Can Colorado do more with less water?
Where Colorado will find the water it needs to thrive is a more urgent question than ever amid historic drought, undeniable climate change and unprecedented interstate conflicts over limited river supplies.
The Colorado Sun is embarking on a solutions journalism series asking who in the state is doing their share to save precious water. Our solutions-oriented reporting will assess whether specific water conservation projects can free up water at a large scale, or whether local conservation is always overwhelmed by uncontrollable natural conditions or immovable market realities.
The Colorado Sun series, “Can Colorado do more with less water?,” will create a body of work showcasing what may or may not be possible in creating water solutions across the state. From Akron to Aspen, we’re looking for signs of success or failure that will help lead us to water security.
When Denver Water looked back at the historically abysmal snowpack, and ahead to a historically scorching summer, the crucial agency for 1.5 million Coloradans set a target of 20% water use cuts to help solve challenges from the ongoing drought.
It’s not working.
At roughly the midpoint of the high season for lawn watering, which accounts for about half of Denver Water home use, customers have cut only about 2% of the five-year system average. Officials fear that after a weekend of 100-degree temps forecast for the Front Range, they’ll see even worse results as customers reel from a searing streak of daily highs and defend their lawns with amped irrigation.
“We are seeking a 20% reduction off the five-year average, and yes we are far behind on that goal,” Denver Water spokesperson Todd Hartman said, in email responses to questions. By mid-July, Denver Water wanted to see 10,300 acre-feet less water used than the long-term average of about 51,000 acre-feet. So far, customers have trimmed use by 1,300 acre-feet. An acre-foot covers a football-field size piece of ground in 12 inches of water, and can serve two to four households in a normal year.
“At this point in the summer, we have saved only about 10% of what we had hoped to save, as the hot and dry weather has taken a significant toll,” Hartman said. “It’s critical that all customers adhere to our watering restrictions or we are definitely looking at more drastic restrictions down the road.”
Aurora Water said its customers have so far met the goal of a 20% cut from outdoor use in 2025. But they are concerned about accelerating reservoir losses. The system for 380,000 residents has seen reservoirs drop to 52% of capacity, spokesperson Shonnie Cline said.
The drop is because of hot weather demand, Cline said, but also because of an eye-opening loss of mountain stream flow into the reservoirs and losses along the way from extremely dry ground and evaporation.
At this date in a normal year, Cline said, Aurora Water would measure 260 cubic feet per second of water helping to fill Spinney Mountain Reservoir. On July 17, that flow was 3 cubic feet per second. Upstream 12 miles, a gauge measured 45 cubic feet per second, she said, demonstrating “how much water the ground is sucking up.”
Hartman said Denver does not have current plans to further restrict customer water use, but later stages of emergency drought planning call for a switch to once-a-week lawn watering if higher use would threaten reservoir levels for future years.
Denver Water’s mountain and foothills reservoirs are low compared with the historic average for this time of year, and the agency’s up-to-date usage chart shows a faster drain beginning with the streak of 95-plus degree days the Front Range has baked under this July. Every day of July in Denver has been 90 degrees or above so far, with the exception of the 4th, which hit 89. Temps were expected to hit 98 degrees Sunday, and 100 degrees on Monday.
Hartman said Denver customers and the suburbs the agency services are indeed using about 20% less than what would be expected for the temperatures and lack of rain in 2026. But that’s not the goal Denver Water set in its spring drought decision. The stated target was 20% off the long-term average.
Denver Water also added drought surcharges, to charge lawn waterers more as they passed above benchmarks of use, and also to make up for system revenue lost from expected overall usage cuts.
Reservoirs are starting to drain faster
System reservoirs were about 78% full on July 13, compared with the usual high-90s percentages in July after winters with better snowpack and runoff. “Levels are dropping as summer watering hits full stride,” the utility said in a blog post.
Early-season lawn customers did better, seeming to follow Denver Water’s pleas not to turn on their systems full force until late May or even into June. But when the 90-degree streak hit, usage bounced back to the five-year average, the agency said.
The two-day-per-week watering restriction is based on odd and even street addresses. Monday is not a home watering day, allowing Denver Water to measure against what’s meant to be a control day.
Mondays with no lawn watering have seen June and July use drop 52 million gallons per day compared with the average of other days. The city’s parks are not assigned days to water but are expected to work toward the same 20% overall target cuts.
Calling out the suburbs
Denver is throwing shade to the suburbs in this intensifying battle. “We want to emphasize we really need more from our suburban customers with larger yards right now,” Hartman said. Denver Water serves major suburbs including Littleton, Wheat Ridge, Lakewood, portions of Centennial and others.
“The average drought surcharge in June in the suburbs was about double the average in the city,” Hartman said. “If our suburban customers with larger yards really lock in and follow watering restrictions during these hot summer months, it will help them reduce their bills and help us stretch our supplies as we manage our way through this extreme drought.”
The early-season success is visible in some of Denver Water’s numbers. In a typical watering season, the agency by now would have seen more than 25 days of usage above 300 million gallons per day (about 921 acre-feet). By July 17, the system had seen only two of those days, though Hartman acknowledged nearly 100-degree forecasts for the weekend could add three or four to the running total of high-use days.
“Education” moving toward warnings, fines
Denver Water has sent about 3,100 educational letters to customers in response to complaints and notifications, with another 700 “field stops” when agency crews notice violations firsthand during their workday. Those in-person visits can either be engagement with the homeowner or a written notice on watering restrictions.
Now more formal warnings will begin, to press for success with the targets. Customers who don’t respond to those education efforts or warnings could be fined. Fines begin at $250, and can escalate to $500 and $1,000 for repeated violations.
“It’s important to note that taking the step of a formal warning or fine requires Denver Water personnel to visually record and document the violations,” Hartman said.
“We don’t want to issue violations to people simply because of an accident or misunderstanding,” he said, such as a newly broken sprinkler head or a timer thrown off by a power outage. “We’ll only be looking to give violations to those who are repeatedly breaking the rules.”