Utilities rejects city request for cheap water to keep parks green

Colorado Springs Utilities will not be providing free or even discounted water to keep Colorado Springs parks green this summer and that news frustrated City Council members.

Officials of the city-owned Utilities said they cannot, legally, give away water for city parks, or even give the city a cut-rate deal. A year ago, officials asked the utility to explore water rate options for large irrigators, such as the city parks department.

“I’d love to give free everything to the city,” Jerry Forte, Utilities’ chief executive officer told council members, who met Wednesday in their role as the governing board for Utilities. “But we’re operating under a lot of constraints.”

Instead, Utilities officials said they could offer the city a “water conservation rate” as part of a pilot program which would reward the parks department with lower rates. But there’s a catch. The agency would have to use significantly less water.

City Council members were frustrated that Utilities couldn’t come up with something simpler or provide immediate relief.

  “Some of our parks are going to turn brown and some of them might die,” said Vice Mayor Larry Small. “I don’t see this as a solution to the problem.”

Councilwoman Jan Martin said the  program was a “convoluted” solution to a difficult problem.

“It shouldn’t be this hard,” she said. “It shouldn’t take charts and graphs when all we’re asking is, how do we water our parks?”

The pilot program, which would go into effect this spring and cover 19 parks, has to go to a public hearing and be approved by the City Council.

Under the proposal, if the parks department uses 80 percent or less of its budgeted amount of water, the price would drop. If, however, the parks department used 21 percent more than what is allocated, the price would be higher.

Currently, the parks department uses about 89 percent of the total amount of water allocated to it. Paul Butcher, director of the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department, said he is confident the parks department could reduce the agency’s usage by another 9 percent.

“It’s not unrealistic,” Butcher said. “But it will be a challenge to get there.”

Meeting the challenge could mean sacrificing some parks to save others. That is, not watering parks already too damaged by drought or over-use to recover.

“It’s horrible to say, but that may happen,” Butcher said. “As I told the mayor and vice mayor, we will do everything in our power to save every park. But that just may not be possible.”

Due to the city’s financial crisis, the water budget for Butcher’s department has been slashed from  $3.4 million to $1.7 million. As a result, many of the city’s 147 parks, medians and trails have been put on a meager water ration. They are scheduled to get only about 11 inches of irrigated water, instead of the 24 inches they normally receive during the year.

Even worse than dead grass, the city could be sacrificing its trees and shrubs, the council was warned.

Walter Lawson, a retired landscaper and designer, warned that not watering the parks will have a huge impact on the city’s trees and shrubberies. Trees weakened by drought or loss of water invite diseases and insects, which, in turn, will invade neighborhoods.

“For want of $3 million, we could lose $100 million worth of trees and vegetation,” Lawson said.

Butcher conceded that unless moisture is plentiful in the coming months, some of the city’s trees may die.

“Some are drought-tolerant,” he said. “Others are heavy water users. The mortality rate will vary by species.”

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The following parks are to be included in the pilot program. Rampart, Monument Valley, Memorial, Thorndale Park, Heathercrest, Leon Young, Horace Shelby, Cottonwood, Fairfax, Westmoor 2, Mark Twain, Stetson Soccerfield, Broadmoor Valley, George Fellows, Bancroft, Nancy Lewis, Lulu Pollard, High Meadows Park, Skyview Sports Complex.