As you might have heard, we are kind of in a drought. As a result, Denver Water has declared a Stage 2 drought which will impact most Denver residents. Denver Water customers are now allowed to only water two days per week. Homes with even addresses can water on Thursday and Sunday and homes with odd addresses can water Saturday and Wednesday. The length of time that you are allowed to water on these given days has been shortened as well. And while the watering times have decreased, the penalties for violating the restrictions has increased. The first violation is a warning, the second a $250 fine and the third a $500 fine.
While the snow in the mountains wasn't great this year, it certainly was better than last year and I know it get some people thinking the drought was over. While the snowpack did increase, it wasn't enough to refill the reservoirs from the extreme drought last year. Since we were in so dire need of water, most reservoirs in Colorado were taken down to their lowest levels in recent memory. The snow we got this year will help to refill them, but won't be near enough. So unless we get some more rain and snow this spring, we are looking at drought conditions for the rest of the summer.
Considering that over 50% of all water usage in Denver is for watering lawns, it is easy to see why the need to cut back on lawn watering is so necessary. Denver Water is asking everyone to do their part not only in reducing their watering, but also reducing their household water usage by cutting back on showering times, making sure you have low flow nozzles, reducing the amount of laundry you are doing, fixing all active leaks and replacing high water usage appliance. You can get a $75 rebate on high efficiency toilets so there has never been a better time to replace that dinosaur you might have in the basement.
In the next 12 months, Denver Water needs to save 16 billion gallons of water to avoid a stage 3 drought which would restrict all lawn watering. We certainly don't want it to come to that so please do what you can to conserve and spread the word. There are some great conservation tips on the Denver Water website, click here, so take a look and see what you can do to help save water this summer.
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