Aurora City Council to vote on possible water restrictions

Aurora Water says this year the drought may be the worst they've seen in decades, and the city council is considering implementing water restrictions to mitigate the impact on the water supply.

"It looks like we're on record to be even worse than the worst drought we've had in my memory, which was 2002, at which time our whole state was on fire. You would be down here in town, and there'd be ash blowing through the street," said Aurora Mayor Pro-Tem and City Council Member Allison Coombs.

That ash was from the Hayman Fire. At the time, the largest fire in Colorado state history, which burned in the mountains southwest of Denver. According to the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University, by late June of that year, the state saw extremely low stream flows, rapidly depleted reservoirs, and severe agricultural impacts to wheat, cattle and irrigated crops. Not to mention intense heat and urban water restrictions.

"What we are seeing is, this is going to be a lot worse than 2002," said Shonnie Cline with Aurora Water.

That's why the Aurora City Council will be voting on Monday to move into phase one water restrictions.

Primarily, that means watering only two days a week instead of three, no new turf installations, no water feature operations and water will only be served at restaurants upon request.

"Also, cannot water between 10 and 6. Because that's just the worst time of day, and that is considered water wasting," said Cline.

There are two more phases the City of Aurora could move to if necessary. That would mean no public or private pool top-offs, even less watering and no washing cars at home.

At least for now, they don't anticipate doing that, but if we get a major fire as we did back in 2002, it could be a problem for the water supply.

"We have to be cognizant of other ways that we can limit fire risk by making sure we don't have dry brush and other things in our yards. But also making sure that when we're operating grills, that we're doing so safely, and that we're not shooting fireworks. said Coombs. "And it's really urgent, because a small spark can ignite a massive blaze, and it also takes the water that we need for our city to put out those fires."

East Cherry Creek Valley Water and Sanitation District, which also serves southeast Aurora and Centennial, and Denver Water already have similar watering restrictions in place.