Low-flow toilet rebate ending
In 2010, Denver Water will stop offering customers a $25 rebate for low-flow toilets (1.6 gallons per flush). We will continue to offer a $125 rebate for those who install a high-efficiency toilet (1.28 gallons per flush or less).
Since 1996, federal law has required all newly installed toilets to use 1.6 gallons per flush or less. Toilets are typically a household’s largest water user, and Denver Water wants to help customers reduce their water use as much as possible by encouraging them to install high-efficiency models. Denver Water offers rebates on more than 400 models that are rated for best performance.
Rebates also are available for high-efficiency washing machines, rain sensors, smart controllers and irrigation rotary nozzles.
Meet your Board member
Thomas A. Gougeon, Vice President
Appointed: Aug. 10, 2004
Term expires: July 10, 2011
Tom Gougeon is a principal in Continuum Partners LLC, a Colorado-based development company known for mixed-use and transit-oriented “green” building projects. He has served as chief executive officer of the Stapleton Redevelopment Foundation, assistant to the mayor of Denver, executive director of a charitable foundation and as a research associate at the Denver Research Institute in community planning and natural resource economics. Gougeon also worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where he worked on the Clean Air Act, western energy development and public lands issues.
He is a former chair of the Nature Conservancy of Colorado and Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, and he has served on the board of the Denver Urban Renewal Authority and many other community organizations. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Denver and a master’s degree in city and regional planning from
Harvard University.
Denver’s Board of Water Commissioners is charged with ensuring a continuous supply of water to the people of Denver and its suburban customers. Among other duties, commissioners are responsible for setting water rates and monitoring the cost and maintenance of the system. The Board holds its public meetings generally twice a month. Commissioners are paid $600 annually ($25 per meeting) for their service.
The mayor of Denver appoints Denver’s five-member Board of Water Commissioners to staggered six-year terms.
Your water rates at work
Marston Treatment Plant is getting an upgrade.
During the next year, contractors will work on a $12 million project to upgrade the 42-year-old filter beds in Filter Plant No. 2 at Marston Treatment Plant. In 2003, Denver Water completed a similar project in Marston’s Filter Plant No. 1 — which was originally built in 1924 — by building a new structure and plant control room.
To complete the work in Filter Plant No. 2, crews have to demolish some of the building’s interior walls, take out the filters’ anthracite coal and sand, replace the filter underdrain systems, remove most of the piping and valves located in the
filter gallery, strip old paint, and replace an outdated valve-operating system with a modern electronic system.
The Marston project is just one way that Denver Water is ramping up efforts to make needed improvements associated with an aging infrastructure. Denver Water owns and maintains more than 3,000 miles of pipe — enough to stretch from Los Angeles to New York — as well as 12 raw water reservoirs, 22 pump stations and four treatment plants.
Denver Water’s 10-year, $1.3 billion capital plan details more than 300 projects, including the Marston project, which will help ensure Denver Water continues serving high-quality water well into the future.
Simplify, save time and go green
Automatic Pay Plan – free
Your water bill payment will automatically be withdrawn from your bank account. Never worry about the due date again. Your monthly water bill will be paid on time each month.
E-bills – free
Ready to go paperless? In addition to Denver Water’s Automatic Pay Plan, you can receive your water bills via e-mail. When your e-bill arrives, simply review and file it. Do not pay your e-bill if you are paying through our Automatic Pay Plan because it will result in duplicate payments.
After you have enrolled in our Automatic Pay Plan, click on E-bill and send Denver Water your e-mail address. Your next water bill will be e-mailed to you, saving paper with each bill.
You are so totally awesome
Holy camel! The stats are in: This spring and summer, water usage was down 33% compared with pre-drought (2002) usage. Taking the wetter-than-usual weather into account, we joined forces with Mother Nature to save 9.2 billion gallons (billion!) more than last year — of which nearly 2 billion gallons were all you. That's more than twice our goal. So do yourself a favor — head to the nearest mirror, and give yourself a wink and a high-five. You deserve it, Denver.
