Denver Water has opened the taps a bit, agreeing to provide extra water for new sod, city parks and people with large lawns. But the agency stood firm on maintaining a two-day-a-week watering schedule and banning outdoor watering daily between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. and altogether on Mondays.
The decision was good news to landscapers and developers, who had lobbied the water board to allow extra water for new sod lawns.
Green industry officials had said the ban on watering new lawns was costing the metro area hundreds of jobs.
Thanks to new rebates for water-saving landscapes and the water allowance for new sod, landscapers expect business to rebound.
"By this weekend, you're going to see a lot of help-wanted ads for new staff to help us get all of this work done," said John Gibson, director of operations for Swingle Tree and Lawn Care.
Denver Water, which serves 1.2 million metro-area customers, is the latest among a handful of metro-area cities to relax tough drought-related watering rules. Other cities that have relaxed or eliminated mandatory restrictions include Boulder, Thornton, Westminster and Broomfield.
Thanks to a near-average snowpack and early spring rains, Denver Water's reservoirs are about 63 percent full, and they're expected to reach 80 percent in four to six weeks, according to Ed Pokorney, director of planning.
Still, water officials warned people not to open the spigots too much because a stiff drought surcharge will remain in effect until reservoirs refill to that 80 percent mark.
"People need to be extremely careful about how much water they use because it will show up on their bills," said Denver Water Manager Chips Barry.
Under drought rules imposed this spring, homeowners are allowed to use 18,000 gallons of water bimonthly before surcharges kick in. The fees start at 80 cents per thousand and soar to $11.85 per thousand for customers who use more than 61,000 gallons in a two-month period.
Denver Water started the summer watering season by limiting homeowners to watering just eight lawn zones for 15 minutes each. Now homeowners can water an unlimited number of zones for an average of 15 minutes each. A zone is the amount of lawn served by one automatic sprinkler system section or one sweep of a manual lawn sprinkler.
Water board members had also debated whether to allow customers to water zones up to 20 minutes, but opted not to until it's clearer how much water the spring runoff will deliver.
"The risk right now is just too high to allow 20 minutes per zone," said board member Dan Muse.
Instead, the board decided to increase the water budget for city parks, giving them 80 percent of the water they used in 2001, up from the original 70 percent.
"To our knowledge the drought is still not over," said board member Andrew Wallach. "But we've tried to provide some additional water for a variety of uses."
Homeowners who want to install sod will be allowed to water every day, including Monday, but not between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Though Denver Water won't issue special permits for sod – as it did last year –it is requiring that homeowners show a receipt indicating their sod has been newly purchased. They can then water the sod for 14 days.
But Pokorney said the board could shut down the sod watering if it sees reservoir levels dropping in the face of high demand.
"If our demand goes off the charts, there are things we will have to revisit," Pokorney said.