The Denver Board of Water Commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to end the lawn watering season a month early, banning grass watering for the utility’s 1.5 million customers after Sept. 30. The amendment to Denver Water’s Stage 1 drought resolution carries no end date, and sprinklers are expected to stay off well into spring 2027 unless the board acts again.
Hand-watering of trees, shrubs, and gardens remains allowed after the cutoff, and active-use areas like parks and school athletic fields can still be watered in certain circumstances under approved water budgets, KDVR reported. Unlike the utility’s usual recommendation to shut systems down before the first frost, this shutoff is enforceable, Denverite reported. “If we see spray irrigation after Oct. 1, we will continue the same set of violations that we’ve done throughout the year,” Greg Fisher, Denver Water’s manager of demand planning, said at the meeting. Penalties run from fines up to $2,000 to a full water shutoff.
Natural streamflow into Denver Water’s storage reservoirs from April through July measured 95,000 acre-feet, 22 percent of normal and the lowest in the utility’s 110 years of recordkeeping, according to figures the utility cited. As of Aug. 24, reservoirs stood at 72 percent full against a 94 percent average for this time of year, and the utility projects storage at only 60 percent full by next spring. “The drought afflicting the Denver region and its water supply system has only worsened over the course of the summer, making it clear that we need to take additional steps in response,” said Tyrone Gant, president of the board, per KDVR.
The vote is the latest escalation in a drought response MidCurrent has followed since March, when the board declared its first Stage 1 drought since 2013 as snowpack set record lows. Drought pricing followed in April. Then came the drawdown of Antero Reservoir, and in June, Colorado Parks and Wildlife salvaged more than 1,000 trout from the emptying stillwater.
For anglers, the connection is the reservoirs themselves. Denver Water’s system includes Cheesman Reservoir, where the utility moved Antero’s water this spring, along with Dillon, its largest reservoir, and Williams Fork. Pat Dorsey, co-owner of Blue Quill Angler in Evergreen, noted in a July drought update that the Antero outflow sat at “a spooky 3 cfs.” “Despite the drought, Denver Water still has to meet downstream demand, which is no easy task,” he wrote.
Whether the shutoff is enough depends on winter. As of July, the utility had reached only about a tenth of its savings goals, Denverite reported. “Taking these steps that we’re recommending to you today is prudent, not knowing what next winter looks like,” Fisher told the board.
