This policy was adopted by the Denver Water Board on October 15, 1996

1. Introduction
1. This policy statement guides the future allocation of Denver Water’s resources to meet the water needs of customers within our service area.
2. This policy statement promotes productive interaction with entities outside the Board’s service area.
3. This statement is a result of the Board’s Integrated Resource Planning (PDF) process and supersedes the April 4, 1989 Statement of the Board of Water Commissioners.
2. Statement of Current Resource Situation
1. Under the assumptions contained in the Integrated Resource Plan, Denver Water’s presently available water supply of 345,000 acre feet will meet projected demand until approximately the year 2013.
2. The Board cannot rely completely on this projection because of a number of risk factors associated with its supply, including:
1. Developing and maintaining municipal water supplies today is more challenging than in the past due to a combination of political forces and the federal government’s increased regulatory role.
2. Water supply in semi-arid regions is highly unpredictable.
3. The Board’s Current Water Supply Obligations
1. The Board is obligated under the Charter to provide an adequate supply of water to the people of the City and County of Denver, consistent with the City’s quality-of-life and planning goals.
1. The Board’s assets are owned by the people of Denver.
2. The Board is committed to the responsible financial management of those assets.
2. The Board is permitted by Charter to lease water for use outside Denver. The Board is obligated by contract to provide treated water service to the Combined Service Area (CSA), which is the geographic area composed of the service areas of all the Distributors who rely solely on the Board’s treated water for their water supply.
1. For the foreseeable future, the Board will not undertake responsibility for water supply for areas outside the CSA.
2. For distributors who have signed the new distributor contract, the Board is committed to providing all water necessary to serve the full development of all land within the distributors’ service areas, and to imposing water use restrictions, when necessary, in the same manner as imposed inside Denver.
3. For current distributors who do not sign the new contract, the Board reserves the right, pursuant to the contracts of these distributors, to impose a tap allocation program and water use restrictions that may be different than those imposed within Denver.
4. As required by the Charter, rates and charges for Distributors outside the city will differ from inside-Denver rates, and will be designed to fully reimburse the people of Denver for the cost of furnishing the service, plus a reasonable return.
5. The Board also has contract obligations for fixed amounts of treated or raw water to suburban entities who are not Distributors.
3. The Board has adequate water resources and options, including opportunities for conservation, reuse and development of its water rights, to fulfill its obligations, including service for the CSA through build-out. Nevertheless, the Board recognizes that cooperative arrangements with entities outside the CSA may benefit customers within the CSA.
4. Future Strategy
1. No single resource strategy is sufficient to meet the Board’s water service obligations, and each strategy has its own environmental and other consequences. The Board intends to invest in and manage a diverse portfolio of resources to meet its future needs and minimize risks. The Board will pursue opportunities that increase supply through conservation, reuse and water rights development, either alone or in cooperation with others.
2. When meeting future water needs, including development of cooperative projects with others, the Board will pursue resource development in an environmentally responsible manner.
3. The Board acknowledges that its treatment, transmission, and distribution system will need to be maintained and expanded as growth occurs in the Board’s service area and as federal regulatory requirements change.
4. For the foreseeable future, the Board will maintain a safety factor of 30,000 acre feet to protect against risks the Board faces in meeting its customers needs. Potential risks include:
1. catastrophic events
2. unexpected build-out demand
3. lower than expected yield from programs, projects, or existing facilities
4. a longer than anticipated drought
5. Near-Term Strategy
1. The Board’s near-term strategy is designed to produce approximately 55,000 acre feet of additional water in order to extend its water supply beyond the year 2013 to the year 2030. The resources in the near-term strategy will be diverse and will contain conservation, non-potable reuse, small-scale system modifications, and supply projects, including potential cooperative projects with others and private sector involvement.
2. The Board will maintain a strong water conservation ethic and will invest in additional cost-effective water conservation, including investments that provide opportunity for private sector participation. The Board will rely on a volume of savings from conservation in its planning, and will refine the projected volume of savings based on actual results obtained.
3. Beginning in 1997, the Board will move forward with system management techniques and may acquire small water rights as they become available.
4. The Board will develop non-potable reuse of water as demand increases and as opportunities arise.
5. The Board believes that new surface water storage will be needed at the end of the near-term timeline. The Board cannot determine at this time which of its water rights will be required for this surface water supply, so the Board intends to preserve its conditional water rights.
6. Opportunities for cooperative actions which will benefit the CSA are certain to arise. The Board is adopting a cooperative posture toward these opportunities.
6. Long-Term Strategy:
1. The long-term strategy is designed to produce the final 45,000 acre feet to make up the difference between the total system supply after completion of the near-term strategy (400,000 acre feet) and the supply needed to serve the CSA to buildout (445,000 acre feet).
2. Various options exist for the long-term and the Board, in the interest of maintaining flexibility, need not make project-specific commitments at this juncture. Some of these options include additional conservation, expanded reuse and the development of water rights with new or enlarged surface water structures. The Board cannot determine at this point which water rights will be required, so the Board must preserve its water rights to assure their availability in the future and to maintain flexibility in the ever-changing and complex world of water supply.
7. Metropolitan Role
1. The Board recognizes that the Denver metropolitan area is a socially and economically integrated whole. In that light the Board recognizes that cooperative actions with other metropolitan entities should be explored, in order to enhance the Board’s near-term and long-term strategies.
2. When a potential project primarily benefits Denver and the CSA, the Board will consider assuming a major role in the regulatory, financial, political, and legal risks of the project. The Board is interested in minimizing the risk to the existing yield of its water system in undertaking any cooperative project.
3. The Board’s staff is directed to explore cooperative actions with water suppliers outside the CSA based upon a set of guidelines to be developed by the Board.
4. The Board has determined that it cannot permanently dedicate to entities outside the CSA capacity within its system because all of the Board’s existing infrastructure and more will be needed to meet the Board’s water supply obligations.
5. The Board will consider short-term leases of water under the following conditions:
1. The lease is five years or less in duration;
2. The Board’s system suffers no adverse impact;
3. Reliance on Denver Water is truly temporary, meaning that the lessee will identify in the agreement a substitute for Board-supplied water;
4. Proper compensation is made to the Board using a cost-based formula;
5. The lease is consistent with the Board’s water right decrees.

 

8. Beyond the Metro Area
1. The Board will emphasize aggressive conservation, efficient reuse, and small-scale system modifications.
2. In order to meet demand between now and 2013, the Board will be required to maximize use of its existing supply of 345,000 acre feet, causing, among other impacts, reduced return flows north of Denver as a result of aggressive conservation and reuse programs and increased fluctuation of water levels at the Board’s reservoirs, including Dillon Reservoir.
3. Any future structural projects located on the West Slope should be developed cooperatively with West Slope entities for the benefit of all parties. The Board believes that Wolford Mountain Reservoir and the Clinton Reservoir-Fraser River Agreement are useful examples of East Slope-West Slope cooperation.