Nearly the entire state is in some level of drought, according to , but the aridity is especially intense over the highly populated urban corridor and the mountains that are the source of much of Colorado’s water. The winter’s record-low snowpack translated into this summer’s anemic streamflows, moisture-sucking soil and drained reservoirs. Federal authorities describe the drought frying the Front Range with sobering words: severe, extreme, exceptional.

Despite widespread severe drought, 13 of the 25 largest cities and towns in Colorado have not implemented additional mandatory water use restrictions. The 13 communities — including the cities of Fort Collins, Pueblo and Boulder — are home to more than 1.5 million people, which is about a quarter of the state’s population. Water managers in many of the communities without additional drought restrictions have asked customers to voluntarily cut back water use, to varying degrees of success.

Individual water providers set drought restrictions depending on their own portfolio of water sources and reservoirs. Communities that draw from multiple water sources, own powerful water rights and maintain large reservoir systems are best poised to ride out drought.

“Every district and provider is different; they have different water rights and storage rights, so you’re going to see vast differences from community to community,” said John Thornhill, Windsor’s director of community development.

Those differences can be confusing to customers who see headlines about extreme drought, shrinking reservoirs, other cities’ mandatory restrictions and the imperiled Colorado River system, said Kim Hutton, Boulder’s water resources manager. Denver Water and Aurora Water — along with many towns across the Western Slope — have implemented mandatory drought rules to curb water use. Pueblo, meanwhile, has in place.

Boulder is and city leaders have asked customers to voluntarily conserve water and irrigate outdoors only twice a week. Hutton doesn’t expect to implement mandatory restrictions this year based on the amount of water they have stored.

“We’ve gotten questions from community members asking, ‘Why aren’t you doing more?’” Hutton said. “It����ap a hard message to say, ‘Well, we planned for this and we don’t need to do more.’”

Despite the planning, water managers are keeping a close eye on reservoir storage levels, water use and streamflows. One year of extreme drought can be withstood, managers said, but multiple years will test water supply systems.

“I do think it����ap important for all of us to recognize that this drought is not a normal drought year,” said Pieter Van Ry, Englewood’s director of utilities. “This is unique and something that hasn’t been seen in decades, if ever, in the modern era of water supply.”

Different portfolios, different stances

Several Front Range water managers who have not imposed mandatory drought restrictions thanked previous community leaders for planning for drought and growth.

Fort Collins from the Colorado River via the Colorado Big Thompson Project, the Cache la Poudre River and the Michigan River, which is part of the North Platte River basin.

“Our predecessors planned well,” said Katie Collins, water conservation specialist with Fort Collins Utilities. “Even in this hot and dry year, our supply is enough to meet demand.”

Colorado Springs Utilities leaders have not implemented additional drought restrictions this year, though their customers are , regardless of drought status. The state’s second-largest city draws 70% of its water from the Colorado River, 25% from the Arkansas River and 5% from the South Platte River.

The utility issued a water supply watch warning customers about drought impacts, but will not implement further restrictions until it has less than 1.5 years’ worth of water in its reservoirs, water conservation supervisor Julia Gallucci said. The city currently has 2.7 years’ worth of water in storage.

“Plan for the worst, hope for best,” Gallucci said. “We’re already planning that we might have to do something far more restrictive next year.”

Many Front Range communities draw large portions of their water from across the Continental Divide. Major cities like Denver, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins draw significant portions of their supply from the Colorado River, which winds from the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park to the Utah border near Grand Junction.

The lack of watering restrictions in some Front Range communities irked Andy Mueller, general manager of the , a taxpayer-funded agency that works to protect Western Slope water. Western Slope water users are working hard to conserve, he said, and farmers are fallowing fields because there is not enough to meet all the needs.

It’s difficult to know that some of that conserved water ends up on the other side of the Continental Divide watering lawns in towns without any mandatory restrictions, he said.

“Folks on the west side of the divide know we’re in a drought, they know we have conservation efforts in place and most people are doing their best to comply with that,” Mueller said. “Frankly, we’re not seeing that in the majority of the smaller cities on the Front Range.”

Even some Front Range water providers with powerful water rights are starting to feel the strain.

For months, Englewood was the only community in the southern Denver metro without mandatory water restrictions. Although the town of approximately 35,000 does not have much water stored in reservoirs, it owns some of the most senior water rights on the South Platte River, meaning they get first dibs, even when the flow is low.

“Typically our rights are so senior that even in dry years or a normal drought year they’re able to be fulfilled,” said utilities director Van Ry.

But this is not a normal drought year, he said, and even some of their most senior water rights are being curtailed for the first time in the town’s history.

Englewood’s city council on Monday will decide whether to impose mandatory watering restrictions, at . The restrictions will limit outdoor watering to two days a week.

There’s no record of the town ever imposing mandatory drought restrictions, Van Ry said.

“That����ap the piece we can control – the demand side. We can’t control whether it rains or whether it snows,” Van Ry said. “The more we can do, the better we’ll be if this persists.”

Variable conservation results

The voluntary conservation metrics implemented by many communities have seen varying levels of success.

Water use is 10% below the 5-year average in Erie, which .

“We trusted that our community would respond and they did,” said Todd Fessenden, the town’s utilities director.

In Fort Collins, water use is up slightly above average, Collins said. In Boulder, use is tracking just at or below the 5-year average, Hutton said. Colorado Springs’ water use is up about 7% over the five-year average, Gallucci said.

All three water managers said they would have expected use to be much higher than average during such a long, hot and dry summer.

Denver Water, the state’s largest water provider, said at the end of July that water use across its 1.5 million customers had dropped 5% below the five-year average under its mandatory twice-a-week watering restrictions. In Aurora, from last year under similar mandatory restrictions.

Water managers across the Front Range touted years of water conservation efforts aimed at reducing use across the board, regardless of drought status. Municipal water use across the entire state is dwarfed by agricultural use, which .

While water use is up in Windsor this year over last year, Thornhill said, per capita water use in the booming town of approximately 44,000 is down 20% since 2012. Much of that increased water use occurred during the unusually warm spring, when dry and hot weather made people begin watering weeks earlier than normal.

Water use in the town of approximately 40,000 has been higher this year than in 2025 and 2023 — relatively wet years that required less watering — but lower than the dry year of 2024.

While this year’s drought is manageable, water leaders said subsequent years of dryness will cause exponentially dire problems.

“You can usually ride out the first year pretty well; it����ap the second and third and fourth year that become a problem,” Thornhill said.

A key City Council member this week said she doesn’t support one of the remaining steps officials had hoped to take to finalize the deal for a new Denver Broncos stadium at Burnham Yard.

Councilwoman Jamie Torres, whose district encompasses both Burnham Yard and the Broncos’ current home at Empower Field at Mile High, told The Denver Post on Thursday that she had concerns about where Denver Water may relocate part of its operations as the team takes over most of the utility’s land at Burnham Yard.

Her views as the representative of both neighborhoods will carry significant weight on the 13-member council, which would have to vote to approve the deal.

“I don’t see a future for Lot M with the Denver Water use,” Torres said. “We are trying to figure out what alternatives exist.”

Lot M, a 5-acre parking lot in Sun Valley near Empower Field, has been pitched as a potential site for relocating Denver Water’s emergency response facility. The building needs a new home because it����ap currently located in the footprint of the proposed new stadium site at Burnham Yard.

If the city, Denver Water and the Broncos can’t reach an agreement on where the building should go, it could cause ripples throughout the rest of the complicated deal.

The Broncos announced Burnham Yard as the team’s “preferred site” for a new stadium last September. The team is aiming to open the new facility by 2031, which would require construction to start next spring.

Team owner Greg Penner this week said that the timeline is “not going to be easy” with all the work that still needs to be done. Denver Water’s relocation is one of the factors adding to that difficulty.

Denver Water, which provides water to 1.5 million people in the metro area, agreed last year to move its operations from Burnham Yard so that the Broncos can relocate, so long as its ratepayers aren’t stuck footing the bill. Most of the utility’s campus will move to a property in Denver’s Elyria-Swansea neighborhood, but the emergency facility must be centrally located to quickly respond to water line breaks and other urgent issues.

Lot M currently provides supplemental parking for season ticket holders at Empower Field. Neighbors of the site have pushed for years for the city and state to convert the area surrounding the lot into a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood without industrial facilities. Community members have fought hard against Denver Water’s plans there, calling the proposal a “significant step backward” in a letter to city officials.

Torres said that without the community’s support — or at least acceptance of the plan — the idea would have a tough time getting through the City Council process.

“It was such a strong reaction against it and it never really eased up with more information,” she said. “For me, that signals it isn’t really a workable solution.”

Denver Water CEO Alan Salazar is still holding out hope that the utility can use Lot M while mitigating the community’s concerns, he said during a Wednesday meeting of Denver Water’s Board of Commissioners.

“I still think… Lot M is the path of least resistance,” he said.

He added in a written statement: “Denver Water has leaned into supporting the relocation of a new Broncos stadium because we recognize the positive impact a new stadium could have for Denver. At the same time, the relocation and replication of our critical facilities is also important to the community.”

Alternatively, the city could donate a different public parcel for the site, or the team could purchase another plot of land for Denver Water.

“Lot M is just one piece of the puzzle and we are exploring multiple options in partnership with the community, Denver Water and the Broncos,” said Jon Ewing, a spokesman for the mayor’s office.

A Broncos representative declined to answer a question about whether the team would be willing to pay for the plot of land Denver Water needs.

“We understand the integral role Denver Water plays in serving our community and remain committed to supporting its relocation efforts and ongoing operations,” team spokesman Patrick Smyth said.

The Broncos have taken several steps recently to advance the team’s plans for Burnham Yard, including finalizing deals to purchase land from SRM Concrete and the Colorado Department of Transportation.

There are, in fact, at least two “No e-bike” signs along the heavily used trail inside the affluent Arapahoe County city — a diagonal red slash drawn across a stick figure riding a bike with an electric plug attached.

Schwartz, a retired geriatrician who knows a thing or two about the value of exercise for older folks like himself, first noticed one of the signs at the Dahlia Street High Line trailhead in April. He was left to wonder how many seniors might be skipping their daily ride for fear of getting nabbed by the e-bike police.

“If you want to obey the law and don’t want to get in trouble, a sign staring you in the face telling you you can’t do this is limiting,” said Schwartz, 78.

He said he’s tried to get the attention of city leaders to reconsider the ban but hasn’t heard back.

“Older people are limited in the kind of exercise they can get that is free from pain and discomfort,” Schwartz said. “What is not terribly impactful for a 30-year-old, 40-year-old or 50-year-old can be very detrimental to someone who is 75 years old, 85 years old or older. E-bikes assist you in pedaling.”

The High Line Canal is a 71-mile ditch, mostly owned by Denver Water, that runs through 11 jurisdictions from Waterton Canyon in Douglas County to Aurora.

The calls the accompanying trail “one of the longest continuous urban trails in the country.” And for the vast majority of its length, e-bikes are permitted, including in Greenwood Village and Denver, between which Cherry Hills Village lies.

But in the city of 6,400, where the houses are big and the lots even bigger, they are not. That presents a continuity conundrum for users entering the several miles of the High Line Canal trail that lie inside Cherry Hills Village.

E-bikes also aren’t allowed in Waterton Canyon, where the U.S. Forest Service oversees portions of the trail. The federal agency considers the path at the western terminus of the canal trail a “non-motorized path,” Denver Water spokesman Travis Thompson said.

There are exceptions for those with disabilities, he said.

Cherry Hills Village has for years forbidden any motorized vehicles on its trails, said spokeswoman Denise White.

“The citywide rule reflects safety considerations on trails shared by pedestrians, bicyclists, children, pets and equestrians,” she said. “Because e-bikes have motors, all classes of e-bikes fall within that prohibition.”

There is an exception for e-bikes used by “an individual with a disability for mobility assistance,” White said.

E-bikes , with Class 1 models requiring the rider to pedal to get the electric boost while Class 2 models provide power regardless of pedaling. Both classes of bike top out at 20 mph. Class 3 e-bikes also require pedal power to trigger electric help. They can go as fast as 28 mph.

The number of people riding e-bikes is steadily rising and efforts to corral their use will likely face increasing pushback.

According to , U.S. e-bike sales reached nearly $3.8 billion last year. That number is expected to reach slightly more than $4 billion this year, with projections of nearly $5.8 billion in e-bike sales in 2031.

Last week, the Colorado Energy Office announced it was resurrecting its popular e-bike rebate program, offering $1,000 discounts toward the purchase of a new e-bike to more than 2,800 income-qualified residents over the next year.

Pete Piccolo, executive director at Bicycle Colorado, said bans on e-bikes “disproportionately impact older riders and people with disabilities who rely on e-bikes for transportation or recreation.”

“E-bikes are an accessible, environmentally friendly way that many Coloradans get to work, run errands and spend time outdoors with family,” he said. “We believe there are numerous other strategies to improve safety and address fast, unpredictable riders on a shared trail, other than a ban.”

One of those is enforcing a speed limit regardless of vehicle type, he said.

“Trail conflicts are real,” Piccolo said, but the heart of the issue lies in “speed and behavior, not the type of bike someone rides.”

“A posted limit applies to everyone on the trail, whether they are riding a traditional bike or an e-bike,” he said. “A ban excludes a category of rider regardless of how they actually ride.”

The posted speed limit on Cherry Hills Village’s portion of the High Line Canal trail is 15 mph. Richard Spritz, a resident for nearly three decades, said that threshold should be what guides use on the trail.

“Simply have speed limits you enforce,” he said.

Cherry Hills Village police have not cited anyone for illegal use of an e-bike on the High Line Canal trail in the last year, White said, but officers often give a warning for a first offense rather than issuing a ticket.

Spritz, a pediatrician, treats the opposite end of the age spectrum than Schwartz, his fellow villager, once did. But he knows from his own advance in years — he’s 75 — that e-bikes give a rider like him “the juice to just get over the hump.”

“It keeps people mobile,” he said.

Relief could be coming for e-bike lovers in Cherry Hills Village.

White, the city spokeswoman, said the city’s Parks, Trails and Recreation Commission has plans to review e-bike regulations early next year, which could be “the first step in determining whether the commission wishes to recommend any changes to the municipal code for City Council consideration.”

Schwartz hopes a discussion will be held sooner than 2027.

“That six months is a really important time span,” he said. “Being sedentary is terrible for older people. Acting on this faster for older people is important.”

The Broncos have closed a deal with SRM Concrete to purchase six parcels owned by the company that span nearly 10 acres in the northern part of the club’s planned stadium and surrounding mixed-use district at Burnham Yard.

“This agreement with SRM Concrete represents another meaningful step our organization has taken to advance plans for a future stadium and surrounding neighborhood at Burnham Yard,” Broncos president Damani Leech said in a statement provided to The Post. “We’re grateful to CEO Jeff Hollingshead and the entire SRM Concrete team for their partnership, collaboration and shared commitment throughout this process.”

See Broncos’ updated Burnham Yard renderings for proposed mixed-use district

The six parcels, according to city real estate records, have a combined assessed value of more than $15.6 million. Financial terms were not immediately available on the Broncos’ acquisition.

“We are pleased to finalize this agreement with the Denver Broncos and play a small part in helping move the Burnham Yard vision forward,” Hollingshead said in a statement. “This project represents an exciting opportunity for Denver, and we're proud to contribute to something that we believe can have a meaningful impact on the community for generations to come.”

The club and the concrete company have been negotiating for months over a potential sale, but SRM was one of the longest-running holdouts in the area immediately surrounding Burnham Yard. Now the two sides have come to an agreement.

In the spring, Hollingshead told The Post that he was sure the sides “can come to an agreement that works for both of us.”

“We’re not going to be the reason why the stadium’s not getting built,” Hollingshead added then.

In the end, SRM Concrete fit in somewhere down the list of potential issues around Burnham Yard, checking in after matters like the ongoing community benefits agreement negotiation, the complex and time-consuming efforts to relocate Denver Water from its site just west of SRM Concrete and more.

The six SRM Concrete parcels are 1100 N. Raritan, 1173 N. Quivas, 1195 N. Quivas, 1151 N. Quivas, 1590 W. 12th Ave. and 1570 W. 12th Ave.

The parcels combine to form a wedge that sits between the Denver Water headquarters and the now-defunct railyard. Regarding the Broncos’ proposals for a retractable-roof stadium and mixed-use district, the SRM Concrete parcels occupy a significant portion of the northern part of the proposed stadium site and also part of a planned, residential-heavy area that recent renderings refer to as the “North End.”

With the SRM Concrete deal closed and a purchase agreement for Burnham Yard itself finalized for $45.8 million -- that deal is slated to close later this year — most of the real estate transactions planned by the club in the proposed stadium area are now completed or essentially completed.

SRM Concrete, based in Tennessee, owns more than 560 concrete plants across 24 states. The company had just purchased the Burnham Yard-adjacent plant in 2022.

“I know what����ap coming,” the director of agronomy for Denver’s golf courses said of conditions at Overland Park Golf Course, which opened in 1895.

She and Matt Bennett, the superintendent who manages maintenance for the 18 holes, say they think 2026 is ushering in a new era of normal for local courses. This year’s drought conditions have caused all of Denver’s eight city-owned courses to cut their water budget by 20%.

“Golfers, especially in the West, we’ve got to get used to not everything being green,” Bennett said during a recent golf cart tour of Overland. “We’re not Augusta National.”

Much of the water used to quench Denver Parks & Recreation’s grass has been going to tee boxes, fairways and greens rather than the rough. While those main areas still look fairly lush at Overland, the outer reaches and in-between spots are browner.

Bennett and his team have also stopped watering the driving range grass to have more to give the rest of the course. The driving range appears in significantly worse condition than the rest of the course, though that could change through reseeding with more drought-resistant grass

“I don’t think this is every golfer’s experience, but some say playing out of the rough is way easier than the fairway now,” said Smith, who’s been the city’s agronomy director for nearly 20 years. Typically, the out-of-bounds edges of the course are more difficult to hit out of because the grass is longer.

“That makes my day,” she continued, saying it����ap evidence that golfers are adapting.

Smith’s courses have hit the 20% reduction target in May and June after Denver Water, which supplies the courses, instituted changes earlier this year. She also said they’re on track to hit that goal in July.

In a normal year, each course would require between 45 million and 65 million gallons of water to keep the grass green. That����ap the equivalent of hundreds of houses — the average household of four uses 73,000 gallons a year, according to Denver Water. Smith estimated that it would’ve taken 55 million to 75 million gallons to maintain baseline conditions this year if there were no restrictions.

“We already water at a pretty restrictive rate to start with, so now you’re taking away 20% from someone being very efficient and throwing in the climate that����ap already hotter and drier than the last 5 years,” Smith said.

She did not share how much Denver Parks & Recreation spends on water each season. But her department expects to spend more this year despite the reduction because water rates are up as a result of the drought.

Crews at courses also have been mowing less throughout the summer. Bennett said his team at Overland is mowing the rough once a week instead of the usual twice and trimming shorter grass twice weekly instead of three times, something Smith added is typical across the city’s portfolio.

Still, the turf at Overland and other city-owned courses has been looking greener than expected, in part because a wet May helped sustain a drier June and early July. That caused things to brown more around the course, but in the past several weeks, the grass has bounced back thanks to more rain.

Another part of that is a new technology Smith’s team has been using this year at City Park, which has the most sprinkler heads of any Denver facility; Overland, where Bennett is “very tech savvy,” Smith said; and at Willis Case, which uses potable water and is the most expensive to maintain.

TurfRad, as the system is called, measures water radiation at each course every day. Somebody from the maintenance crew takes it out every morning to track moisture levels in the soil and predict what����ap coming down the pike. The software allows each course superintendent to make hundreds of head adjustments to change the speed and scope of watering each day. A human crew member can make only tens of changes daily.

Smith said each system costs $12,000 for the equipment, along with a $16,000 yearly subscription for the software. At Overland, it takes Bennett about 1½ hours to survey the course. His turfRad scanners are affixed to several two-by-fours that are ratchet-strapped onto a golf cart.

“It����ap not so much about cost savings, but you take the water you have, and you’re much more effective in how you put it out,” Smith said. “Formerly, we’d look at the turf from a humanistic perspective. Now, the golfer’s experience is much better too. They used to find mush spots or dry spots across a course.”

Those golfers have been pretty understanding of the conditions that Smith and her staff face, she said, despite more golfers checking the “could be better box” on recent surveys about the shape of a given course.

With an El Niño weather pattern forecast for the future, Smith is optimistic about making it through the end of the season. Irrigation systems typically shut off around Thanksgiving and come on in late winter, depending on the weather.

That didn’t happen last year, though. They turned the system back on in February to make sure the grass wouldn’t die out and just stay dormant. At one point, she and her staff had to pause golf cart use to keep the ground from getting too beat up. It was the busiest winter season yet, Smith said.

“To me this all is an opportunity to adapt and learn and grow and change our expectations around turf and the optics around turf,” she said.

Read more from our partner, .

1. Why do we need AI data centers?

Not all data centers are the same. CoreSite’s facilities, including DE3, are different from single-tenant hyperscale data centers used for training AI models.

Our data centers are multi-tenant, which means we host dozens of customers under one roof, connecting them to each other to quickly deliver information and services. Just like malls host multiple stores, our data centers enable companies to share resources like power and water, making them more efficient than if each customer operated its own data center.

CoreSite facilities make possible important activities for everyday life, like 911 calls, telehealth visits and online banking, plus emails, video calls and social media. Our data centers are built to deliver technology to people and businesses rather than to train AI models.

2. How much water will DE3 use?

We build our data centers in phases based on customer demand, so we draw water and power only as needed, rather than 100% on day 1. We worked with Denver Water (and Xcel Energy) years before breaking ground, allowing our utility partners to plan ahead.

Once fully built out in 2027, DE3 will use on average 115,000 gallons of water per day, with a design capacity of 237,000 gallons. Like office buildings designed for maximum occupancy but rarely full, a multi-tenant data center is built for peak demand but typically operates well below it.

For context, agriculture is the largest water user in Colorado, and a Palisade peach grower uses about 975,000 gallons per acre of irrigation water every growing season. Water is what keeps our farms productive, our hospitals running and data centers — the backbone of modern digital life — online.

3. Will that raise my electric bill?

CoreSite pays for its power use and any infrastructure upgrades needed to serve our facilities, so we do not create a burden on other customers. Our agreement with Xcel Energy is overseen by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission and is designed to protect residential customers from rate increases caused by large commercial customers.

DE3 is designed to support up to 18 MW of electricity for our customers at full build-out, developed in three phases of 6 MW each. Reaching the full 18 MW is expected to take years due to our phased approach, which allows us to use power and water only as needed.

4. How often will your generators run?

Like hospitals and airports, data centers need generators to run in situations when utility power may be interrupted. Our customers include emergency services, banks and local governments – they rely on us when crises hit.

Our emergency generators are permitted by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and can run only in emergencies or for periodic maintenance and testing. The generators will not run 24/7. For reference, generators at our two other Denver data centers run on average less than 10 hours a year.

5. Why hasn’t CoreSite engaged with the Globeville Elyria Swansea (GES) neighborhood?

We have, starting years ago. With Councilmember Darrell Watson, we hosted community meetings in June and October 2024, and a job fair in July 2025. We’ve participated in multiple in-person meetings with the GES Coalition, answered questions in writing and are currently working toward a Good Neighbor Agreement.

Our team has also shown up in the community, volunteering with Focus Point, doing a neighborhood cleanup with Extreme Community Makeover and investing $50,000 in the Swansea Recreation Center and Jack A. Vickers Boys and Girls Club.

Some residents feel the early engagement wasn’t enough, and we take that seriously. The Good Neighbor Agreement is an opportunity to listen, be transparent and build the relationship going forward.

Data centers create lasting economic value for Denver, where our employees call home and where we’ve been headquartered for more than 20 years. DE3 has already employed hundreds of local construction workers. That will continue as we complete the buildout, in addition to the permanent, well-paying technical and operations jobs once the facility is online. CoreSite also contributes hundreds of millions to Denver’s tax base, supporting the public services residents depend on. This city is our home, and these conversations — even the hard ones — are worth having.

Megan Ruszkowski is the vice president of marketing at CoreSite, headquartered in Denver.

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.

Re: “RTD’s head in the sand approach does not inspire confidence,” July 26 editorial.

Your contention that RTD needs to face up to the reality of its budget shortfall is right but falls short of providing a complete vision for RTD moving forward.

Yes, start with relying on reserves — combined with cuts to its least utilized service routes. Then redirect resources to create corridors of affordability where car-light living can become realistic.

A monthly RTD pass costs $88, barely more than a tank of gas, not to mention car payments, depreciation, maintenance, and insurance — an increasingly expensive combination.

RTD can make car-light living preferable and boost ridership generally by investing in more frequent (every 10 minutes or less) bus service in target areas to better connect its rail lines with neighborhoods and key amenities.

Start with RINO. Boost bus service between 38th and Blake Station to Union Station and to grocery stores in downtown and uptown to make car-light living viable for those who prefer it or need it.

The Central Park neighborhood also provides an opportunity for the region. It has an abundance of grocery stores but lacks fast, frequent connections to existing and planned retail amenities for those living in many areas along the A Line.

Denver’s path to prosperity can be rebuilt by doubling down on the pieces of RTD that are working well (such as the A Line) and focusing on approaches that have proven to boost ridership elsewhere ( more frequent bus service to critical amenities like grocery stores).

Mark Mehringer, Denver

I would like to share two comments regarding the recent editorial on RTD.

RTD’s ridership and budget problems are closely tied to the high vacancy rate for downtown office space. Denver currently ranks at or near the top of major U.S. cities with a downtown office vacancy rates of 36.5%. Because RTD’s ridership depends so heavily on a robust downtown work environment, returning to pre-COVID ridership levels will be difficult without a broader government and private sector commitment to revive downtown employment.

RTD’s $200 million budget shortfall nearly matches its $190 million commitment to the Front Range Passenger Rail (Colorado Connector) project. With just three round-trip trains per day, this project will provide redundant/parallel service to highly successful bus rapid transit lines like the US 36 Flatiron Flyer, which offers nearly 100 round-trips per day, and the upcoming CO119 Diagonal Flyer.

Failing to deliver on the original FasTracks commitment to the northwest metro area is not a sufficient reason to continue funding a “set up to fail” project. RTD should strongly consider withdrawing its funding from the Colorado Connector. That money would be better spent on enhancements to the existing bus rapid transit lines serving the NW metro area, albeit not a politically popular course of action.

Karl Buchholz, Broomfield

Recent coverage of RTD’s budget and ridership crisis completely ignores the elephant in the room, public safety. Until city leaders and RTD officials address the rampant, dangerous behavior at our transit stops, everyday citizens will continue to avoid the bus system.

My office sits at the corner of Lafayette Street and Colfax Avenue, right next to an RTD stop. Every single day, I watch our public transit infrastructure double as an open-air drug market and encampment. I routinely have to ask individuals to stop smoking crack and meth on our building’s steps, only to be met with aggressive and hostile threats.

Our property is consistently littered with trash, discarded pipes, and human feces. These same aggressive, heavily intoxicated individuals then board the Colfax buses. It is absurd to wonder why ridership is plummeting when commuters are forced to fear for their physical safety before they step on board.

RTD does not need more marketing; it needs a spine. We need an immediate zero-tolerance policy for aggressive behavior and open drug use, alongside an active and unannounced security presence on transit routes–like federal air marshals. Ridership will only return when RTD and the city finally prioritize the safety of law-abiding, fare-paying citizens.

Max Odom, Denver

Leave my green lawn alone

Re: ”Don’t make your neighbors resentful. Let your grass go dormant,” July 26 commentary.

Ten years ago, after twenty-five years living in a well-maintained weed patch that turned to mud every winter, over five consecutive summers I started putting in a lawn at 600 sq ft per year. Hand weeding, rototilling, regrading to fill low spots, adding soil enhancements (manure) and finally seeding and watering. All by hand.

I chose grass seeds of ryes and fescues formulated for arid, high-altitude applications. My grass is very well suited to the application. Being retired, I have the time and inclination to water my lawn with a single hose, by hand. I obey the letter and spirit of the law regarding water restriction times and days, and I am allowing my backyard to suffer in comparison.

My lawn is an oasis for my grandkids and it����ap a luxury I’ve earned after a life without. My neighbor’s petty “resentments” regarding my lawn are as irrelevant to me and my lawn care regimen as Arizona squandering its Colorado River shares, watering most of their irrigated golf course acreage and allowing unrestricted residential swimming pool permits, with cost being the only impediment to having one in your backyard. If your conscience eats at you, Xeriscape your yard if you want. When more of you do so, it leaves more water for us that love our lawns.

I refuse to be shamed for my choices on this matter by my neighbors or Krista Kafer. Perhaps Krista Kafer could stop using her Denver Post-sanctioned “soapbox” to advocate for the politics and politicians that regurgitate the lies of climate denialism if she wants to make a specific contribution to our community, and to humanity in general. Leave me and my lawn out of it.

Paul Barnkow, Arvada

Re: “Will residents face more severe water restrictions?,” July 26 news story.

I’m reading with interest the articles regarding the water restrictions imposed by Denver Water and that the restrictions aren’t generating the reductions requested.

In my HOA, in southwestern Centennial, south of Greenwood Village, the HOA waters twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays throughout the entire day. Watering begins in the morning and continues throughout the day, all day each of the two approved days. Additionally, the HOA has made no move to remove grass in the 75 acres that comprise our community.

As recently as 10 years ago, Willows Water, our local provider, could be notified of unintentional watering of streets and sidewalks at midday, and they would note the information and notify the user. The watering would stop. In the last few years, when Willows Water was notified about the non-approved hours of watering, they indicated they no longer want to receive that information.

It will be interesting to see what next year’s watering schedule brings. A small amount of grass in the backyard was kept, making my house viable for future sales; however, the lack of water will likely make that grass extinct.

Unfortunately, with the current administration stating, “climate change is a hoax” there will be fewer efforts to recognize and mitigate the issue. For those of us who recognize the reality of climate change, these hot, hot summers will be the norm, not the exception.

Polly Archuleta, Centennial

If you have an issue with a neighbor, you should talk to them before calling the cops, or in the case of our current water shortage, Denver Water. Filing anonymous complaints against one’s neighbors does not promote community.

We have lawns in our neighborhood that are suspiciously green, for sure. But if someone is ignoring watering restrictions and using far more water than is recommended, the water department has precise numbers taken from residential meters.

The water department established the restrictions and enforcement, and is the water department’s responsibility. Let’s not add “water snitch” to the list of all the things that already divide us. If the department is serious about cracking down, we will see the evidence. So far, there is no evidence the water department takes its own restrictions seriously.

Barry Noreen, Denver

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Some reservoirs have fallen so low that they instead look more like the rivers they once were. Boat ramps across the state no longer reach water. Where there should be rows of corn, the landscape is dotted by brown, fallowed fields.

Creekbeds have dried up weeks earlier than normal, while even larger rivers have dwindled to trickles. Rising water temperatures in those shrunken rivers are causing fish to suffocate. And for at least two dams, declining reservoir levels now threaten power production.

“Everybody’s got a story of woe,” said Steve Pope, the manager of the Montrose-based Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association. “It����ap regionwide; nobody is escaping it.”

At a meeting of water managers last month, the head of Colorado’s Division of Water Resources compared the state to Mordor — the barren, ash-covered domain of the villain in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. He then flipped through a series of graphs showing streamflow gauges across the state. Each one was at or near record lows.

“The monsoons will help — they will help reduce demand — but they won’t bring storage back up,” state engineer Jason Ullmann told his fellow water officials. “I think we’re all holding our breath to get through this year.”

It’s too early to say that this summer’s drought is the worst on record, Ullmann said in a later interview. Heavy rains from the monsoon that arrived in July could alleviate the worst of the suffering — if those come.

So far, rain has done little to lift the weight of drought.

As it has for months, nearly the entire state is enduring some level of dryness, according to by the U.S. Drought Monitor. It considers half of the state to be in extreme or exceptional drought — the two most severe categories used by the agency. The latest Colorado map barely changed from the one released the week prior.

Beyond the Front Range urban corridor, where many cities and utilities have imposed watering restrictions, the drought has caused millions of dollars in losses to Colorado’s farmers. It’s sapped reservoir storage and hamstrung river recreation — including rafting on many popular stretches of river. It has also spurred new collaborations between water users trying to survive.

“The whole state is feeling the pain and the strain of this year’s drought,” said Emily Adrid, a water planning and climate impacts specialist at the .

This winter’s record-low snowpack and continued record-high temperatures are signs of conditions that could become more probable as climate change advances, scientists have said. The 2026 water year — which began in October with snowfall and will end in September as summer irrigation ends — is thus far the warmest on record and the fourth-driest, .

The winter’s anemic snowfall yielded a snowpack that was 58% of normal, to the dismay of skiers, snowmobilers and water managers across the state. A record-warm spring season began melting the mountain snow weeks earlier than expected.

Spring runoff — the surge of water that refills reservoirs and irrigates farmers’ fields — yielded half the average amount this year. Statewide reservoir storage sits at 75% of average, though several reservoirs are less than half full.

“One of the lessons we all need to learn is that climate change is real,” said Andy Mueller, the general manager of the Colorado River District. “While this is a one-off year — we hope — we should anticipate more of these types of years in the future,” he said. “We need to adjust our expectations as a society to the availability of water.”

Thousands of acres of fallowed fields

In the Uncompahgre River Valley in southwestern Colorado, weeds are growing across thousands of acres of land that normally produce corn, beans and grains.

Farmers this spring were forced to fallow thousands of acres because they knew there wouldn’t be enough water, said Pope, from the valley’s water users association. For nearly a century, the association has delivered water from the Gunnison and Uncompahgre rivers to more than 83,000 acres of land in Montrose and Delta counties.

This year, the Uncompahgre River has provided almost no water.

At one point, one of the gauges on the river read 4 cubic feet per second, at a time when the riverbed should have had 400 cfs rushing over.

The association could provide only half of its normal amount of water this year, forcing hard choices in the valley as the organization relied primarily on the Gunnison River. Large farm operations cut their acreage by up to 60%, Pope said.

“The majority of our row crop farmers are pretty hard hit,” he said.

Water in Colorado is allocated based on when the water right was established. Older rights have seniority over those that came later.

In several basins, holders of water rights older than the state of Colorado — which just marked 150 years of statehood — are the only ones receiving it now, said Ullmann, whose office implements water curtailments. Those restrictions have also come earlier in the year. Some water users with senior rights are seeing their water allocations cut for the first time in history, he said.

While most municipal water users have reservoir storage to get them through lean times, agricultural users often do not, Ullmann said. So when they lose their water, they’re forced to cut back. That could mean growing less feed for their cattle, which then leads to selling off chunks of the herd.

Water users in the southwestern region, too, are struggling, said Andrew Straub-Heidke, the general manager of .

Monsoon rains this year and last year have helped the region. Heavy rainfall last year propped up reservoir levels before the dry winter began. In the past week, rains have eased water cuts.

“We’re hurting, like the rest of the state,” Straub-Heidke said. “I know people have been excited for the rains, and I hope they keep coming.”

For Pope, one silver lining of the season is that he was able to warn farmers that it would be a difficult water year before they bought supplies in the spring. But it could still take years for producers to recover, especially if more drought years follow.

“The reality is we’re at the mercy of Mother Nature up here,” he said. “We don’t have enough storage to have multiple years of carryover.”

Concerning reservoir levels

For the first time in 40 years, the turbines of Aspen’s hydropower plant on will soon stop spinning because the reservoir’s levels will fall too low.

The exact date isn’t clear, but the water level of the reservoir, which is on the Fryingpan River north of Aspen, will certainly drop below the minimum level to safely operate the Ruedi Hydroelectric Facility in the coming weeks, said Joshua Mattson, the city’s utilities resource and portfolio manager. The facility will then be powered down until at least the springtime, when runoff should boost the reservoir’s levels again.

When it shuts down, the city will lose 18% of its energy portfolio, forcing officials to pivot to purchasing power from another source. Utility managers estimate they will spend about $710,000 to buy power from the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska, according to a memo Mattson submitted to the City Council.

That power will come from renewable sources, Mattson said.

Low reservoir levels are causing concern across the state. Green Mountain Reservoir — on the Blue River north of Silverthorne — each day falls to a new low. On Wednesday, .

Falling water levels have stranded boat ramps, revealed islands and left buoys sitting on rocky shores, instead of floating.

Earlier this year, the low reservoir prompted emergency collaboration among the dozens of entities that rely on the reservoir’s water, which is part of that diverts water from the Colorado River system to northeastern Colorado communities.

For the first time, spring runoff delivered so little water to the Colorado River and its tributaries that, for the first time, there was not enough to fill the demands of a pool of water in Green Mountain Reservoir set aside for hundreds of users along the river that have less senior water rights.

Without action, those entities — including Summit County towns, Eagle County government agencies and many homeowners associations — would have seen their water supplies cut by early June.

Water managers at the took heed of the warnings in the runoff data and in late March began to cobble together a solution, said Mueller, the district’s general manager. The district, a taxpayer-funded agency that works to protect Western Slope water, took 15,000 acre-feet of water that it normally leases to the highest bidders and instead redistributed it to water users who needed it most. An acre-foot of water is approximately enough for two families’ annual needs.

Without the pivot, the 15,000 acre-feet likely would’ve been leased to a handful of wealthy ranchers, Mueller said.

“We just didn’t think that was the right thing to do,” he said, noting that the district lost revenue by changing the practice.

The district also helped negotiate a deal with farmers in the Grand Valley who have senior rights. They agreed to use less than their legal allotment early in the season so that users upstream with less-powerful water rights could continue to access their supplies. The agreement means that those farmers will have water longer into the summer season, but farmers still have needed to cut production.

“But they were willing to do that in order to make the whole system work, which I think is a lesson for us all in this time where it’s hard to get people to cooperate,” Mueller said.

Water users are also keeping a close eye on Blue Mesa Reservoir, the largest reservoir in the state. On Wednesday, Blue Mesa — the lowest level on record for that date in the last 30 years.

Projections from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation show that the reservoir west of Gunnison should remain above the level needed for hydropower production through the next two years under relatively normal weather conditions.

But under , the reservoir could fall too low by October, the projections show.

The federal agency has been working to reduce demands downstream of the reservoir to keep it fuller longer, Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson said in an email.

Pope, with the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association, is also keeping a close eye on Blue Mesa’s storage. Its irrigation project diverts water downstream of the reservoir, redirecting it from the middle of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

The association generally starts drawing water from that diversion in April, before spring runoff begins. If there is not enough water in the river below the dam to meet the project’s demands, its leaders could place a call on the river that would siphon most of the water out of the canyon, which is a national park.

“Politically, it����ap a difficult decision,” Pope said.

Hundreds of miles of streams closed to fishing

Too little water flowing in rivers has also caused problems for wildlife. On the Elk River north of Steamboat Springs last month, the bodies of hundreds of silvery fish bobbed on the surface and along the banks. The river had become too hot for the mountain whitefish, one of only two sport fish native to Colorado.

More than 300 mountain whitefish died on July 19 — the largest, but not the only, fish kill as drought sapped water levels and raised temperatures in mountain streams, said Ben Felt, a senior aquatic biologist with Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

State wildlife officials have implemented fishing restrictions on more than 630 miles of rivers and streams to protect fish populations — a record number that continues to increase weekly.

“What we’re seeing this year with fishing closures is really unprecedented,” Felt said.

Last week, CPW implemented voluntary afternoon fishing closures on stretches of the Colorado River, the Fraser River, Clear Creek and several branches of the South Platte River. The closures include the famed “Dream Stream” in Park County between Spinney Mountain and .

Streamflows in all of those reaches are far below normal. Flows in Clear Creek near Golden have hovered around 80 cubic feet per second, a third of the norm for this time of year. The Middle Fork of the South Platte River near Hartsel generally flows at about 110 cfs in late July, but current flows hover around 10 cfs.

CPW officials consider several factors when deciding when to impose a fishing restriction: how much water is in the waterway, the maximum water temperatures, water quality and how much fishing pressure the area receives. Warning away anglers keeps more fish from experiencing the stress of being hooked, netted and handled.

The vast majority of fishing closures are voluntary and anglers, so far, have abided by them, Felt said. CPW biologists recommend anglers focus on high alpine lakes and streams, or on stretches of tailwaters immediately downstream of dams that remain cool.

Colorado’s drought has also caused water managers to completely drain reservoirs across the state, leading to emergency fish salvages where anglers can harvest as many as they can catch.

Denver Water this spring drained Antero Reservoir, a popular fishing destination. The Windsor Reservoir and Canal Company is drawing down Douglas Reservoir in Larimer County, the Trinchera Irrigation Company is draining Mountain Home Reservoir near Fort Garland and the New Cache La Poudre Reservoir Company is draining Timnath Reservoir near Fort Collins.

CPW has also closed boat ramps at at least five state parks, where waters are too low for large boats.

When those reservoirs refill, they will need stocked fish to jump-start the fishing and aquatic environment. But CPW’s fish hatcheries, too, are struggling.

The agency operates 19 fish hatcheries across the state where biologists raise 90 million fish from 30 species every year. Some of the facilities have not had access to the amount of water they need for normal operations, said Jeff Spohn, CPW deputy assistant director for the aquatic branch.

In response, hatchery staff are reducing the number of fish in impacted hatcheries by releasing them early. But that is complicated, too — some waters they planned to stock are too low to receive new fish.

Looking past this summer, state water managers worry about what might happen should this coming winter’s snowpack fall below the average. The state needs three or four years of average or above-average snowfall to recover, Ullmann said.

“I don’t know if anyone has another silver bullet solution as to how they’re going to get through next year if we have a bad snowpack,” he said.

Leech, speaking with reporters at the club’s sparkling new headquarters, said the Broncos are “eager” to speak directly with community groups involved in the Community Benefits Agreement process, the small-area plan and more.

“We can’t do this alone. There are certain things we don’t control,” Leech said. “I think, as a good example, the community benefits process is something that we can’t control. We’ve had a lot of great initial conversations with community representatives. More recently it����ap been more on a staff level. We’re eager to engage with those community members directly to understand what they’re looking for, what needs and interests they have in the development.

“Things like that, we have to progress. We said many months ago this is an ambitious timeline. For that to happen, we need everybody to be involved. We can’t do it alone in order to get to 2031.”

The 16-organization CBA coalition, called Burnham Yard Community Action, officially formed in May. Among the group’s advisors is former Councilwoman Robin Kniech, who is serving as a consultant and spokesperson.

“There’s a neighborhood of people who have jobs every day — this is not what they do every day — and they’ve hired consultants to help guide them through that process,” Leech said. “Most of our interface has been with those consultants. We’d much rather just engage with the staff directly and on a much quicker pace, is what I would say, to better understand what are the things that are important to them in this development? What are the kinds of things they’d like to see come to fruition and move things along?”

In response to Leech’s remarks, the BYCA sent the following statement to The Post Saturday.

“Burnham Yard Community Action, the coalition of organizations working on the Community Benefits Agreement, has twice sent detailed questions to the ownership group and is still awaiting substantive answers. We proposed a meeting more than four weeks ago and only heard yesterday that ownership wants to move forward.

“BYCA is actively developing priorities for the CBA, work that depends on development information the ownership group has not yet provided. We continue to look forward to working with the Broncos ownership group to achieve our shared goals for this project.”

A punch list that’s long and complicated

The CBA is just one of several processes the Broncos are working to present to the City Council for approval.

A source with knowledge of the situation told The Post that the small area plan between the Broncos and the city is on track to potentially be in front of city council by January. That vote is critical for several reasons, including that Denver Urban Renewal Authority has said that work on an urban renewal plan for the site, which will determine whether tax-increment financing is approved for the project, will not take place until after a small-area plan has been approved.

Then there’s the matter of relocating about 20 acres of Denver Water’s operations to other parts of the city. That includes a plan to relocate about 5 acres of emergency response infrastructure to a hotly contested parking lot at the current Empower Stadium site.

“It����ap a complicated process,” Leech said of relocating the utility. “I have a standing weekly meeting with (Denver Water CEO) Alan Salazar and his executive team. We have great conversations and meetings with them. It����ap not easy, it����ap pretty complicated.”

There are also smaller matters, like the still-to-be-finalized purchase of SRM Concrete, a multi-acre parcel in the northern part of the Broncos’ proposed stadium development. SRM CEO Jeff Hollingshead told The Post this spring, though, that the company wouldn’t be the reason a stadium project stalls and the sides are expected to get a deal done.

Kansas City-based architeture firm will design stadium

While all those myriad processes plow forward at varying speeds, the Broncos are headlong into several parts of the project that they do have control over. They made the public announcement Saturday that, earlier this year, team officials selected Kansas City-based Manica Architecture to design the stadium at Burnham Yard and Denver-based Tryba Architects to lead the master plan and design for the stadium-anchored entertainment district surrounding the stadium.

“Understanding what this team means to its great fans in Denver and across ����apountry, MANICA is honored to be chosen as the lead design architect of the Broncos’ new retractable-roof stadium,” Manica owner and president David Manica said in a statement provided to The Post. “We are committed to delivering a world-class fan experience at the center of the enhancements the Broncos will be adding to the local neighborhoods.”

Manica designed Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the new Nissan Stadium in Nashville, the Golden State Warriors’ Chase Center in San Francisco and is working with the Kansas City Chiefs on their new stadium design, among others.

Tryba lead design principal David Tryba said in a statement that his firm is, “thrilled” to be working with the Broncos, has a “deep appreciation” for the Santa Fe, La Alma and Lincoln Park neighborhoods and, “look forward to helping the Broncos transform this industrial rail yard into a vibrant, year-round destination where neighbors and fans feel at home for generations to come.”

Tryba has been involved in several major urban development projects on the Front Range, including Boulder’s Google offices, the new Western Stock Show headquarters and more.

Leech said the team is close to releasing renderings of the entertainment district but much further away from releasing stadium renderings.

The Broncos, Leech said, have subcommittees working on all manner of planning on the stadium front.

“I find myself often at the center of that, trying to make sure and traffic cop communication across those different groups,” he said. “I think it����ap going well. The challenge always is having enough information at a certain time to answer people’s questions and being ready to make decisions. That����ap one thing Greg and Carrie (Penner) are really deliberate about: What decisions have to be made right now vs. decisions we would just like to make?”

There are a lot of decisions, processes and approvals between now and when the Broncos are hoping to begin construction in spring or summer next year.

Leech said the team won’t need much time between a final green light from the City Council and putting shovels in the ground, but the path from here to there is still a long one.

“This is a pretty large and complex process and there’s days when I’m driving home and I’m really excited about the progress that we’re making,” Leech said. “And, I’ll be honest, there’s days when I have concern and frustration because you can’t control it all.”

Aurora has levied close to 200 fines to homeowners for violating city water restrictions this summer, a marked increase from the half-dozen it issued last year.

And tubing enthusiasts in Golden are emerging from Clear Creek with scrapes and bruises because of stream flows that are just over a quarter of what they should be at this point in July.

“This is definitely the lowest water level we’ve seen in the creek since 2002,” said Golden Deputy City Manager Carly Lorentz, who noted the 80-cubic-feet-per-second rhythm of the creek is akin to a mid-September volume. “But that low flow hasn’t scared anybody away.”

Welcome to one of the hottest and driest summers metro Denver has seen in years, notwithstanding scattered monsoon rain relief last week in pockets of the Front Range. And the critical buffer the state relies on — stored water in reservoirs — is shrinking steadily, hobbled by the lowest recorded snowpack in Colorado since 1941.

Cities and towns are grappling with whether to boost limits on water consumption, especially with forecasts calling for high temperatures to remain in the 90s well into this week. And don’t be surprised if a citation arrives in your mailbox, as new monitoring technology gives water providers a precise view of who is complying with watering rules at any hour — and who is trying to get away with an extra helping of forbidden H2O.

“I think it’s safe to say that 2026 will go down as the record drought year, and hopefully it won’t be exceeded for a long time,” said Jason Ullmann, Colorado’s state engineer. “But if we don’t get a good snowpack this winter, next year will be more difficult than this year.”

The state’s reservoirs are at 65% to 75% of where they should be at this time of year, Ullmann said.

And while parts of metro Denver got a slight reprieve from the dryness and heat last week — Thursday was the first day Denver saw a high temperature below 90 degrees in nearly two weeks, according to state climatologist Russ Schumacher — there’s a lot more summer to go.

After Denver saw its first 100-degree day of the season last week, temperatures are once again flirting with triple digits this weekend. Water managers everywhere are on edge.

Last week, Castle Rock , mandating a two-day-per-week watering limit, both by sprinkler and by hand. Most municipalities and utilities, including Denver Water, had already enacted similar watering restrictions earlier this year under levels they classified as Stage 1.

Mark Marlowe, the director of Castle Rock Water, said voluntary reductions in water use weren’t cutting it in the town of nearly 90,000, despite the town’s ban on the installation of thirsty new turf lawns and a recent ordinance for dormant and brown lawns.

Castle Rock was seeking a 10% cut in water use but “we weren’t seeing any meaningful reductions,” Marlowe said. While Plum Creek — a drinking water source for the town — has dried to a trickle, Castle Rock was still pushing out 18 million gallons on average to its customers every day, he said.

Now Castle Rock wants a reduction in water use of 25%. Violators , then $25 for a second violation and increasing amounts for subsequent breaches.

“It’s understandable; people are trying to protect their landscapes,” Marlowe said. “But when we get into a drought like this, we have to reduce water use.”

‘We need them to save more’

Denver Water, the state’s largest water provider with 1.5 million customers across the city and some suburbs, was shooting for a 20% reduction in water use under mandatory watering rules implemented in late March.

So far, water use has dropped 5%, said Greg Fisher, Denver Water’s manager of demand planning.

While the utility will happily take that savings to the water bank, Fisher’s message to customers is simple: “We need them to save more.”

Denver Water is preparing to turn up the heat on enforcement of its water restrictions in the latter half of summer, he said.

At the beginning of the season, the utility focused on educating customers. Homeowners reported to the utility’s tip line were sent postcards and robocalls , which limit outdoor watering to two assigned days per week. Watering also must occur before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m.

“The vast majority of people, you only have to talk to them once,” Fisher said.

Residents found breaking the rules for the first time will receive a formal warning. Then fines kick in: $250 all the way up to $1,000, depending on the number of violations.

Denver Water officials have not yet seriously considered implementing stricter restrictions, Fisher said. Under Stage 2 rules — the next level of restrictions — the utility would ban lawn irrigation, limit watering to once a week and require restaurants to provide drinking water only upon request.

Users need to reduce water use — and hope for a good winter snowfall — to keep those tighter restrictions off the table next summer, Fisher said.

“More severe stages are certainly on the table for next year; the huge uncertainty is the winter,” he said. “… Everything we’re doing this year is to prevent that.”

As of last week, the water provider’s 10-reservoir system . Normally, the supply system is nearly full this time of year. Despite its grim standing, Fisher said, the reservoir situation is significantly better than in 2002, another year of record-breaking drought.

In Aurora, concerns over water bottler

That parched summer 24 years ago has become the “floor for modeling” stresses to Aurora’s water system, utility spokeswoman Shonnie Cline said.

But 2026 is giving 2002 a run for its money.

“We are seeing our reserves drawn down,” Cline said. “It is concerning.”

The dozen reservoirs Colorado’s third-largest city taps are at 51% of capacity — well below the 85% threshold they typically meet in late July. The city expects Spinney Mountain Reservoir in Park County, which on the Colorado and Arkansas rivers, to plunge to just a fifth of its capacity by year’s end, Cline said.

“About every three weeks, we’re losing about 1% of storage,” Cline said of the overall system, which serves around 400,000 customers.

One of those customers, California-based Niagara Bottling, is Aurora Water’s largest. It used more than 200 million gallons last year as it bottled city tap water to sell to retailers for their store-brand bottled water offerings.

Niagara so far has refused to adhere to Aurora Water’s mandate of a 20% reduction in use, as first — an issue Cline says the utility is in negotiations with the company about.

“It can be harder for businesses to pivot (than residential customers),” she told The Denver Post.

Niagara’s water consumption amounts to 1% of the utility’s total annual water output, she said. Last week, Niagara provided The Post with a statement saying the company “is willing to do its part to reduce water consumption during drought conditions.”

“That����ap why Niagara has already deployed meaningful water-efficiency measures, including the installation of an in-plant recovery system expected to save approximately 8 million to 10 million gallons of water in 2026, and (approximately) 20 million gallons annually thereafter,” the company said.

Meanwhile, Tim York, Aurora Water’s manager of water conservation, uses the latest smart meter technology — dubbed — to precisely track customer use across the city, button up water waste and pinpoint who the violators are.

So far, Aurora Water has issued around 200 citations for breaking watering rules, with for repeated infractions. York said the city so far was meeting its goal of a 20% reduction in water use, but the utility must remain vigilant.

“We do need to hold that into the next few months,” he said.

Officials at Highlands Ranch Water said customers in the Douglas County suburb didn’t necessarily wait until late spring to start up their sprinklers, given the extraordinarily warm and dry winter and spring this year.

“The irrigation season started a lot sooner,” said Swithin Dick, the utility’s water rights administrator.

That has added up to 2.3% more water consumed than expected through the first six months of the year, Dick said — an amount equaling 48.2 million gallons.

“The increased temperatures that you had this year really had a huge impact on the streams and the vegetation,” Dick said. “We are seeing a lot more yellow turf here in Highlands Ranch than we’ve seen in other years.”

But the message about saving water may be getting through, albeit with some old-fashioned prodding. Highlands Ranch Water has so far issued 300 violation notices to customers this year, the vast majority of them warnings.

“Most people need a tap on the shoulder to make them take a look at their sprinkler system,” said Paige McFarland, the utility’s water efficiency coordinator. “But we are physically present in the community, patrolling in the early morning.”

El Niño relief on horizon?

There are signs that earnest messaging about conserving water can change behavior, even without the punitive measures. In Erie, town leaders this spring asked residents and homeowners associations to voluntarily limit watering to just two days a week.

From April through June, Erie used about 475 million gallons of water, which was “roughly 54 million gallons less than the five-year average rate,” .

Whether 2027 will see the same need for watering curtailments is not yet known, but there are indications Coloradans could get more help from Mother Nature in the coming months.

The National Weather Service last month has established itself in the Pacific Ocean, with warming ocean temperatures bringing better chances of heavier snows this winter and monsoon rains this summer.

The weather service characterizes the current El Niño pattern as “very strong.”

“There’s a reason to be optimistic that things will get wetter later in the year,” Schumacher, the state climatologist, said. “If nothing else, it reduces the chance of a historically awful snowpack like last winter.”

But the longer-term outlook for moisture in Colorado is much bleaker.

Extreme snow droughts like the one that plagued the West last winter will become more frequent — and eventually the norm — across much of the West as climate change fuels warmer temperatures, according to a study led by a Colorado School of Mines professor.

The study, published last week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, concluded that the chance of a winter like the one just passed will hover around 10% through the end of the decade if fossil fuel emissions aren’t curbed.

By the 2050s, the risk will rise to 32%, and then to 87% by the 2090s, according to the study.

But Cline, with Aurora Water, can’t wait around until the dawn of the 22nd century to worry about possible conditions on the ground. Her utility’s concerns are more immediate.

“We have to assume a worst-case scenario and hold everybody to account for their water use now,” she said. “We knew 2026 was going to be bad, but we’re all the more worried about 2027 and 2028.”