In this issue
Historic water agreement announced
Leaders from Grand, Summit and Eagle counties recently stood with Gov. John Hickenlooper and representatives from Denver Water, the Colorado River District and other water interests to announce a historic proposed agreement, the Colorado River Cooperative Agreement.
This proposed agreement will change the way water is managed in Colorado.
Focused on cooperation, the proposed agreement brings parties who traditionally have been at odds together as partners on a path to responsible water development benefitting both the East and West Slopes. It achieves better environmental health for the Colorado River Basin, maintains high-quality recreational use and improves economics for many cities, counties and businesses impacted by the river. The proposed agreement, which was five years in the making, will now be considered by towns, counties, and water entities from the headwaters to the Utah state line.
With 40 partners stretching from Grand Junction to the Denver-metro area, the proposed agreement is the largest of its kind in the history of the state. In addition to its benefits for Denver Water and the West Slope, the proposed agreement will trigger a major water-sharing and conservation arrangement between Denver Water, Aurora Water and water providers in the South Denver metro area.
Taken as a whole, these landmark agreements mark the most significant change Colorado has seen in how the state’s water resources are managed. The comprehensive proposed agreement focuses on significantly enhancing the environmental health of much of the Colorado River Basin and its tributaries, as well as supporting many West Slope cities, towns, counties and water providers as they work to improve the quality and quantity of water through new municipal water projects and river management initiatives.
In exchange for environmental enhancements, including financial support for municipal water projects and providing additional water supply and service area restrictions, the agreement will remove opposition to Denver Water’s Moffat Collection System Project.
Your water rates at work
Denver Water goes to great lengths to make sure water is delivered to customers safely. That’s why we regularly inspect pipes and conduits to catch small problems before they become big ones.
Recently, while testing Conduit 94 — the major pipeline that caused a sinkhole under Interstate 25 in 2008 — engineers found a 16-foot section near Willis Case Golf Course that needed to be replaced immediately, before summer irrigation season began.
Now crews are moving forward with the $153,000 replacement project, helping ensure that the 66-inch-diameter pipe, one of our most important transmission lines, will continue delivering much-needed water to customers.
When Conduit 94 was installed in the mid-1970s, crews used pipe that was made with pre-stressed wires and a thin steel cylinder encased in a concrete core. Since then, because of manufacturing defects, that type of pipe has caused problems throughout the country. Though the break under I-25 was caused by a major pressure surge and not by a loss of structural integrity, Denver Water still keeps a close eye on Conduit 94 and replaces sections of it with steel when necessary.
Being proactive by conducting these kinds of inspections not only keeps our delivery system strong and safe, but also helps us keep costs down. Instead of replacing an entire pipeline at once — a pricey endeavor — these inspections help us target problem areas that need to be repaired or replaced, saving us time and money.
Plant a water-efficient vegetable garden this summer
When grown correctly, a vegetable garden can use water efficiently, often consuming the same amount of water as a similar-sized plot of grass.
If you have an irrigation system, use drip irrigation on your garden. Otherwise, water by hand or with a soaker hose to ensure plants receive water at their roots. Use a hose timer while watering to track water use, and water during the cool mornings to avoid water loss from evaporation.
Though Denver Water restricts the number of days customers can water their lawns to no more than three times a week, we do not restrict the number of days you can water your vegetable garden.
Vegetables don’t need more water than grass, but they need water more often.
Save water with rotary nozzles
Replace your existing spray nozzles with rotary nozzles and cut your water use by 30 percent. Rotary nozzles apply water more slowly and uniformly than spray nozzles. They also can help address irrigation problems that can occur on hillsides, with clay soil, in windy areas, on brown spots and around tall plants.
Denver Water offers a rebate for rotary nozzles ($5 each/minimum of four).