Denver Water leaders aimed to reduce customers’ use by 20% across the board this year in response to record-breaking drought. But so far, the customers of the state’s largest utility have fallen short.
Through the end of September, Denver Water customers reduced their water use by 9%, according to Greg Fisher, the utility’s manager of demand planning. Three months remain in the year, and Fisher expressed hope that a full lawn watering ban implemented Thursday — accompanied by threats of steep fines — would help the utility meet its goal.
“By and large, our customers put in a serious effort to save water, and that puts us in a good position for next year,” he said.
Denver Water commissioners in March implemented mandatory watering restrictions — the first time the utility had put such rules into effect since 2013. The restrictions limited customers across the city and some of its suburbs to watering twice a week and imposed higher billing rates that kicked in as customers used more water.
Denver Water’s 1.5 million customers did become increasingly responsive to watering restrictions throughout the summer. In June, amid scorching heat, they reduced the amount of water they used, compared to normal for that month, by just 4%. In both August and September, customers used 14% less water than normal, according to the utility. That drove the cumulative reduction to 9%.
In total, customers used 10,800 acre-feet less water than normal so far this year, according to Denver Water. An acre-foot is the amount of water it takes to cover a football field in a foot of water and, in Denver Water territory, is enough for five households’ annual use.
The water provider — which serves a quarter of the state’s population — faced several challenges in convincing customers to use less.
No amount of eye-catching billboards or warnings about the state of the utility’s reservoir system could overcome the reality of Denver’s hottest, driest summer on record, Fisher said.
The winter was abnormally warm and dry, too, and Denverites started watering trees as early as January, Fisher said. They needed more water to keep their lawns and plants alive.
7,500-plus violations reported
No particular sector fell short in pulling its own water-saving weight, he said. Single-family homes, multifamily residential and commercial customers all saved water, though a few individuals in each category failed to do their part.
“There were individual customers in every sector and neighborhood where we saw violations and higher fines,” Fisher said.
Throughout the summer, Denver Water received more than 7,500 reports of watering violations. The utility issued 2,000 warnings and levied 110 fines that totaled approximately $30,000.
Generally, people corrected their behavior after receiving a warning, Fisher said.
The utility — and potentially shut off water service — for people who violate the new ban on lawn watering for the rest of the warm season.
Fisher said the full ban will bring the utility closer to its 20% reduction goal. The restriction is expected to save about 5,000 acre-feet of water — enough for 25,000 households’ annual use.
Despite the expected water savings, it is extremely unlikely Denver Water’s drought-depleted reservoir system will fully refill before next summer, Fisher said.
“Never say never, but it would take a pretty extreme winter to get there,” he said.
Where reservoir levels stand
The utility’s reservoir system is about two-thirds full at a time when its storage is typically at 91% of capacity. Those levels could fall to 60% before next spring’s runoff, when the reservoirs will begin to refill.
Dillon Reservoir , which would set a record low for the popular body of water in Summit County.
To prop up storage levels, Denver Water through the winter so that more water can flow across the divide through pipes and into the utility’s reservoirs.
Fisher hesitated to say at what reservoir storage threshold the utility would consider lifting watering restrictions. Throughout the winter, utility officials will continue to remind customers of the “slow-moving emergency” of drought, he said.
Nearly the entire state remains in drought conditions, despite fall rain and the season’s first snows in the high country lessening the severity of the aridity. As of Thursday, 89% of the state was in drought, and the other 11% was considered abnormally dry, .
This year’s drought and heat reemphasized to Denver Water’s leaders that it is difficult to predict weather patterns, Fisher said.
“We didn’t have anything in our history like 2026,” he said. “In some ways, we’re always operating in uncharted territory.”
