Denver Water: Keep Sprinklers Off For Next 3 Months

DENVER -- Even though we received some snowfall Wednesday, it still isn't enough. The Denver Water Board met Wednesday morning and concerned that the reservoir level is only at 77 percent of capacity, it decided to ask its 1.2 million customers to stop watering their lawns through May 1.

In three months, the board will reevaluate drought conditions and decide whether to enforce mandatory watering restrictions as they had in previous summers.

Although snowfall blanketed parts of the metro area this week and last, Denver Water says, sometimes, it's not how much it snows it's where it falls.

According to Denver Water, in the past 48 hours, there's been virtually no snow above Dillon Reservoir, and none in the Upper South Platte watershed, which feeds Denver Water reservoirs.

"For some reason, the weather patterns have managed to bypass our watersheds," said Ed Pokorney, with Denver Water.

Snowpack is at 56 percent of normal in the Upper South Platte Basin, and 77 percent in areas where Denver Water's watersheds are located.

That's why Denver Water customers are being urged to keep lawns unwatered from now until May.

"We're taking action that's neither lenient nor restrictive, it's cautionary. It simply prepares people to say that we might be on restrictions, we might not. You don't need to water in March and April," said Chips Barry, manager of Denver Water.

For most residents, this request makes sense.

"I don't think it'd do much good to water between now and May 1st," said resident Hack Morrell.

And that attitude could help pull all of us through the dog days of summer. The water experts' real concern is that what happened in 2002 could repeat itself. That was the year when Denver Water had the same amount of snowpack and storage as it does now, and then a dry, warm spring led to a unprecedented drought crisis.