most water utilities also have assistance programs that forgive costs caused by leaks or offer discounts based on income.
If that’s not an option, the Mile High United Way 211 Help Center refers people to water bill payment assistance programs. The service helped 1,285 people — mostly in Denver, Arapahoe, Adams and Weld counties — between October and March.
There may also be more local relief. For nearly 20 years, Sister Carmen has offered bill pay assistance to people in Lafayette, Louisville, Superior, Erie and parts of unincorporated Boulder County.
Often the agency is giving a couple hundred dollars to help keep a family’s water from getting shut off. If that happens, it may violate a lease with a clause for maintaining sanitary conditions in a home. That puts them at risk of eviction, said Suzanne Crawford, CEO of Sister Carmen Community Center in Lafayette.
“Any time that we can help folks catch up with any sort of bill, including water bill assistance, it’s helpful because it means that we’re helping them stay in their housing,” Crawford said.
Graphics by Danika Worthington.