Erie town officials on Friday morning told residents and businesses that all sprinkler systems must remain shut off at least through the end of March, with water demands currently approaching “30% higher than usual at this time of year.”
The town said it will monitor for irrigation system use and will turn off water service at the property taps of residents, HOAs and businesses that don’t comply with the request to shut off sprinklers. For most large HOAs, this will only turn off irrigation water, according to the town. For individual households and lots, this would turn water off for the whole household or building.
Using a hose for limited watering of trees, bushes and gardens is permitted, but the town is asking the community to refrain from watering any turf grass, according to town spokesperson Gabi Rae.
The town is asking the community to “wait as long as they are able” to begin outdoor spring irrigation, and asks that even numbered addresses begin irrigation no earlier than April 4 and odd numbered addresses begin irrigation no earlier than April 6.
The canal from Carter Lake, a major summertime water distributor to Erie, will open on April 1. “That’s what we’re waiting for,” Rae said.
In the winter season, Erie’s water providers distribute a smaller daily amount compared to the water the town receives during the summer, according to Rae, who said the town has for weeks been nearing its daily capacity of 3.5 million gallons.
“We have been asking nicely for people to turn their sprinklers off for two weeks. The water use keeps growing,” Rae said.
“We really don’t have any buffer room because every day it’s been increasing by 200,000 to 300,000 gallons a day as people turn on their sprinkler systems. We will hit capacity and run out of water in a couple of days if they don’t stop.”
Through the end of March, the town will keep track of usage by monitoring how much water is going out of its plant and through access to utility bills. Rae said the town will also have staff “driving around in the mornings to see who’s watering” and will leave doorhangers with information about the sprinkler request.
If they’re still seen watering the next day, “they will get a knock on the door, and if they do not comply, we’ll have their tap turned off,” she said.
The town’s golf course and some HOAs that are not connected to the town’s water treatment system may continue to use the non-potable water in their irrigation systems, though Rae said, “the idea is that we’re not letting people see that and think, ‘Well they’re doing it, I’ll do it too.’ We’d really love to be all together in this.”
Nearby Lafayette on Friday issued a similar directive for its community to refrain from running irrigation systems, though the city did not threaten to shut water off for non-compliance.
Erie’s sprinkler directive comes at the end of a warm winter with low snowfall.
Community water portfolios across the Front Range will “certainly see impacts this year,” said Jeff Stahla, spokesman for the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, which serves Erie and other northern Front Range communities.
The Colorado-Big Thompson Project, a major water source in the region, is “suffering the effects of this year’s snowpack,” for example. A town like Erie asking its entire community to shut off irrigation, Stahla added, is not something he’s seen in recent history.
“This amount of heat, and after a dry winter, it is a combination that we have not seen before,” Stahla said.
This is a developing story and will be updated with more details.