Colorado Public Officials Offering Direct-to-Consumer Recycled Wastewater and “Xeriscaping” to Alleviate Water Supply Crunch in Colorado and Surrounding States.
A series of bills and government actions in Colorado are seeking to address the state’s need for water. One of the bills, however, has the tincture of government overreach—a historic allergy to the West—and provides paltry up-front funding. The other push, literally unpalatable, regards drinking water.
The first effort is Colorado’s HB22-1151, signed last June. It offers indirect funding to replace water-thirsty grasses. Think Eastern US, like Kentucky bluegrass. The bill’s summary states: “The act defines water-wise landscaping as a water- and plant-management practice that emphasizes using plants with lower water needs.” The financial paperwork for the bill provides $2 million in funding.
The second act, Regulation 11, concerns direct potable reuse (DPR) regulations of water. DPR is the process whereby instead of discharging heavily treated and filtered water back into lakes and rivers, a wastewater treatment plant can throw it in reverse and send it back to consumers as drinking water.
“Whiskey is for Drinking and Water is for Fighting”
As others have noted, this apocryphal Mark Twain quote symbolizes the perennial Southwestern scramble to secure minimum water flows.
With rapid population growth, demands are squeezing rivers and straining the cooperative efforts of each state to sustain a working relationship on the matter. In each state, Colorado included, boards of experts and other environmentalists have laid out baseline assumptions of the current thinking on why water supply, at present, is scarce.
Notions Regarding the Southwest’s Water Supply Crisis:
- There are too many people in the Southwest.
- People here need to consume less water.
- Current drought conditions in the Southwest are indisputably mostly the result of carbon and methane-driven climate change.
- Conventional farming is a one-way glutton of water.
- Non-native and ornamental grasses, of the type a family might want on their lawn, consume too much water.
- With enough education of the public, enough government grants and enough government-facilitated creative group efforts, the solution can be found.
The two acts, giving money to homeowners to ditch their grass and the removal of steps in the water supply process, are underway in Colorado as of January.
Direct Potable Reuse: Ok for People?
When a creek or river bed is dry, discharging treated wastewater back into it for reintegration with reservoir supplies apparently wastes water. What if recycled water from treating sewage could go directly back to consumers?
An October 2022 AP article in support of the Centennial State’s efforts at adopting direct potable reuse says, without explaining the air quotes, that such water dumped onto an empty river bottom is “lost.” The article ties current bare conditions in the Southwest directly to climate change, suggesting that the mountain springs will simply keep drying up.
A separate AP news video from November 2021 shows Colorado residents trying this recycled water at a traveling workshop. In the workshop, apparently, in Colorado Springs, supporters demonstrate the process to citizens and invite them to taste recycled water. The AP, an established advocate for any and all environmentalism, adds clips of positive quotes and reactions from the people who drank the recycled sewage water, lowering their masks to do so.
The sanitizing process typically entails disinfecting wastewater with ultraviolet light and ozone gas.
Stop Watering Parks and Lawns; Cash for Grass
Offering money to homeowners to use rocks or native grasses for their lawns is an effective way to save the water supply. Yet, the turf replacement program (the final 13-page bill mentions “grass” or “grasses” only three times) has several steps between Gov. Polis’ signature and a check clearing in a homeowner’s bank account.
Turf Replacement Program Steps:
- $2 million is given to the Colorado Division of Natural Resources for use by the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
- The board “develop[s] a statewide program to provide financial incentives for the voluntary replacement of irrigated turf”.
- Non-profits, First Nations peoples, “local governments [and] certain districts” can apply for funding.
- Third-party options are available for turf-replacement programs in locales that don’t have a municipal or related setup.
92 Lawns Total?
The multi-step, bureaucratically administered program will give possibly between $1 and $3 per square foot of removed turf.
After crunching data and evaluating sources and surveys (like HouseMethod and Home Advisor), the supposed average size of a Colorado yard is hard to pinpoint. But real estate publisher and authority Inman gives an idea. Through a subtraction of square footage—the lot minus the building—the average Colorado lawn is a very rough 8,076 square feet.
For $2 per square foot, that’s 92 lawns that the bill can pay for at its current planned funding. And that’s after a half-million dollars for operational costs. A non-profit connected to the project says there are possibilities for other funding through the Colorado Water Conservation Board’s own coffers.
Regarding more eco-friendly lawns, the preferred low-water lawn setup is xeriscaping. How does that look compared to other lawn replacements?
New Lawn Cost Desktop Calculations:
- Averaging Angi ($1,456) and Bob Vila ($1,993), the cost for a new turf lawn in the US is $1724.50 (with diverse climate and homeland arrangements in the state of Colorado, these estimates are a good conservative estimate).
- A xeriscaped lawn (“Xero” for “dry”) from a Colorado Springs-based landscaper starts at $9,000.
- The same landscaper has a premium version for $25,000.
Water Supply Infrastructure Projects
Whether man-made climate change is the main culprit, water needs in Colorado continue, as do conservation efforts.
Funding for the first installment of the Turf Replacement Program gets disbursed in July. Direct potable reuse changes to Regulation 11 were passed by the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission on Nov 14.
