Denver Water’s decision to lift most water-use restrictions on its 1.2 million metro area customers is good news for area homeowners, but it shouldn’t be seen as an invitation to go wild and waste water this summer.
Boulder and other communities also have eased restrictions. (But Aurora, whose reservoirs haven’t recovered as well as others, continues to have mandatory restrictions.)
After drought years in 2002 through 2004, snowpack in the Colorado mountains this year have exceeded 100 percent of the statewide average. In Denver Water’s two watersheds, snowpack has been slightly above average in the South Platte Basin but slightly below in the Colorado River Basin.
If the weather holds, Denver Water’s reservoirs are expected to reach about 95 percent of capacity this year.
“Supply is approaching normal,” Denver Water spokeswoman Trina McGuire-Collier said, “but we’ve found that drought patterns usually include a year or two of normal supply or even above normal supply. You can get that in the midst of an extended drought.”
So caution is in order.
Rather than set a rigid schedule, Denver Water is suggesting that beginning June 1, customers limit watering to three days a week: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday for homes with even-numbered addresses and Monday, Wednesday and Saturday for homes with odd-numbered addresses.
Another suggestion is to limit watering to 20 minutes per zone of your yard.
There won’t be any restriction on car washing, although McGuire-Collier says people should take care to not waste water while doing so. (Use a bucket for the soap and water and turn off the nozzle while soaping down the car.)
Wasting water just because you can would be a ridiculous response to the loosening of restrictions. Denver Water’s new plan is not an anything-goes policy – it’s against the rules to operate defective sprinklers or to water during the heat of the day between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. (The latter strikes us as felony stupid because the water evaporates before it can do any good.)
Denver Water’s customers were so good at saving water that its 2004 revenues were down by $23 million. Even though availability will be better this year, about 66 percent of those surveyed said they’d continue good conservation practices, according to McGuire-Collier.
We’re all tired of desert camouflage – it’ll be wonderful to see the metro area green and gorgeous once again. That doesn’t mean we’ll tolerate jerks like the one in south Denver (you know who you are) whose sprinklers were on full-bore yesterday morning – when it was raining.
Denver Water customers can report water wasters by calling 303-893-2444.
