AURORA — Drought, schmought.
Aurora is drowning in water.
That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but as of today, the city’s water-storage facilities are at 83 percent capacity and should be full by spring if there is an average spring runoff, officials said.
Snowpack statewide already is well below normal, and forecasts call for a dry winter, possibly leading to drought conditions next summer, similar to 2002.
But with the Prairie Waters Project coming along and a new water-rate structure that encourages conservation being designed, the city is in good shape for the future.
“I think that the last drought was a huge wake-up call for Aurora Water,” said City Councilman Larry Beer. “We are doing everything we can to strengthen our water system and protect our citizens against droughts.”
Aurora owns or stores water in 12 reservoirs and lakes that provide the city with more than 155,000 acre-feet of storage capacity from the Arkansas, Colorado and South Platte river basins. Aurora gets about 95 percent of its water from those basins, said Melissa Elliott of Aurora Water.
Conservation also has been key. Aurora residents are using 20 percent less water than they were in 2001, the year before the drought, Elliott said.
The city also is drafting a new water-rate system that will reward those who conserve the most water, and it will be in effect by next spring. Officials came under fire this year for a rate structure that punished extensive water users, even though they had conserved during the prior year.
“Our citizens are really stepping up to the plate to practice good conservation,” Beer said.
Prairie Waters, an $800 million wastewater purification project that broke ground this year, will provide up to 3.3 billion more gallons of water starting in 2010.
But Elliott said it is still too early to say whether the city will see normal runoff this spring. Sometimes it comes down to luck, she said.
“All snow is not created equal,” Elliott said. “It has to fall in certain areas for us to be able to access it.”
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com
