Audio By Carbonatix
It’s been a cruel summer, and we’re not talking Bananarama.
Not only has Denver’s summer rounded out to be the third-hottest on record, with an average temperature of 75 degrees, but there’s barely any water for people to cool off with after drought restrictions kicked into effect earlier this spring. The heat and dryness are getting to everyone, with landscape snitching, HOA bumbling and fishing free-for-alls coming out from underneath the charred shrubbery.
And things might get even worse. After implementing summer water restrictions early this year, the Denver Board of Water Commissioners are set to decide on the future of lawn watering on Aug. 26. Currently, residents are able to water their lawns two times a week on specific days before 10 a.m. and after 6 p.m., but an amendment to Denver Water’s drought resolution proposes cutting off all lawn watering on Oct. 1.
According to Denver Water, natural streamflow in the collection system from April through July was only 22% of the normal rate and marks the “lowest level observed since record-keeping began 110 years ago.” The agency’s water reservoirs are also at only 73% capacity as of Aug. 20, a step down from the 94% median; predictions show that number may drop to 60% by 2027 due to the “weather and worsening conditions.”
City-owned areas, like parks and athletic playing fields, could still be watered under special circumstances. Denver Water says most grass landscapes begin to enter dormancy in October, and the average first frost falls around Oct. 7, howeever.
Hand-watering trees, perennials and shrubs would still be allowed.
Denver Water predicts a $7.5 million revenue loss from ending grass watering after Sept. 30. The pending decision has made several headlines, but it’s not the craziest thing we’ve seen this summer as the drought continues.
Denver Water is looking for snitches
An anonymous reporting form created by Denver Water for residents to snitch on water wasters received over 6,000 submissions from late May to early August, according to CBS News. The form was created for residents to report specific drought violations they observe, such as watering outside approved hours and wasting water on concrete, directly to Denver Water.
While the agency said it started enforcing the drought restrictions with education, it began ticketing over-users toward the beginning of August. The first violation is a warning, the second is a $250 ticket, the third is a $500 ticket, and the fourth is a whopping $1,000 fine.
As of Aug. 25, Denver Water has given out 529 official warnings and 21 fines, totaling $7,250, a spokesperson tells Westword.
Denver Water has released numerous statements and announcements about the drought restrictions, but the idea remains unprecedented. After the dry winter demolished snowpack totals for the city, Denver Water announced the Stage 1 drought restrictions in March, the first time since 2013 and the fifth time since 2000.
“This is not our first drought, and we will get through this challenging time, but we need everyone to help out this summer in case drought conditions persist into next year and beyond,” Tyrone Gant, president of the Denver Board of Water Commissioners, said when the Stage 1 restrictions were implimented.
The goal was to achieve a 20% reduction in citywide water use. According to an agenda for Denver Water’s Aug. 26 meeting, the hotter-than-average weather has caused the city to struggle to “save the water necessary to achieve a system-wide savings goal”
Maybe snitching is justified.
HOA lawn notices confuse residents
Denver Water may want to police people for using too much, but Denver-area homeowner associations are going after residents for water too little.
The Ken-Caryl Ranch Master Association recently issued 28 “courtesy notices” to homes in the neighborhood regarding lawn conditions back at the beginning of August, according to a Denver7 report.
Ken-Caryl is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) located in the heart of Jefferson County, but it, too, depends on Denver Water. Therefore, the two-days-a-week watering restrictions apply to the small area, also. How residents are supposed to maintain picture-perfect lawns in the midst of once-a-decade drought restrictions perplexed homeowners.
“Maybe, in years past, when we didn’t have such a water shortage, it might have been justified,” a resident coincidentally named Ken Carlson told Denver7. “I think, if they did pursue that … especially this year, I think it would not be appropriate.”
An HOA spokesperson said no fines had been issued, but the notices were to open a conversation and “identify a reasonable path forward.”
Fines for brown lawns would be straight up illegal, according to Phase 3 of Colorado’s Drought Response Plan, which was implemented by Gov. Jared Polis back in June.
The Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act (“CCIOA”), which governs HOAs, directly says that organizations cannot levy fines against residents for dead lawns when “water restrictions or guidelines from the local water district or similar entity are in place and the unit owner is watering in compliance with such restrictions or guidelines.”
In a press release, the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies said HOAs can require proof that people are watering their lawns during the restriction’s two days allotted, but cannot directly fine the residents for non-compliance. The organizations can still give out the “courtesy notices” via a loophole, though.
In July, Superior resident James Shima told the Washington Post that he received a letter from his HOA for not watering his lawn. Shima said he was just following state restrictions to help fight against the drought. He was given 30 days to fix the problem.
Superior, small town located just outside of Broomfield, isn’t under Denver Water’s drought restrictions, but the entire state is now under Phase 3 Drought restrictions. The plan was crafted for emergency funding and does protect homeowners from HOA fines, but Shima took it as a sign to cut his water usage.
Now, Shima claims he has to water his two times a day, seven days a week to keep up with the summer weather. He had a water bill worth $300 back in July.
The president of the HOA told the Post that “no one is expected to have a lush green lawn right now, but they are expected to do enough maintenance to keep their lawns alive. She then dismissed Shima’s concerns as “a nonstory in which the ‘HOA as villain’ trope does not apply.”
Fishing free-for-alls
The drought has been so bad on some lakes and reservoirs that the state is lifting fishing restrictions as fish die. The have been eight fish salvage orders issued in the state this summer, the most recent at Banner Lakes State Wildlife Area in Weld County on Aug. 20. All fishing size and amount limits are removed during the orders because of imminent drought danger to local fish.
The closest salvage order to Denver is McKay Lake in Westminster, but the listed reservoirs and lakes stretch across the state.
“The fish belong to the public,” Carrie Tucker, Colorado Parks and Wildlife aquatic biologist, said in a press release earlier this summer. “We want to provide anglers the opportunity to harvest as many fish as possible before declining water levels potentially cause us to lose the fishery.”
