AWWA SOURCES59282

Like many regions of the West, the state of Colorado experienced extremely dry conditions through the winter of 2001/2002, leading to a water supply crisis in many municipal and agricultural regions. Lacking abundant spring snowmelt, most reservoirs serving water users along Colorado's Front Range (including the Denver-metro region) were unusually and dangerously low entering summer 2002. Additionally, the hot and dry conditions, and the associated low soil moisture, promised to further stress available supplies during the upcoming summer months. The response of eight municipal water providers to drought in 2002 was tracked by researchers at the University of Colorado affiliated with the Western Water Assessment, a NOAA-sponsored initiative focused on the impact of climate variability and change on water resources in the states of the interior West. The study summarized in this paper examined the effectiveness of an emergency demand management tool, restrictions on outdoor water use, which accounts for over half of all water consumption in most Colorado municipalities. Includes tables.