Irrigation Efficiency Program

Denver Water is a public water agency serving 1.3 million customers in the Denver metro area and surrounding suburbs. Denver Water is seeking to minimize future costs of expanding system capacity by continuing to develop demand side management programs with long-term, sustainable water savings. 

A large portion of water is used outdoors on the landscape. The Irrigation Efficiency Program is designed to provide financial incentives for customers to reduce irrigation water use through landscape changes and/or irrigation upgrades.

All homeowner/condo/townhome associations, commercial or irrigation-only customers served by Denver Water are eligible to apply for the program. Acceptance into the program is based on proposal strength as well as estimated potential water savings.  Individual single family residential homes are not eligible for this program. 

This program is available as funding permits. It is subject to change or discontinuation at any time. 

• Customer must receive a large-scale irrigation system audit (free from Denver Water) prior to project implementation (within the past 3 years).
• The project must be submitted by customer and approved by Denver Water prior to implementation.
• Customer must have a minimum of 3 years of water use history available from Denver Water.
• Estimated potential water savings for the customer’s project must be 3 acre feet or greater annually (approximately 1 million gallons).

*All of these program requirements must be met prior to the customer implementing any changes that would be included in the customer’s project proposal.

• Denver Water will pay customers with successful proposals $18.50 per 1,000 gallons of water saved (equal to $6,000 per acre foot), not to exceed 50 percent of the total project cost.
• Payments for actual water savings are prorated over a three-year period. 
• Payments are made each February following the irrigation season.
• An annual weather factor is applied to irrigation consumption each year to account for weather variations.

Product Rebates

Properties entering into an irrigation efficiency contract are not eligible to apply for any applicable rebates available through our product rebate program.

• Review the program requirements.
• Have Denver Water perform a free, large-scale irrigation system audit.
• Use the results from the irrigation audit report to help you choose a project that will improve water-use efficiency by installing irrigation upgrades and/or landscape improvements.
• Submit your project proposal to Denver Water for review.
  • Proposal should include project scope, timeline and itemized budget
• If the proposal is accepted, Denver Water will issue a contract detailing the terms of the project.
• The customer and Denver Water both sign the contract. Each party receives an original signed copy.
• Implement the project according to the agreed upon timeline and a Conservation staff member will conduct a post-installation inspection to verify project completion.
• Denver Water will track your water use annually for three years and will provide an annual report detailing actual savings achieved.
• Water savings payments will be prorated over a three-year period and paid annually based on the amount of water actually saved each year.

• Installing weather-based smart controllers with flow sensors, retrofitting fixed spray heads with rotary nozzles and replacing nonfunctional turf areas with low-water-use plant material.
• Installing weather-based smart controllers and reducing high-water-use landscape by 25 percent.
• Renovating entire irrigation system and landscape.

Contact Denver Water at 303-628-6343 or e-mail us for more information.