SOUTHERN UTE INDIAN RESERVATION – A water rate review is at the “top of the list” of priorities for Durango Sustainability Manager Marty Pool.
That’s nothing new – Pool has been talking for some time about how the city should tackle the issue. But now he has data with which to inform the discussion, which is especially poignant this year, given the lackluster state of the snowpack that provides water to communities in Southwest Colorado.
The city is wrestling with the question “What does it mean to ‘pay your fair share?’” Pool reiterated at a panel alongside his peers on municipal water use and conservation at the Southwestern Water Conservation District’s annual water conference.
This year’s seminar, titled “Water reimagined: strategies for a changing world,” was the 41st annual such event. Each year, SWWCD invites stakeholders from across the water world to discuss a new slate of challenges and innovations taking place in the Colorado River Basin.
Durango uses about 1.4 billion gallons of water annually and draws its water first and foremost from the Florida River, and then from the less pristine Animas River.
The diversity of sources is a good thing, according to Aurora Water General Manager Marshall Brown, who also spoke on the panel. His district services about 600,000 users. As water becomes scarce, cities are looking to avoid having all their water eggs in a single basket.
Pagosa Springs has three diversion points for its municipal water, all along the San Juan River and its tributaries, Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District Engineer and Manager Justin Ramsey said. The town has a drought management plan that includes limiting irrigation, enforcing alternating irrigation days and the application of a drought surcharge. And it’s getting ready to implement that plan.
“There’s probably a good chance that we’ll be into drought stages pretty quickly,” Ramsey said.
Aurora has already had to answer some of the questions around which Pool is prompting conversations. Durango has a tiered rate system, introduced in 2014, in which users who break into higher tiers of water use pay more for that elevated consumption (the first 6,000 gallons used by a single family residential home cost $2.41 per 1,000 gallons, while anything use over 36,000 gallons costs $8.18 per 1,000 gallons).
But that wasn’t enough in Aurora, Brown pointed out, where heavy water consumers could afford the heightened fees.
“A lot of water tends to flow toward money,” he said.
Now, under the city’s regulations, users are limited based on their non-recoverable use. That means no more bottling facilities in Aurora, and any data centers built there must use water-efficient cooling systems.
Given Durango’s ample water supply, the city’s need for water conservation has not yet reached a fevered pitch, and the city might be a step or two behind Aurora in that regard.
But there’s still an ethical and philosophical reason to conserve water, Pool said in an interview with The Durango Herald, in consideration of Durango’s regional partners.
Before Pool launched a study of water consumption last year, insights into the city’s water use was like “a black box.”
Given that the rate structure was developed over a decade ago based on broad assumptions about the city’s use, it’s well past time to reconsider the system.
“We had total residential consumption and total commercial consumption, which doesn't tell us a lot about how water is being used by individual residents and businesses,” Pool said.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
