Wow.
Drought-inspired conservation has reduced metro Denver’s water consumption to levels not seen since 1969, despite a 65 percent growth in the number of customers over that span.
Denver Water delivered just 59.4 billion gallons last year, 22.6 billion gallons fewer than the utility did before the onset of drought in 2000, new agency numbers show. “It’s astonishing,” Liz Gardener, Denver Water’s conservation manager, said of the 28 percent drop.
Similar savings have been noted in Aurora and Colorado Springs, the Front Range’s two other municipal giants.
Of course, fixed costs to the water utilities haven’t gone down by that much, meaning that water rates will continue to rise. And there’s some question — between summer water use surcharges and no-water days and a summer that ended up wetter than expected — how much of that drop will continue next year. But it’s still sort of remarkable — and promising, given that the population isn’t likely to drop any time soon …