To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
Through: David L. Corliss, Town Manager
From: Mark Marlowe, P.E., Director of Castle Rock Water
Title
Resolution Adopting the 2021 Town of Castle Rock Water Use Management Plan (WUMP)
Body
________________________________________________________________________________
Executive Summary
The purpose of this memorandum is to request Town Council approval of a Resolution (Attachment A) adopting the 2021 Water Use Management Plan (WUMP). The WUMP is a demand management tool that identifies regulations, watering schedules to stagger demand, surcharges, and enforcement. The WUMP is referenced in Municipal Code 13.15.040 and 13.15.050. Minor revisions and administrative updates are proposed from the 2020 WUMP (Exhibit 1), and those are summarized in Attachment B. The proposed changes to the WUMP include one fairly significant item which is changing the permissible watering hours for non-residential properties from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. to 12 a.m. to 8 a.m. The primary purpose of the change is to reduce confusion on watering days by having all of the watering time on a single day, in a single block instead of broken up as before.
Notification and Outreach Efforts
As defined in Chapter 13.15 of the Town’s Municipal Code, all customers will receive the 2021 watering schedule via United States Mail within thirty (30) days prior to the commencement of the schedule implementation period (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, Twitter, Town Talk, and press releases.
The transition to the updated watering hours for non-residential properties will be communicated to the landscape developer and builder community through the following sources; Email, United States Mail, Developer’s Roundtable, Economic Development Council, and home owner association (HOA) outreach. Additionally, this information will be available on the Town’s websites (CRgov.com and CRconserve.com) and promoted through Community Relations’ outreach avenues.
History of Past Town Council, Boards & Commissions, or Other Discussions
On January 27, 2021, the Castle Rock Water Commission was presented the 2021 WUMP. Castle Rock Water Commission voted 6-0 in favor of recommending Town Council approval of the 2021 WUMP as presented.
Discussion
The WUMP focuses on two areas critical to water use management including public education on how demand management works and impacts each customer and implementation of the actual demand management tools including watering schedules, enforcement, and other tools. The public education component has multiple opportunities for water conservation guidance. While Castle Rock Water employs a wide range of tools for public education on efficient water use and conservation, the primary educational tool for educating customers on demand management is the Water Wiser workshop. Successful completion of the workshop exempts a customer from the watering schedule (i.e. meaning they can water on any day necessary), but it does not exempt them from the restrictions on time of day. Public education through the Water Wiser workshop has been very successful. In 2020 alone, 649 customers attended the workshop and currently 3,316 customers are Water Wiser participants. Since 2018, customers are required to renew their participation every five years to stay current with the advancing conservation techniques and equipment. Castle Rock Water offers in person workshops in normal years, but created virtual workshops for 2020. Renewals can also be completed by taking an online course. The ultimate goal is to get as many customers as possible to become Water Wiser’s. The chart below shows the growth in Water Wiser participants over the last five years.
|
Water Wiser Participants |
|
2016 |
2,740 |
|
2017 |
3,020 |
|
2018 |
3,993 |
|
2019 |
3,187 |
|
2020 |
3,316 |
The Town of Castle Rock has used mandatory water demand management for landscape irrigation since 1985. Peak season demands for residential customers are staggered on an every-third-day format. This is the traditional circle, diamond, square watering schedule familiar to our customers. Consistent to what was originally adopted in 2019, the schedule period will remain May through September. Other than hand watering, no watering during the daytime hours of 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. is allowed. This format helps ensure our customers use irrigation water when it is most efficient and effective, ultimately saving customer’s money. In addition, it allows positive pressures to be maintained throughout the water distribution system while maintaining appropriate fire flows. It also allocates time for the finished water storage tanks to recover volume.
For non-residential customers, the watering schedule is three days per week allowing customers to water east of I-25 on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and customers west of I-25 on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. In an effort to reduce confusion, it is proposed that non-residential watering hours will begin at 12 a.m. and must be completed by 8 a.m. on the designated day.
In order to accommodate resident’s use, Town owned and managed parks will water beginning on their designated day at 9 p.m. and finish no later than 5 a.m. the following morning.
In addition to the watering schedules, the WUMP covers alternative schedules for customers with hardships that make complying with the standard schedules impossible and temporary irrigation exemptions from the standard schedules for things like establishing new plant material. Other items covered in the WUMP include special circumstances impacting compliance, rules for other types of water use besides irrigation, definitions of water waste, and monitoring and enforcement.
Monitoring and enforcement is a key item in the WUMP. This section covers surcharges for violations, a key item of importance to customers. No changes are proposed to the surcharges for violations. The surcharges for 2021 are shown in the table below.
|
Residential |
Non-residential |
|
1st - Warning, no surcharge |
1st - Warning, no surcharge |
|
2nd - $25 surcharge |
2nd - $100 surcharge* |
|
3rd - $50 surcharge |
3rd - $200 surcharge* |
|
4th - $100 surcharge |
4th - $400 surcharge* |
|
5th - $200 surcharge |
5th - $800 surcharge* |
|
Subsequent - $200 surcharge* |
Subsequent - $800 surcharge* |
|
*Subject to service discontinuance |
*Subject to service discontinuance |
The Watering Violations Summary from 2020 is included as Attachment C. Review of the violations summary shows that violations have been increasing since 2016. A record number of violations was issued in 2020. Staff believes this is primarily a result of the dry conditions in 2020 as well as the rapid growth in new customers. While the revenues from violations have been increasing, the philosophy and focus of the program is to educate customers and avoid issuing surcharges for violations. While the water monitors have always issued violations, their direction is to contact the customer, explain the problem, and provide a solution whenever reasonable and possible.
Seasonal water conservation staff are hired every year to help monitor and enforce the WUMP. In 2020, four field water monitors were utilized as well as an administrative employee. Staff anticipates the same level of seasonal staffing in 2021.
The full WUMP can be found at CRgov.com/waterplans.
Budget Impact
The budget for 2021 seasonal water conservation staff is $48,770 and is covered under account number 211-4330-443.10-30. The seasonal water conservation salaries are expected to exceed the budget amount. Any overage will be covered within the other conservation division funds. The 2022 budget will be adjusted to prevent further overages. The 2020 seasonal water conservation expenses were $56,185.02.
Staff Recommendation
Staff recommends approval of the 2021 WUMP as presented.
Proposed Motion
“I move to approve the Resolution as introduced by title.”
Attachments
Attachment A: Resolution
Exhibit 1: 2021 Water Use Management Plan (WUMP)
Attachment B: Summary of proposed changes
Attachment C: Watering violations summary