To: Members of the Castle Rock Water Commission
From: Mark Marlowe, P.E., Director of Castle Rock Water
Matt Benak, P.E, Water Resources Manager
Rick Schultz, Water Efficiency Supervisor
Tim Dagg, Water Efficiency Technician
Title
An Ordinance Approving Changes to the 2025 Water Use Management Plan (WUMP) [Castle Rock Service Area]
Town Council Agenda Date: March 4, 2025
Body
________________________________________________________________________________
Executive Summary
The purpose of this memorandum is to request Town Council approval of a Resolution (Attachment A) adopting the 2025 Water Use Management Plan (WUMP). The WUMP is a demand management tool that provides regulations and watering schedules as a method to encourage water conservation during peak irrigation demand and throughout the year. The WUMP identifies a fee structure in the areas of surcharges and water violations as a way to deter non-compliance with these measures. Practices outlined in the WUMP help to minimize the effects of changing drought conditions. The WUMP supports sustainable habits for a growing community to preserve the water supply of Castle Rock’s semi-arid environment. The WUMP is one of the methods Castle Rock Water (CRW) utilizes to assist the community in reaching the 100-gallon per capita per day water usage goal and still maintain a high standard of living for residents. The WUMP is referenced in Municipal Code Chapters 13.15.040 and 13.15.050. For this year, CRW is proposing to increase the residential surcharge beginning with the third violation, as outlined in the table below.
Notification and Outreach Efforts
As defined in Chapter 13.15 of the Town’s Municipal Code, all customers will receive the 2025 water schedule via United States Mail within thirty (30) days prior to the commencement of the outdoor watering schedule months of May through September. Additionally, this information will be available on the Town’s websites (CRgov.com and CRconserve.com) and promoted through Community Relations’ outreach avenues such as Facebook, X (fka Twitter), Town Talk, and a press release.
Discussion
Public education is necessary towards embracing a cultural shift of appreciation for the natural environment and what appropriate landscape and water use should be in a semi-arid climate. The WUMP provides an outline of practices during peak water use demand. It also focuses on individual water use impacts along with the necessity and purpose of demand management of our water resources. Demand management utilizes watering schedules that are enforced through the issuance of violation notices and surcharges when compliance is not met.
Multiple workshops offered throughout the year are the primary form of in-person outreach. These are offered at no cost to the customer and include Water Wiser workshops and ColoradoScape design workshops.
Water Wiser is a three-hour workshop that covers the awareness of water waste centered around outdoor and indoor water demands. It provides education to Town residents on practices that help achieve less water use and save on monthly utility bills. The course also covers rebates offered through CRW that can help reduce total costs to residents that upgrade any rebated area to become more water efficient. The workshops are interactive and encourage individuals to ask questions and participate in discussion.
Once residents have attended a Water Wiser Workshop and learn about water conservation practices, they are then given a Water Wiser designation in the billing system and receive a Water Wiser placard. This designation gives them an exemption from the every-third day watering schedule. Participating in a Water Wiser Workshop does not exclude participants from receiving a violation due to water-waste or watering during off hours.
Due to evolving regulations and efforts to continue education, beginning in 2018, the Water Wiser designation expires after five (5) years. Those residents choosing to continue their status can attend another in-person workshop or request a link to an online renewal class to keep the designation. In 2024, 160 individuals opted to take the online renewal course and retained Water Wiser status. The following chart below shows the number of Water Wiser Workshop participants since 2017.
|
Water Wiser Participants |
|
2017 |
3,020 |
|
2018 |
3,993 |
|
2019 |
3,187 |
|
2020 |
3,316 |
|
2021 |
3,497 |
|
2022 |
3,507 |
|
2023 |
2,884 |
|
2024 |
2,926 |
The Town of Castle Rock has used mandatory water demand management for landscape irrigation since 1985. The residential 2025 watering schedule places each house on an every third-day cycle based on the last digit of the home address. This digit correlates to a circle, diamond or square. These shapes represent dates on the calendar year from May 1st through September 30th to assist residents in managing their watering program during the irrigation season (Attachment B).
This watering schedule is designed to prevent multiple houses on the same street or area from drawing too much water from the Town’s system at one time and creating a low-pressure event. This also helps CRW’s system to be in a stronger state for any firefighting needs that may arise in any particular area of Town. There are some exceptions to this schedule located in Founders Village where multiple addresses on the same street end in the same digit. For these individual homes, there is a special schedule mailed directly to the address. Accounts with Water Wiser designations are not restricted to the every third-day schedule on the basis that Water Wiser participants have a better awareness of irrigation needs and are encouraged to water only when needed. To prevent water waste and maximize watering efficiency, all residences are restricted from watering before 8 p.m. and after 8 a.m., other than hand watering.
Non-residential irrigation creates the highest water demand because of the size of the irrigable area. Due to this high-water demand, non-residential accounts have fewer watering hours per day and are divided into two groups. These groups are determined by proximity of the north and south sides of interstate 25 (I-25). Non-residential watering hours are from 12 a.m. to 8 a.m. Non-residential accounts east of I-25 are designated Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Non-residential accounts west of 1-25 are designated Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Attachment C is the non-residential watering schedule.
As an effort to accommodate park use and programmed events, watering hours for Town-owned and managed parks are from 9 p.m. on their designated day and finish no later than 5 a.m. the following morning.
In addition to the watering schedule, the WUMP covers alternative schedules for special circumstances including customers with hardships and exemptions for residents installing new sod or vegetation.
Enforcement of regulations and restrictions outlined in the WUMP is largely dependent on CRW Water Monitors. It is the Water Monitor’s task to identify violations and process them accordingly. The Water Monitor's first directive is to make contact with the customer in violation, explain the situation and help provide a solution whenever possible. Water Monitors are responsible for issuing an official violation. For both residential and non-residential accounts, the first violation is a warning. A change to increase the fee schedule for residential surcharges is being proposed for third, fourth, fifth and subsequent violations. In the summary of changes (Attachment D), you will find the previous year’s residential surcharges along with the reasoning for a change. For Non-residential surcharges, these remain the same as past years. The table below represents the proposed 2025 fee schedule for violations.
|
Residential |
Non-residential |
|
1st - Warning, no surcharge |
1st - Warning, no surcharge |
|
2nd - $25 surcharge |
2nd - $100 surcharge* |
|
3rd - $75 surcharge |
3rd - $200 surcharge* |
|
4th - $150 surcharge |
4th - $400 surcharge* |
|
5th - $300 surcharge |
5th - $800 surcharge* |
|
Subsequent - $300 surcharge* |
Subsequent - $800 surcharge* |
|
*Subject to service discontinuance |
*Subject to service discontinuance |
The total number of violations vary from year to year. It is believed that the more education efforts successfully received by residents, the fewer the violations. The largest factor influencing the number of violations is the amount of rainfall received during the irrigation season. Part of our educational outreach is an emphasis on providing irrigation water to outdoor landscapes when only needed. Educating residents to have a better understanding of irrigation practices while converting landscapes to a ColoradoScape design, encourages a water conservation culture.
The following table and graph represent the five-year precipitation averages in Castle Rock.
|
Monthly Precipitation Measured in Inches From 2020 to 2024 |
|
|
|
Overall, 2024 precipitation was the second driest of the past five years.
The following table and graph represent the past five-year monthly average temperatures in Castle Rock.
|
Monthly Average Temperature in Fahrenheit from 2020 to 2024 |
|
|
|
Overall, 2024 temperatures were fairly moderate with the exception of October which was one of the hottest on record and almost 8 degrees hotter on average than the previous four years.
As the Town’s population and the CRW service area continues to grow with extraterritorial customers such as Macanta, Bell Mountain Ranch and the Crowfoot Valley Road corridor, so does the need for seasonal water monitors. CRW relies heavily on its monitors to be the eyes in the field. Their presence serves as enforcement to the watering restrictions and ensures that responsible management of the Town’s water resources is an active practice.
The full 2025 WUMP will be made available following council adoption at the March 4, 2025 meeting and can be found at CRgov.com/waterplans.
Budget Impact
The 2025 seasonal water conservation staff budget is $61,168 and is covered under account number 211-4330-443.10-30. The revenue budget estimate for watering surcharges is $107,402. Seasonal water conservation salaries are not expected to exceed the budget amount even with six seasonal water monitoring staff.
Proposed Motion
“I move to recommend to Town Council approval of the Resolution as presented”
Attachments
|
Attachment A: |
Resolution |
|
Exhibit 1: |
2025 WUMP |
|
Attachment B: |
2025 Residential Watering Schedule |
|
Attachment C: |
2025 Non-Residential Watering Schedule |
|
Attachment D: |
2025 WUMP Summary of Proposed Changes |