Denver Utility Imposes Water Restrictions For 3rd Summer In A Row - AP

[hatrack]

DENVER — After yet another disappointing Colorado snow season, Denver water utility officials voted Wednesday to restrict water use for the third straight summer.

Denver Water's 1.2 million customers will have to limit use beginning May 1. Restrictions also are on the way for four other cities, including Colorado Springs. Loveland and Fort Collins have not ordered restrictions but are urging residents to conserve.

Weather and water experts have warned of a summer that could be as dry as 2002, when reservoirs were drained, crops withered, and wildfires swept through hundreds of thousands of acres. Some utilities were unprepared for conditions that year after hot, dry spring weather melted the snowpack early.

"The bottom dropped out in 2002 and we remember that vividly," said Chips Barry, manager of Denver Water. "What the board did is to make sure that if it happened again, we won't be in the same situation." The mountain snowpack, which generates about 80 percent of the state's water, got a boost from recent storms, but not enough to make up for one of Colorado's driest Marches on record."

EDIT

http://www.enn.com/news/2004-04-15/s_22843.asp

[librechik]

1. dang

good thing I got the xeriscaping in last summer.