Drought

Aurora moves back to NORMAL restrictions

Thank you, Aurora, for helping us meet our outdoor water use reduction goals. Our reservoirs are recovering and are currently at 84% of capacity. City Council has moved us back to our normal three-day-per-week watering schedule effective June 29th. Look for your new suggested watering times postcard in the mail next week or learn more on our watering times.

Aurora and Drought

Colorado has a semi-arid environment and is a drought-prone state. The Front Range receives approximately 15 inches of precipitation in the form of rain and snow on an annual basis, which is insufficient moisture to meet the needs for most non-native landscapes without supplemental irrigation. During water shortages, water must be prioritized to meet potable needs for life, safety and health.

Aurora Water has a Water Management Plan that was approved by city council and provides triggers and mitigation stages to allow for the reduction of water demands. These reductions are limited to outdoor water use, primarily by restricting the number of days permitted for watering landscape in progressive stages. Stage triggers are determined by an internal Drought Action Team that meets regularly to monitor supply and demand. Mitigation efforts – such as pursuing outside water leases from other water entities and constraining or interrupting leases from Aurora Water to outside entities – are fully vetted, as are operational changes that may yield additional potable water without significantly affecting customers.

Aurora stores water in 12 reservoirs across three river basins. Our goal is to maintain more than 30 months of water demands available to help buffer us from Colorado's drought cycles.

Aurora Water Reservoir Summary – Oct. 2, 2023
Storage	Active Capacity (a.f.)	Current Content (a.f.)	% full
Aurora Reservoir	31,064	28,838	93%
Quincy Reservoir	2,693	2,541	94%
Jefferson Lake	2,313	848	37%
Aurora Rampart Reservoir	1,238	1,083	87%
Spinney Mountain Reservoir	53,651	43,175	80%
Shared Storage*	65,452	54,159	83%
Total	156,411	130,483	83%

* Aurora is in many reservoirs across Colorado. Since we move our water to meet many needs, this number represents Aurora’s water in these other reservoirs at this time. All numbers in this report should be considered to be an estimate or projection. Included in shared storage is Aurora's share in Homestake Reservoir, Turquoise Lake, Twin Lakes Reservoir, Pueblo Reservoir, Strontia Springs Reservoir and Lakes Meredith and Henry

Storage is very low

This tells a story in images. Colorado on the whole is doing great for snow, but where Aurora gets its water from is not seeing this benefit. Remember, our storage was at 53% of capacity in April, which doesn't give us much buffer to meet the city's water needs into the future.

Snowpack peaked in mid-April and is now declining. These images reflect that peak.