Utilities staff recommends staying on drought watch; proposes tiered commercial water rates

Utilities Director Ken Rut told the Broomfield City Council on June 9 that the city’s water supply is relatively secure for 2026 despite an unusually dry snowpack across Colorado and a March curtailment from Denver Water that reduced deliveries by 20%.

Rut and Deputy Director Mark Lori said the city’s Great Western Reservoir remains at typical levels for this time of year and that Northern Water’s Colorado Big Thompson quota was set at about 80 percent. Church Ditch has begun limited deliveries that have added roughly 60 acre‑feet to the reuse system, staff said. With water use falling back toward average in May, the city’s portable drought index shows sufficient supply to meet expected demand, Rut said, and staff recommended remaining in a drought watch rather than moving to more restrictive stages.

Why it matters: The drought watch is intended to raise public awareness and encourage voluntary conservation while the city protects carryover from CBT (Colorado Big Thompson) water as a reserve for next year. The council and residents pressed staff for details about enforcement and customer impacts because Broomfield saw unusually high water use in March and April.

“On enforcement, we don’t issue a notice of violation unless a staff member has visually verified the violation,” Rut said, explaining that staff will send postcards when they cannot verify an alleged violation and will follow up visually when repeated reports are filed. He told the council the utility had received roughly 100 reports so far this year and tries to follow up when staff time allows.

Tiered commercial proposals: Rut also presented a proposed shift for industrial and commercial customers from Broomfield’s current flat commercial rate to a four‑tier structure that mirrors residential tiering. The stated goals are equity across customer classes, incentives for high‑use commercial customers to conserve, and long‑term infrastructure sustainability.

Staff said the detailed rate design will be provided in July as part of the budget documents. Rut noted the city’s current flat commercial charge is $3.70 per 1,000 gallons and said neighboring jurisdictions use a variety of tier approaches. He said the tiered structure is intended to protect routine indoor business uses while more tightly pricing summer peak irrigation and extremely large users.

Council questions and next steps: Council members and residents asked whether the city could differentiate tiers for units where landlords pass costs to tenants; staff said that is impractical because billing records do not reliably indicate whether a metered account is landlord‑ or tenant‑occupied. Rut also confirmed that the utility is reviewing longer‑term financial needs in a five‑year plan and that a roughly 7% utility rate increase is projected in 2027 as part of that plan.

Officials said staff will continue outreach about voluntary conservation measures and present the full rate proposal and supporting analysis with the July budget materials. No formal rate vote was taken at the June 9 meeting.