Welcome back to this biweekly meeting of the South Platte River Committee of Denver City Council.

Join us for the discussion as the South Platte River Committee starts now.

Real life is kind of tough right now.

Good afternoon.

Welcome everyone to the South Platte Committee of May 13th.

I'm Councilwoman Torres.

I represent West Denver District 3.

Today we have a briefing, and before we get to our uh guests from Denver Water, let's do introductions, and we'll start uh with those in the room on my left.

Councilwoman Vidres with Lucky District 7.

Good afternoon, Kevin Flynn, Southwest Numbers District 2.

Thank you.

And do we have any council members online?

You do.

Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

And thank you for joining us.

We will turn it over to uh Denver Water.

Thank you for being here.

And we're excited to hear what you have to present.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Council members for having having me today.

I'm Rick Marsachek, the chief water resource strategy officer at Denver Water, joined here today by Ashley Denalt, I think some of you know her.

And really going to focus on the drought and give you kind of an update on current conditions, compare that to maybe some previous years, and then talk about our response and then ongoing coordination and messaging.

Diving right in, just uh a little bit of overview, as all of you are probably well aware, some of the Denver water history, but we've been around for over 100 years, form you know, bought the Denver Union Water Company in 1918, um, and then have the charter obviously that talks about the coordination between City and County Denver and Denver Water.

Um we serve 1.5 million people, so about half of that's within City and County Denver, about half of that outside distributors.

So we have 61 distributor districts that we provide water to as well.

Maybe the most important item on this slide is the bottom.

This year anyway is the bottom bullet that we get all of our water from snow melt from um from the mountains from both the Colorado River and the South Platte River.

So this is a map of our collection system.

Um the orange line kind of squiggling through through the map there in the middle is the Continental Divide.

Um, and then we bring water from Dillon Reservoir through the Roberts Tunnel as well as from the Fraser River through the Moffat tunnel near Winter Park.

Um and then on the South Platte side, we have the we have a series of reservoirs on the South Platte.

Half of our water comes from the South Platte.

The um highest reservoir in the basin, Antaro Reservoir, we um are actually as part of our drought response.

We are moving water from Antero as we speak down to 11 mile and cheesemen.

Today is the last day that umtero reservoirs opened recreation.

Uh so you have about I don't know what time is it now.

You got about six, seven hours maybe if you want to cruise up the real fast and catch some fish before we close Antario for uh for recreation for the for the season, and the reason for that closure is that's our um we evaporate more water out of that reservoir than the other reservoir.

So to try to save water, we're bringing that water down into more uh into reservoirs that don't evaporate as much.

So we've been in coordination with with Park County with uh cultural parks and wildlife and whatnot in draining that reservoir and then harvesting the and relocating some of the fish.

Um this is just a map of Colorado.

This isn't the Denver Specific, it's not even only a Colorado, it's really the Western U.S.

situation and that really dark red there in the kind of upper left.

Um that's our West Slope Collection system.

Um, Summit County, Grand County is within that.

So um pretty pretty bad situation um statewide.

And this, you know, as we look at our system, um we our records really only go back about 40 years, and this is the worst year that we've seen.

But we went back even farther to um to the 1936, is when we use we measure snow through um both snow tels, they're kind of um they automatically kind of measure that uh we have telemetry that sends us those signals daily um but then we also go around and measure snow by hand um once a month and april first um snow pack uh is plotted on this graph back to 1936 and this is kind of statewide and you can see 2026 there as the by far the worst year ever and you can see kind of this downward trend from from climate change but um but this is by far the worst we've ever seen and we will likely be talking about 2026 for 100 years from now I mean that's how bad this is I hope we're talking about 2026 and not 2026, 7 and 8 and this because this is really going to be a multi-year situation.

But it is it is the worst that we've that we've ever seen.

Just another way of looking at this more specific to the South Platte basin specifically and this is a graph that is put out by the Carl State University climate climate center and the we're there in the upper upper left so the temperature is on the left hand scale and we're probably five or six degrees warmer than any other year that we've seen in history and and then on going towards the left one of the driest years you know I showed the April 1st snowpack being the worst and like well why is this not the worst well it's that temperature in in conjunction with the um the dry weather that resulted in that April one as you can see on this graph a lot of our snow has already melted off now this figure is um is what about almost a week a week old today if we were to look at this we have completely melted out in the South Platte there's no more snow in the South Platte basin and we are at two percent or nearly melted out in the Colorado so where um so this blue line is is 2026 the black line is kind of our average or median and usually this time of year we are still on a downward trend but if you look at the South Platte we're a lot of times we are um well it doesn't quite work on the monitor but um we still have significant amount of snow but this year we don't um so what does this mean it really translates into our reservoir storage and where um right now we are at 79% of capacity um in typically we're at 85 next year this time this time next year we'll be between 50 and 60 percent so we will we are basically serving our customers off of reservoir storage this year um what does that look like on the ground just a um couple pictures of the snake river near Keystone you can see on the left that's 2019 and on the right 2026 where there's really um really no snow uh so that was the doom and gloom bad news I'm gonna pivot now to talk a little bit more and a little bit more positively um about how we're responding and really want to um thank you all the the um departments at the city and county have been working with us and I'll talk more about that um in the future just the collaboration and cooperation that we have had as well as our customers who are really listening and have really responded well to the situation that that we're in you know always in place whether it's a drought year or not we have certain watering rules that's don't water between 10 and 6 don't water the sidewalk don't let water pool you know fix the irrigation system things like that.

Also our landscape transformation program and I will highlight it was just a month ago that we had a um groundbreaking or should I say sod rolling activity here with the um with the mayor and and um council members so just wanted to um highlight that that partnership that we have with you all and then ongoing um rebate program and you know you can learn more about that at um on our website so what is our what is our response look like we have four stages of drought um anywhere from a watch to um to stage three um currently and this was um our board approved a stage one resolution on March 25th, which puts us in and I'll talk more about that.

But the big piece of that is mandatory water use restrictions and no more than no more than two days a week.

Um then later in April we also passed drought pricing, and so um, and that starts with water use as of May 1, that'll be billed in June.

So currently any water use that's in tiers two and three on our rate schedule will have additional charges.

Um that tier one is kind of indoor use that's measured based on usage from January, February, and March each year, and that's um your tier one allotment.

Anything above that is in tiers two and three.

So, what's the goal, main goal of our our drought response?

Um, the main one is to achieve 20% reduction in use from all customers, and that looks different for indoor versus outdoor, and I'll get into some of that as well.

Um, but really upholding community health safety and um economic vitality.

So you know we want to maintain our trees.

Obviously, um lawns may look brown, but um but do want to maintain the health of our landscapes and our community and maintain customer trust so through communication and working with our customers is a big key, and then really stretching that water supply.

As I mentioned, likely this is a multi-year situation, so we want to save as much water as we can for next year and beyond.

So, what does that mean for outdoor water use?

Um, we have days of the week schedule.

Um, if it's residential, it's odd versus even, so odd numbered addresses Wednesday, Saturday, even numbered is Sunday and Thursday, and then all others, including um uh multifamily and commercial water on on Tuesday, Friday, and there's no watering on on Monday unless you are on a water budget, and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a little bit.

So, indoors, um, what does that look like?

You know, it's really making sure fixing leaks, taking shorter showers, things like that.

Um, and then uh we still do offer you know we do offer um toilet rebates, so people who want to replace toilets, and that has a lasting effect even beyond the drought.

So we encourage that as far as businesses, restaurants serve water only on request, um public car washes can continue to operate though, fleet vehicles so for Denver Water, Sydney County, Denver, really limited to uh washing vehicle fleet vehicles once a week unless it's a health and safety reason.

Um and then golf courses and parks here.

Um, still looking for a 20% reduction, but if you can't adhere to that Tuesday, Thursday schedule, then we offer what we call a um a water budget for that, so work individually with with um folks to put in place water budgets where it's 20% less than what your kind of last five-year averages.

Public pools, this is a question we get a lot about.

Yes, pools can be open.

Um we do encourage fountains and water features to not operate, although splash pads, things like that, we kind of put in the category of pools for people to be able to utilize that.

Um health care, we get that question often as well.

What about you know, how are they supposed to save water?

They may or may not necessarily achieve that 20%, but to the extent that there's outdoor irrigation, we ask them to follow those rules and then do what they can from an indoor perspective.

Um how are we enforcing this?

We really stress education.

We really want to educate our customers and help them to understand the situation that we're in.

Um so but we do have for those who are repeat offenders, do have warnings and fines established.

Um we've developed an online tool where um anyone, you all um you know, can do this even where you see if you see water waste, there's an app that website that you can go to to report that, and then we process that through our system.

We you know send postcards out, make phone calls, send our fleet staff out to follow up depending on the severity of the situation.

So before um wrapping up, just want to kind of share a little bit about our ongoing communication, particularly with um with you know you all and and some of the um city and county um departments.

Um so we have weekly updates on our news outlet called TAP.

Um from that, there's been over 500 drought-related stories since the beginning of the year.

So you probably see it almost I see it multiple times a day, but you all probably see it multiple, you know, um every day.

There's something in the news about the the situation we're in because of the severity of that.

We've been messaging this to our um customers since last fall and have really heightened and increased that um messaging as we as the situation has has gotten worse.

Um typically we update our board um once a month, every other meeting on water supply and snow pack.

This year we've done it every meeting just to keep that um top of mind for everyone.

And then coordination with city and county, obviously.

Um you all, and I think um Ashley or someone on our team has probably met with several of you um in the you know past few months on on the situation, um as well as we keep the mayor's office updated.

Um, work really closely with Denver Park and Rec and um and Dottie on the one those water budgets that I mentioned.

So that's an area where um where we're working closely with your departments, and then we have these signs, um, an example of that on the slide here that um can be posted and really for public awareness because you know the public may call and say, wait, wait a minute, this park is watering and it's not their day.

Um, well, they're likely on a on a water budget, and then um just wanted to also point out our our work with um City Forester and Casser on maintaining our tree canopy.

You know, we had a very dry winter and really need to um make sure that we were provided enough messaging people to provide enough water to trees, so work closely with them in our in our messaging to maintain our maintainer landscapes, and then um what one water we do um work with um your team on there's a one water leaders group that we meet, I think monthly um to coordinate on on those topics.

And then lastly, just for um additional resources.

You can obviously mention our website and then um tap our um news outlet there as well.

But happy to answer whatever questions you all have.

Um and you know, I I live this every day, and so probably went through that quickly and and uh had some highlights, but happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Rick.

Um really appreciate this.

Um I've got a couple of council members in queue, like to welcome Council President Sandoval to the meeting.

Um, and we will start with Councilman Flynn.

Thank you for the uh terrible news.

We knew you know we were well aware of the situation and and appreciate this detail.

Um if you could add a little bit more, um looking at the drought pricing, the tiered pricing.

Obviously, with just me and my wife, our indoor use January, February, March, it's gonna be much less than the neighbors across the street with three kids.

So does that set the baseline?

In other words, is tier 1 individualized, particularized to each household?

Yes, you're down in the billing system enough to to know that we use Harry and I use 10,000 gallons a month, but with the three kids, they use 20.

So that becomes our baseline.

So anything above 10 for me, above 20 for them.

Okay.

What I don't, what I'm not clear on is what's the what is the threshold between tier two and tier three.

Yeah, for residential, um, exactly right.

It's based your tier one is based on your um winter quarter average.

And like for for me, um we use about two or three thousand gallons um on average a month in in the winter, but the set at five thousand is the minimum.

So it's either your winter quarter average or five thousand.

So your first tier is five thousand or whatever year use.

So if it's ten thousand, it's what you use in the winter, then that's thank God it's not.

I I have no idea what a reasonable number was.

So that's that's the but I I think I I'm a I'm not normal, I would say I'm probably not normal in that.

Household with um, you know, still have uh a wife and one girl at home.

Um but uh but anyway, that's your first the tier two, we add 15,000 um gallons, okay, to tier one, and then anything above that no matter three user.

Correct.

Okay, so anything above 15, a dollar 10 for each of those 15,000 what each thousand each thousand.

Okay, and that's regardless of whether it's a small yard and they're watering or a large yard.

Correct.

Because obviously a large yard, anything over the fifteen would be two twenty a gallon.

Yeah, two other questions on top on top of the normal rate.

Yes, yes.

Excuse me.

I have two other questions on uh Antaro.

Yes, I have a constituent, and I'm sure she's not alone, who is extremely upset with Denver water because I don't know how many fish are in that reservoir, and I think it was stocked recently.

Uh I don't know what recent, how recently, but I know we've been inviting people up to fish and etc.

Thank you.

So I don't she was very concerned with how much uh die off there was going to be when we drain it.

And so what are we doing when fishing is done to try to save, rescue, salvage those living fish that remain?

Great question.

Yes, so um so when a couple weeks ago when when we um announced this through coordination with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, they um they took away the bag limit.

So typically I think you can catch three fish.

Now they say keep whatever you can catch.

Um, and and we've actually had more visitors at Antero the last couple weeks than we have, and the campground's been sold out for two weeks.

Unfortunately, like I said, that stops you know to today.

And then going forward, um, there are three days in which um Denver Water and Collar Parks and Wildlife will go to kind of harvest the the fish.

Some of those fish will swim downstream, um, some of those we capture and and relocate.

So there's three days that we'll be up there to um relocate as many of those fish as we can to other locations.

Okay, a follow-up to that, then it has to be one of weight of cheese.

It has to go through 11 mile.

What's the status of 11 mile?

Is that not also uh prone to higher evaporation than our downhill reservoirs?

Great, great question.

Um, and 11 mile is very very narrow and and deeper, so we do not see the same level of evaporation.

So that's in a canyon, right?

Yes.

Yeah, yeah, and and so an 11 mile is also a drought reservoir, so basically 11 mile and antero are they were built, designed at least within our system for for drought.

For this purpose, for this purpose.

And Antero is the first one that we would drain because of, and we we drained it in 2002 in that drought, and then we drained it in 2015 for a um a dam rehabilitation project.

So it's been drained twice in the last 25 years.

Um, the when when we do when it does refill and in 2002, it took four years for it to refill.

When that does happen and we restock it, those fish they have so much nutrients and and there's um and they grow at a very rapid, rapid pace.

So the fishery will recover um once once we get water back in there and restock it, but it could be fewer.

Thank you.

It just there's obviously capacity in cheesemen to hold this, which is frightening in and of itself that to think that cheesemen can hold whatever how much water is in Antero right now, yeah.

Yeah, or we're gonna leave 11 mile as it is.

Correct.

Okay.

Uh last question.

Can you I'm not as familiar with the system north.

Um, I represent Southwest Emerson, I'm familiar with where it ends up in Marston.

But what can you tell us if you know what is the status of gross reservoir construction and uh storage there?

Uh, particularly when we're facing a drought, right?

Right.

So um that's a that's a great question because that's really why we're building gross reservoir.

It came you know, 2002.

We were in a similar, just not quite as bad situation, and we um embarked on gross reservoir.

So a couple things I can say about that.

Just um a little after midnight last night, we um we're still we're building the dam still, and we've been building it uh for three years now, and just this past just last night we um it's called a chimney on each side of the dam.

You've got the spillway, and then it goes up a little bit on each side, and we finished one of the chimneys, and we're moving the equipment over to the other one.

So, about next, um, I think next month, we will be done with our roller compacted concrete or the rays of the of the dam.

So that construction will be done.

Still a lot of other work that needs to be done in order to put water in it, which won't be ready for until next year, or even maybe 20 um 28.

We are still in the middle of a lawsuit though, as well, and so um the status of that is I believe later this year.

There'll be oral arguments and maybe a decision on that early next year.

Um, so in with within that won't help us necessarily in this drought, because you need water to put in it.

That was my uh my question.

Yeah, yeah.

So even so you need water to to put in it, and this year it will leave our reservoirs half full this time next year.

So we have a lot of existing storage that we'll need to fill up in addition to if we were even able to store water in the expanded gross reservoir.

Okay, thank you.

That was my question is whether we would be able to store any more at gross reservoir than uh than normal, but the answer is no.

We don't have the we wouldn't have the um the water yet to fill, but yes, once once we get through the lawsuit, gets construction um built, then yes, or completed, then we will be able to store water.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Councilwoman of Idris.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh I appreciate that, and that's very interesting because one of my questions was, you know, um, some people call it global weirding because it's more of a normal natural climate patterns.

Um, and so I anticipate potentially right now, we didn't get a lot of water or snow.

However, there are other parts of the country that got abnormally high levels of water and snow.

And so there's a chance that next year, because of global weirding, that it could be a high level of precipitation.

And so, from what I understand, uh, from that exchange is that you are prepared for a large amount of water potentially and being able to store that for moments like this in the future, because my understanding is weather projections into the future are for just more abnormal weather patterns.

Yes, great, great question.

Thank you for that.

And you you're right.

Yes, I think we have a downward trend of um or a warming, right, and downward trend of water availability, but then this variability and more extremes like we're seeing now is exactly right.

So that's why storage is so important in not only our system but several systems in the in the west, and um just to um maybe expand on the multi-year that situation that we're in, likely next year we'll start off in some level of water use restriction as well.

We would have to you know have extreme flooding um this fall, or have 130 150 percent of normal snow pack to recover our our reservoirs.

But yes, we'll have um a lot of capacity next year should we receive that um that snow.

Okay, that's helpful.

Um, and then one of the concerns that I have around the water restrictions is I know like revision from district three serves district seven as well, where people don't have as easily access to fresh foods, and so they have these gardens outside as part of their food source for the summer.

Is that taken into consideration?

Our Denver Urban Gardens or other people that are growing food for our food pantries.

Yes.

So it's it is um it's the lawn.

It's the lawn that you can only water twice a week.

If you have a vegetable garden or gardens, you can water those any day of the week.

That's not that you'll still be charged more.

You will still be charged the um drought pricing for water that's um in the larger tiers, yes.

Okay, um what my understanding is that residential uh use from our constituents basically is the number one use.

What's the number two use of Denver Waters water?

Um so the number two use is commercial industrial.

If you look at the um kind of the indoor residential use is about 45 percent of our um water usage, all landscapes is about 40% of our water usage, and that leaves commercial industrial at 15%.

If I did my math in my head correct, um so it is it's residential and then um commercial industrial.

Okay, and then I don't think this is directly in your preview, but curious about um messaging or communications are where people can go to learn more about like the rain barrel um as a resource, yeah.

So um as far as I don't know if we have anything necessarily on our website about rain barrels, but um you are under kind of state law, you're allowed to have up to two rain barrels to do that, um, so we can follow up with you on more specifics.

But um I don't know that like again, I don't know if we have anything on our website, but they are they are allowed, um, and that's as of several years ago that the law was passed on that.

Yeah, I think that could be helpful information when people are on your website to know that if they're super concerned this weekend.

I think we have rain, so that's another option.

I think we're all trying to do our best.

And you know, I've been very thoughtful, and it's in our faces when we have parks in our city that you know have dry lakes.

It's a huge complaint I'm getting at the moment.

Um just double check my questions and see if that was everything.

I think the fish thing, I just wanted to elevate that too has come up for me.

So that's all I have.

Thank you.

Appreciate the efforts.

Were you interested in sharing information about how to get rain barrels?

Yes.

Groundwork Denver, that's a great nonprofit here, and they can do both take requests for rain barrels as well as provide education about how to use them.

Kind of the overall landscape, but they're great.

Thank you.

Um thank you, Councilwoman uh Romero Campbell, you're up.

Thank you.

Um, that was pretty sobering as far as uh what we're gonna be facing this summer.

Um can you tell us more about the landscape transformation assistance program and our applications still being taken?

Uh and what we can do to help promote that.

Thank you.

Um for that question.

So, yes, our landscape transformation program.

We um we have a few different um options there.

There's um we give away free native grass seed.

Uh we also have a program to for residential customers to do um lawn removal or bluegrass removal as part of that that process, um, and then we have our our larger programs.

Um this year, unfortunately, our large programs and the residential removal programs have been um are fully subscribed, fully committed.

Um we did, I think, um quadruple our offerings of the native grass seeds.

So I think we do have more of that available, but it tends to um go quickly once we um offer that again on our website, and then um we have garden in a box and those um offerings and that's where it's kind of select um plants from um resource central one of our partners um we have a spring sale and a fall sale the spring sales already occurred and that that sold out and then we'll so there will be a fall offering of garden in a box so those are some of the programs that we have available and um and so it's really the grass seed in the garden in a box from a residential standpoint that's still available this year.

Thanks I you know we've got a lot of Kentucky bluegrass in my district and so I think it's a matter of um education um and also the conversion of a lot of those lawns I mean if you don't have if you don't if you're not trying to water all your grass um and you have something else in place I think that that is um gonna be key uh and I don't know if you're gonna have new materials or things that we can send out to constituents to help um educate around um landscape conversion or ways that they can think about using their lawns in different ways.

Yes we do have a it's a we have a do it yourself guide um I believe in both English and Spanish available on our website so you can go right to our website and get that information on the do it yourself guide.

Okay I appreciate the partnership that we've had with Denver water um just being able to also come out and maybe hopefully this summer um do additional like presentations to the community I think it's that opportunity to be able to have somebody to talk to to help you know um figure out those landscape conversions are going to be really critical um in in my district um I do have one other question about uh the my wondering and maybe this is more of uh just dialogue also with my colleagues um but do we have any cross jurisdictional strategies I mean I know you're presenting to us and this is what Denver's doing but is there a larger regional strategy for um drought restrictions or what we're doing or how um how we as a broader metro area are addressing the drought um yes thank you for that that question um yes it is coordinated we've learned from previous droughts where for example we might have one set of days of the week and aurora might be on something else and another community might be on something else and so we've coordinated um extensively with with our neighboring communities to coordinate on on that as well as um you know water sharing type of opportunities there's um different projects that we work on with our with partner agencies um you know aurora's one um many districts in the south metro area that we have a cooperative project with um to kind of help each other out um during not you know in all years but you know specifically in years like this so a lot of coordination uh regionally um on the effort thanks um i thank you that's helpful and then just a level set like what do you anticipate that we will see this summer I mean this is the South Platte River Committee it will the South Platte not have water running through it the Cherry Creek like what would we anticipate um or will there be water in those waterways.

Yeah there there will I mean there will be water probably less than less than than other years but there are minimum flows in um in those rivers so there will be water in the river but but less than we're used to seeing for sure and uh you know hope we are, you know the the outlook um we're not we're not quite sure as far as from warmth.

I mean, we we hope to we hope that uh we get some moisture, obviously, to help this the situation, though it will be a rough year all around for sure.

Okay.

Um thank you for that.

I just keep you thinking, you know, I have the Highline canal, which is no longer a waterway which has been you know dry, um, and one of the reasons why Denver water no longer holds the um Highline Canal.

Um but it's interesting because as the water was no longer flowing through, it also surfaces a lot of things within the canal.

And that's more of my question of do we anticipate that you know um without the water, things tend to um cave, you tend to get more debris.

It's also an opportunity to clean the waterways and the systems that are there.

So just more of like taking the opportunity if you're not if you're gonna have less water to be able to do some of that maintenance that is otherwise uh difficult to do when you have a full waterway.

So that's a that's a great point.

And we are that those opportunities.

We have um in our collection system, we have one area that we typically cannot access until um until September time frame, usually, and we're gonna be able to get into that area a lot sooner to be able to do work there, as well as um you know, some of the waterways and terror reservoir, their opportunities to do enhancements there.

Um so taking looking at the positive or the opportunities, it's a good good suggestion, a good point, and we are looking at those opportunities in our system.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Ovidos, you have one more question.

Yes, thank you.

And I'm sorry if I missed this, but you said you were going to explain water budgets, and I didn't catch that.

If you could explain that what a water budget is.

Yeah, yeah.

So for um, and you know, think of um parks and wreck, you know, Denver Gulf.

Um uh users like that, that their typical water days would be Tuesday and Thursday, but they have so many zones and so much area to cover that they can't do that, or if it's a sports field and they have games on, you know, those days, and so they can't water during a sporting event, um, they're able to apply for a water budget.

And if you can comply with the Tuesday Thursday, we encourage folks to do that.

But if not, we have a special agreement, and we're working on several of these.

I think we have about 30 or so um in the works right now, where we will look at your past um usage.

It might be you know the average of the last five years, for example, usage, and we say you'll get 80 percent.

We want our goal is to save 20 percent, so your allocation is 80 percent of what you used in the past five years, and that's your water budget.

You can use it however you want through the season.

You can use it whatever days of the week, just not between ten and six.

Um and then if you go over that 80 percent, you get a you get charged two times the rate for going over that.

So it's a it's a benefit to be able to spread that water out.

But if you misuse it, then there's a penalty if you go over that that allocation.

Okay, and uh the other thing that's come up is like rumors that there's like other water sources, some uh irrigation systems use.

Is that common or does that exist that there's irrigation systems that are connected to water sources that are not Denver water?

Um with within it maybe a parks and wreck question if you don't know that's okay.

So um there may be some on like a well for wells, for example, that might not be um completely tight, but typically there a lot of times we might still be involved in in that supply.

Um we do have customers.

Should point out we do have customers on our recycle system.

So we um we capture our return flows from metro wastewater, um, I'm sorry, metro water recovery, and um, and we capture some of that, and so we irrigate with what we call a recycle system, since that water source is somewhat, I'll call it drought proof, maybe not the best word, but um it's not impacted by the current situation we're in.

Those water users and uses are able to um irrigate like normal without that reduction.

So some um parks are able to continue to irrigate as normal if they're on that recycle system.

Okay, thank you for that.

Appreciate that.

Thank you, committee chair.

Great, thank you so much.

Um there was uh slide, I think it was this six, it's got the herbo each uh gradient of dots.

Um actually it was the one right before that statewide snow course data, yes.

What is the SWE that's reflected on that?

Um, is that the X-axis?

Good question.

Um snow water equivalent, okay.

So it's the amount of the inches of moisture in the snowpack.

So if you were to take snow and melt it, it's the water left over.

Think of it, uh the kind of rule of thumb is one foot of snow equals one inch of moisture.

Obviously, the density of the snow would change that, but if you're looking down here at um you know, snow water equivalent in inches on April 1st, it's about two inches, it's about two feet of snow.

Okay, and that's the total, it's not like an average or total over a season or something.

Yes, so this draft specifically is April 1st averaged over every snow course that's done in the okay, all right.

Thank you for that.

Um does Denver Water have anything like uh mutual aid agreement, or do this might be similar to um maybe your conversations regionally, but is Denver Water have an agreement to come to the aid of Aurora if they need it, or another root water region.

Is that written anywhere?

Yeah, so great question.

Yes, and and typically the um we have what we call emergency interconnects with several areas.

Um that's typically for infrastructure failures, and a lot of those agreements have a clause that excludes drought, um, as almost like lack of lack of proactive planning doesn't constitute an emergency.

Um, and so we do have a lot of those agreements though though not necessarily for the a drought situation.

Got it, okay.

Um you mentioned this um with Councilwoman Alviderez uh residential is your number one uh customer base user.

Um, and then you mentioned 40 five percent indoor, 40 percent outdoor.

That's all residential.

Good good clarification, that's not all residential.

So, yeah, right um our residential indoors 45, then 40 percent is all outdoor use.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, and yeah.

Um that really helps me understand.

And then I guess just in terms of how you're monitoring and how we or how Denver water arrives at whether or not we end up at um a level uh or a stage two or a stage three.

Um, when I guess in Denver Water's history, have we ever been in those stages?

We have not.

We've not we have we have never been in a situation that was worse than that was less frequent than two day a week.

I will say in in 2002, in October of 2002, we ban outdoor watering, yet really the irrigation season was over, and then we re-evaluated the following year.

So moving forward, we will be looking at a few factors.

One, how well do our customers respond to what we're asking them to do and are they saving that water to help conserve water in our reservoirs?

Um what type of, you know, what does the monsoon season look like this year, and do we get some moisture out of that?

And then it's mostly really highly dependent on next year's snowpack.

And so we will be looking at the probabilities of what you know the opportunity, you know.

Will we continue to be in a stage one?

Might it be worse, might we be able to relax?

We're really dependent on snowpack determined next year.

Okay, perfect.

Okay, thank you so much.

And just thank you in Denver Water for being so deliberately in touch with Denver, Denver agencies, but also with our offices.

So I really appreciate you coming and spending some time with us today.

Thank you.

Thank you for taking the time for having us here and and likewise I appreciate our partnership and collaboration.

Awesome.

Alright, thank you, Rick.

With that, do we have any consent?

We have one consent item.

Otherwise, uh we are adjourned.

Thank you all.

Thank you.