Greeley hasn’t activated drought restrictions in nearly 20 years. But the way 2021 is going, it might have to. Here’s how officials plan to navigate it.

By Kelly Ragan

It’s been more than 15 years since Greeley updated its Drought Emergency Response Plan. And with 2021 projected to be another bad year, city officials think it’s time for a change.

On Tuesday night, Greeley city council voted unanimously to approve the updated plan. The plan includes a stricter watering schedule depending on the severity of the drought, water budgets for residents in single-family homes and owners of commercial units and a drought reserve fund. 

The city uses, on average, 21,300 acre/feet of water per year. In April, the city will learn what water it will have available: If that number comes up short of 21,300 acre/feet, that will trigger a drought declaration ranging from mild to catastrophic. 

Since 2017, the rule has been that if residents go over their water budget, their rates increase. That budget will now shrink in drought years. 

“We will not be asking customers to reduce their indoor demand,” said Jennifer Petrzelka, Water Resources Operations Manager for the City of Greeley. 

During the meeting, Petrzelka said that with a variety of tools, the drought response plan can reduce demand up to 70%. 

“Is there any teeth behind this?” city councilmember Michael Fitzsimmons asked Tuesday. 

“In 2002, we did hire code enforcers,” Petrzelka said. “It would be an option to have people out patrolling.” 

Penalties for not abiding by drought restrictions, such as watering willy-nilly, would include fines and tickets, said Ruth Quade, Water Conservation Outreach Administrator, at the meeting. 

In an email to the NoCo Optimist, Sean Chambers, Director of the Water & Sewer Department, said staff spent the last 18 months analyzing data and case study research to develop the new drought plan. 

“They did so with the goal of developing a plan that can guide progressive levels of conservation response based upon the severity of drought, and an insistence that the 2021 plan update create a structure for conservation that is equitable across all water users,” Chambers said. City and state officials alike are preparing for an official drought declaration this summer, but no local restrictions have been announced yet. 

Greeley hasn’t had to use drought restrictions for almost 20 years, according to a news release. That was back in 2002, a drought year climate experts agree was one of the worst in 300 years.

That year, Colorado saw raging wildfires, extremely low stream flows, rapidly depleted reservoirs, severe agricultural impacts, intense heat, and urban water restrictions, according to Colorado State University. Sound familiar? 

The year 2002 also brought us the Hayman Fire, which burned almost 138,000 acres. Until 2020, it was the largest fire in recent history. 

 And 2021 may be just as bad. 

According to a report by CBS4, Colorado hasn’t seen a drought this bad since 2002. 

“Timing is critical as we’re facing increasing drought conditions,” Petrzelka said. 

Despite the recent cold snap and snowfall, Colorado is headed for another bad drought year. 

According to a report by the Colorado Sun, the lack of snow this winter paired with a dry 2020 is prompting water managers across the state to prepare to enact drought contingency plans. 

To top it off, Northern Water is still dealing with the repercussions of recent wildfires – which impacted the headwaters of its Colorado Big Thompson Project, according to the Sun. 

The good news (if you can call it that) is that with so little snow, sentiment-filled runoff caused by the burn scar left by the East Troublesome fire may not clog up infrastructure. 

“I’m not saying we are happy we are below average, but if we were way above, that would create new problems of their own right now,” Northern Water spokesman Jeff Stahla told the Sun. “That said, we recognize there are some big questions facing the Colorado River down the road.”