Clean Water Is a Moving Target

Even in a time of drought, providing clean water to our Denver Water customers means "wasting" water. Some water must be used to operate the system. For example, our Water Quality Lab uses continuous-flow monitors to make sure the water in your tap is free of organic and inorganic impurities. This water is not "wasted" any more than the blood you provide for a test is "wasted." It passes through the water system unconsumed but not unused.

The water in our system has to move or it stagnates. Unlike bottled water, it is not sealed against the elements. Standing in pipes, it will eventually lose its disinfectant residue. Flushing the system keeps the water moving and keeps it fresh.

Our pipes are flushed regularly throughout the city, causing the occasional "water waste" complaints. But this is to prevent stagnation. Flushing makes up a small part of the "water loss" of about one-third of a percent per year that is a cost of doing business in the arid West.

Some water must be delivered to places where it may not be needed. The water pumped to DIA is a classic example of this paradox. To protect against the hazards of a fuel fire like the one at Stapleton in November, 1990, Denver Water must provide enough water pressure to ensure that DIA firefighters will be able get necessary reserves to handle such a catastrophe.

If the water is pumped out there, and there's no fire, then what? The water has to go somewhere. Bring it back? How? Denver Water has discussed offering the water to various users, but they don't want to "come to the hydrant" to get it. Piping it to a new location is an additional cost to a system already challenged financially. New pipes mean new charges to our customers.

Denver Water customers can't use the DIA water once it arrives at its destination. It can't just sit there, waiting for a disaster no one wants to see, because standing water is not going to be clean water for long. The problem is not a simple one of right and wrong, waste and conservation, or unfairness. The DIA water system was built to handle future needs, and until those needs are present ones, the water that serves this important part of the city will seem wasted.

Source: cleanwater.html