Denver watering rules: what Denver Water allows, and when

Denver Water counts all of these as wasting water, drought or not:²

• Watering a lawn more than 3 days a week. New sod or seed can be watered for up to 21 days while it takes hold.
• Watering with sprinklers between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. from May 1 to October 1. New sod or seed (for up to 21 days), new flowers, trees and shrubs on the day they're planted, and grass that gets heavy public use are exempt. So is running a system to install, repair or maintain it, as long as someone stays with it the whole time.
• Watering in rain or high wind.
• Letting sprinklers water a street, sidewalk, driveway, alley or parking lot.
• Hosing down a sidewalk, driveway or patio instead of sweeping it, unless water is needed for health or safety or nothing else will work.
• Letting water pool or run into a gutter, street, alley or storm drain.
• Leaving a leaking sprinkler, service line or fixture for more than 10 business days after Denver Water tells you about it.
• Washing a car with a hose that has no automatic shut-off.

A sprinkler system on its own irrigation-only tap, installed after January 1, 2008, needs a working rain sensor with a battery backup. A house's system on its regular tap doesn't.³

A first violation gets a written notice that a charge will be added to the water bill for later ones. For a second violation at the same property, a $50 charge may be added to the bill, and for a third or any later one, a $100 charge. Continued waste can lead to a temporary suspension of service.⁴ During a drought, wasting water can be treated as a drought violation instead.⁴

The board has four levels of response:¹

In a Stage 1 drought, the Operating Rules set these limits:⁵

• Lawns can be watered only one or two days a week, on a schedule the board adopts. Check the outdoor watering page for your assigned days.
• No watering between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., in any month.
• Lawn watering may be stopped altogether from October to April.
• Trees, shrubs, flowers and vegetables can be watered on any day with a hand-held hose or drip or other low-volume watering that doesn't spray, but not between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
• A sprinkler system can run outside the schedule only to install, repair or maintain it, with someone there the whole time. Timers have to be reset to the schedule, or the system run by hand.
• Cars at home can be washed only with a bucket or a hand-held hose with an automatic shut-off.

Stage 2 tightens these limits further under section 15.04 of the Operating Rules, and the board adopts Stage 3's rules when the need arises.¹ The outdoor watering page shows which stage is in force and what it allows.

Some suburbs buy Denver Water's water and deliver it through their own water district or city. Denver Water's rules, drought rules included, apply there too, and the local supplier can add rules of its own that don't conflict.⁶ If your bill comes from someone other than Denver Water, check their rules as well.