The Rise and Fall of
Water Budgets in
Aurora, CO
Kevin Reidy
Water Conservation Supervisor
Aurora Water
Background-Aurora, CO
 309,000
inhabitants
 East side of metro Denver area
 On the Eastern Plains
 14-15” annual precipitation
 95% of water supply comes from
snowpack high in the Rocky Mountains
 65,000 single family residential accounts;
10,000 Multi-family, Commercial and Other
accounts
Aurora Water Conservation
Xeriscape
Youth
Education
Education
Ordinances
& Standards
Aurora Water
Conservation
ICI
Restrictions
Education
Rate
Structures
Customer
Services
2002: Emergency Drought
Response
 40%
of snowpack lost in April
 Mandatory every third day watering began
May 15
 Effective Sept. 1, 2002
• No watering on Sundays
• No watering from 7 a.m.- 7 p.m.
• Watering can only occur for 1 hour total
• New lawns banned
2003: Evolution within Drought
Response
 March
2003 Aurora’s reservoir system was
only 27% of capacity full
 Opportunity
to reframe situation and
engage our customers in a water
conservation partnership
 Not
just recipients of a mandatory watering
schedule
2003: Sowing Seeds
 Voluntary
water budget program for large
irrigators

to avoid time constraints of water schedule
and hour time limits
 Good
test case for transferring
methodology to every water account the
next year
2004: Broadening the Equity
Umbrella
 2004
- a more equitable and individualized
water budget system
 Tier


I- All 69,000 water accounts received
most recent winter quarter average
70% of 2000-2001 outdoor consumption.
 New


accounts received a default setting
3.2 people per household @ 70 gpcd
3000 sq. ft. @ generally accepted bluegrass ET rates.
Building blocks and issues
 Building

a team
Water Finance and Billing, Aurora Planning, and IT
department
 Communicating

across disciplines
“Discipline Devotion”
 Billing
system issues
 Communicating
the program
Building blocks and issues
 Historical
Billing Data Issues
 Leadership
backing the idea
 Customer Acceptance
Tier Rate Structure Evolution
2002- 3 Tier system
 Based on fixed gallon amount (breakpoints)
2003- 3 Tier account based system
 Based on non-individualized allocations for accounts.

Indoor budget was individualized but outdoor budget was
standard for everyone.
2004- 3 Tier individualized account system
 Based on individualized allocations for accounts.

Indoor and outdoor budgets were individualized but
outdoor budget was based on history reduced by 30%.
2005-2006
 2005
- increase budgets due to less
severe drought stage but still based on a
20% of the 2000-2001 outdoor average
 2006
-based on historical usage from 2005
the outdoor portion adjusted up by 23%

Did not use full allocation in 2006
2007
 Water
budgets were taken off the table as
a rate structure
 Replaced
4
with a one-size fits all approach
blocks of water steeply increasing
2007 continued

Residential/townhome






Base $8.50
Tier I $3.60 WQA
Tier II $4.50 Next 15K/Next 4K
Tier III $8.25 Next 10K/Next 3K
Tier IV $10.75 all else
Conservation credit of $3.75 each month usage is 3K
or less
2007 continued
 Multi




family
Block I = $3.60 WQA
Block II = $4.50 Next 50% of WQA
Block III = $8.25 Next 100% of WQA
Block IV = $10.75 all else
 BIG
Problem: Domestic meters that have
very low WQA but irrigate large areas in
summer
So…what derailed the concept?
The perfect storm
 Prairie



Waters Project (2005-2006)
38 mile pipeline to return water from South
Platte river to Aurora
850 million dollar project
Need to change rate structure to fund project
 For
various reasons- key leadership out at
crucial points
 Conservation taken out of loop
 Outside consultant brought in
The perfect storm (contd.)
 Prairie




Waters Project
Initial phase began in 2005
Focus from drought and water budget began
to shift to massive project
Shift of focus lessened attention and thus
diluted support
Refocused on paying for project (12%,12%,
8%, 5% annual revenue increases needed)
The perfect storm (contd.)
 Director
out due to illness-leadership
support suspended


Water director, finance director vacant
Manager over water conservation out in late
2006; I was out on paternity leave for 2
months in fall 2006
The perfect storm (contd.)
 Conservation



uninvited/outside consultant
No communication between conservation and
finance/consultant
Conservation offered advice once some of the
implications to customers were realized
Customer not really considered-no appeals
process-only big picture view
Backlash
 “We
liked the way you did it a few years
ago”
 Large HOA properties hit with high bills;
some large lot residential hit with very high
bills
 No appeals process; Water dept. could not
do anything; very unhappy customers
Backlash
 2008


rate structure
Residential (1-4 units) 3 tier structure but still
one size fits all; tiers are large enough to
accommodate most users
Multifamily & commercial 2 tier system with an
annual allocation based on 2005-2006 usage
• Return of the water budget?

Some kind of appeals process in place
Are we returning to water
budgets?
 Probably
not for residential (yet); possibly
for large and commercial properties
 Working
 Trending
again to utilize GIS
toward an informational water
budget approach vs. billing on water
budgets
Lessons learned
 Gather
a diverse team in order to institute
GIS


Stormwater, forestry, CIP, water quality,
conservation, water resources
In other words, show that this just isn’t the
crazy hippies in conservation wanting this!
Lessons Learned
 Timing

While we were able to start down the water
budget path, we couldn’t fully convert to a true
water budget approach
 Avoid

is everything
rate fatigue
Don’t change rate structure so much; find
something that will work and stick with it
Lessons Learned
 Plan




out next attempt very carefully
Gather more support from top down
Create robust GIS using coalition
Secure informational budgets first; create
proven track record; then convert to billing
with them
Track water consumption through
informational budgets, especially Water Smart
Reader users
What is next?
 Continue
to use the past drought and
momentum gained to affect a permanent
change in our customer base
 Continue
to provide the support and tools
necessary to aid in this cultural
transformation (to include self-regulated
water budgets!!)
 Water
Customers
Water Stewards
Contact Information
 Kevin
Reidy-Water Conservation
Supervisor
 Aurora Water-Water Conservation Division
 kreidy@auroragov.org
 303-739-7387
 www.aurorawater.org