Jeremy Vesbach

In 2020, Colorado Springs Utilities was awarded a grant from the Colorado Water Conservation Board for their PureWater Colorado Mobile Demonstration project. The project, designed by Carollo Engineers and constructed inside a mobile trailer by the Colorado School of Mines, applies advanced purification processes to recycle reclaimed water to produce potable water that meets state and federal drinking water standards. The mobile DPR trailer is an important resource that can now be used by water providers around the state to help evaluate the potential role of DPR in their communities.

WRA worked closely with WRCO, Denver Water and others to help ensure the success of the first PureWater Colorado DPR demonstration project hosted at Denver Water’s Recycled Water Treatment Plant in 2018. The project relied on targeted audience tours and DPR water, beer and wine tastings to demonstrate how proven advanced treatment technologies can safely create purified water for drinking.

WRA has organized and participated in numerous water conference sessions on reuse, helping to educate the public, water managers and other decision makers about reuse, and specifically DPR. We have worked on reuse webinars, a radio show, and headline articles in Headwaters Magazine and Fresh Water News. We have also presented to state legislators to inform them of the state of reuse and future opportunities in Colorado.

Since 2015, WRA has been working with WaterReuse Colorado (WRCO), the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), and many others to develop new state water quality regulation to safely allow for direct potable reuse. We’ve spearheaded and helped manage two projects with technical, public health, communications and other experts to help develop a framework for DPR regulations in Colorado. Most recently we helped secure funding and serve on the Steering Committee for a CDPHE Stakeholder Process that is developing a DRP regulatory proposal that will be used for a Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) rulemaking hearing scheduled for October 2022. The rulemaking is the final step in implementing new direct potable reuse regulations for Colorado. There is much support for and anticipation of the new regulations, with at least one water provider already waiting for the new regulations to implement a direct potable reuse project.

Graywater was legalized in Colorado in 2015 through Regulation 86 and as of 2022, the graywater regulation was up for review by the Colorado Department of Public Health (CDPHE) and the Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC). WRA is involved in the State’s stakeholder engagement process and our goal is to see the regulation streamlined and simplified to ultimately allow many more Coloradoans to install graywater systems.

The City of Moab is interested in adopting a water efficient landscaping ordinance to reduce potable water demand for landscaping installed in new and redevelopment. The ordinance will include a significant graywater incentive that will allow homeowners and businesses that install a graywater system to increase their allotted landscape water budget allowance, set by the ordinance. This ordinance is being developed in partnership with WRA.

In 2020, the City of Golden adopted a laundry-to-landscape graywater ordinance, the first of its kind in Colorado, which allows for simple, laundry-to-landscape systems to be installed in new and existing residential development, in order to reduce potable water demand for landscape irrigation. The program was developed in partnership with WRA and includes funding for pilot demonstration projects throughout the city.

Santa Fe County adopted its Sustainable Land Development Code in 2015 which includes a requirement that rainwater catchment systems be installed for all new construction and all remodeling of existing structures whose roof area is 2,500 square feet or greater. The systems must be designed to capture rainwater from a minimum of 85% of the roofed area.

City of Woodland Park, Colo. is a small community of about 8,000 people that has robustly integrated their water resources management objectives into their comprehensive plan for years, as directed by the city council. This has helped ensure that their limited water supplies remain sufficient for their growing community, and that water issues are always addressed in connection with growth and development proposals.

Silver City offers a bonus to applicants for development permits as an incentive to use only trees and vegetation contained on a pre-approved Low-Water and Native Vegetation list within the ordinance. The bonus allows applicants to reduce the project’s landscaping area requirements by 10%. Silver City only allows for a maximum of 50% of landscaped areas to be covered by plants requiring irrigation.

The City of Flagstaff amended its Land Development Code to provide for clustered and planned development residential uses such as Duplex/Triplex, Townhouse, Terrace House, Multiplex, and Apartment or Condominium Buildings. The city’s addition of numerous small, compact housing types to the Code was motivated by the need for greater affordability, but also fosters a more compact, water-efficient development pattern.

In 2021, The City of Moab adopted an updated Water Conservation Plan that incorporates land use planning through action items that will require more water-efficient landscaping standards for new development, incentives for the use of alternative supplies like rainwater and graywater, and development standards that incorporate water-efficiency principles. WRA is supporting the city to develop its new water-efficient landscaping standards.

In 2021, the City of Sandy passed a revised Water Conservation Plan that includes existing and planned updates to encourage additional water conservation through codes and ordinances such as water-efficient landscaping standards that mandate irrigation audits for all new properties, permanent time-of-day watering restrictions, and water waste prohibitions.

Beginning in 2019, the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District (JVWCD) developed new Water Efficiency Standards to help development within their member agencies become more water efficient. The standards include specific landscaping requirements and standards, including limitations on where turf lawns can be installed and specific irrigation requirements. JVWCD partnered with WRA to help review those standards and ensure they are in line with industry best practices and standards. Because JVWCD is one of the largest water conservancy districts in Utah, this is a great step in making the fastest growing state focus on water efficiency.

In 2020, the City of Golden adopted a laundry-to-landscape graywater ordinance, the first of its kind in Colorado, which allows for simple, laundry-to-landscape systems to be installed in new and existing residential development, in order to reduce potable water demand for landscape irrigation. The program — developed in partnership with WRA — includes funding for pilot demonstration projects throughout the city.